Asparagus and Cheese Sandwich

At the Portland Farmers Market on Saturday, there were asparagus everywhere looking so green and crunchy as it is now in full season for it. As I was also passing by one of my favorite bread vendors Fressen and their hearty German bread, I saw they had Jogger bread. Jogger is a white bread (so softer and more delicate than the usual Vollkenbrot I use to pair with cheese and charcuterie) peppered with lots of Sea Salt, Pumpkin Seed, Flaxseed, Sesame Seed, and Sunflower Seed… soft seedy goodness.

So for a Sunday lunch, I decided to try making asparagus sandwich, and took inspiration from a few different recipes online but mainly Homesick Texan for her Parmesan coated toasted bread.

Ingredients (makes 4 sandwiches):

  • Half a bunch of asparagus. I picked out the thinnest stalks- I saved the other half for roasting with hazelnuts or making asparagus/edamame salad.
  • 8 slices of thick good bread
  • 4 teaspoons of your choice of flavored mayo
  • 2 tablespoons of melted butter (either thanks to heat from the pan or microwave)
  • 1/2 cup of grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup of shredded or 4 slices of your favorite cheese

Directions:

  • Preheat the oven to 400 F
  • Cut the stalks- I can usually look and know where the hard portion is and cut that part off, but another trick is to hold each stalk in the middle and then bend the bottom part from the bottom fo the stem until it snaps (it will snap where it begins to change from hard stringiness to what will be crunchy stalk). After you have done that with all the asparagus, steam the asparagus for a few minutes (they should be a bright green but still firm and crunchy), refresh in cold water. Cut the asparagus into pieces that can fit into your sandwich- I kept them relative long by cutting them in half, but I recommend cutting them shorter.
  • Meanwhile, spray a baking sheet. Dip or brush one side of each of your slices of bread in the melted butter- you will need this later to have the Parmesan stick to the bread instead of fall off. Lay the bread on the sheet so the unbuttered side is on the inside.
  • Spread one teaspoon of flavored mayo on one side of the sandwich, then top with the cut asparagus.
    This was an inspiration I got from a recipe on All Recipes.com for a simple roasted asparagus sandwich with red pepper, tomato, swiss cheese and lemon mayo on a hoagie. You can make your own lemon mayo thanks to that recipe to give a bit more brightness to your sandwich, but I had a extraordinary ingredient in my fridge thanks to William Sonoma: Truffle Aioli. If you want the richer version without truffle, you might consider roasted garlic aioli, such as what Stonewall Kitchen offers- actually they offer lots of wonderful aioli options, though you can also make your own for the effort and dishes involved I’m willing to buy mine.
  • Cover with your choice of cheese- I used shredded colby jack mix, about 2 tablespoons per sandwich. The Lonely Texan’s original recipe used cream cheese and mixed it with the asparagus, but I didn’t have cream cheese on hand and I am not a fan of warm cream cheese… besides, the thought of the All Recipe and the melted gooey Swiss cheese had resonated with me. It’s up to you how cheesy you want this to be inside.
  • Top the sandwich and on the buttered side that is now on top, sprinkle half the parmesan you have atop your sandwiches (the other half of the parmesan goes on your other side of the sandwich).
  • Place in the oven for about 10 minutes, then flip over put back into the oven until both sides are now golden and the parmesan crispy.
    =

Let it cool slightly, and then EAT

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Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood

F has a Moosewood cookbook… he swears he used to have two, but one got lost somewhere in his moves from Portland to Chicago back to Portland. It doesn’t matter, because he never really cooks. However, for a get together on a warm Monday evening, I had called for a potluck. While I prepared the watercress orange soup of last post, I picked out this Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant  for his contribution. I had always been curious about it.

He didn’t quite follow it as he adapted it based on what we had. For instance the recipe calls for all the spices except for the parsley to be dried… but he went the opposite, where everything but the parsley was fresh. We also switched out the pine nuts (which he thought were too expensive) for slivers of almonds instead because i still thought the nuts should be present to add some crunch texture. And he did not do the original topping of sauteed bread crumbs and pine nuts in butter on top, instead using some Italian seasoned breadcrumbs I already had in the pantry.

The yield of this is enough for 8 people, and takes about 1.5 hours of bot prep and cook time. It’s a great way to get a lot of vegetables in, and is a pretty healthy recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium eggplants, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch round slices
  • 2 cups chopped onions
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 cups, about 1 lb of sliced mushrooms
  • 4 fresh tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons marjoram
  • 3/4 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • 4  cups cooked brown rice
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (or to taste)
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts (although we used slivers of almonds instead, and increased the amount to 2/3 cup)
  • 4 eggs (though we used egg whites)
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs (the recipe calls for whole wheat, but we used Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
  • Optional: additional topping made with 2-3 tbsp of oil or butter, 2/3 cup pine nuts, more parsley, and sliced pepper. He didn’t do this step.

Directions:

  1. Place the eggplant slices on an olive oiled baking sheet, salt them lightly, and cover them with aluminum foil.  Bake at 400 degrees until tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, saute the onions in the oil until translucent.
  3. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook, covered on medium heat until the mushrooms have released their juices and become soft.
  4. Stir in the tomatoes, marjoram, thyme, paprika, salt, and black pepper.  Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
    Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood
  5. Combine the rice, lemon juice, parsley, and pine nuts.  Instead, we substituted almond slivers instead of pine nuts, and we increased the amount of 2 tablespoons to 2/3 cup.
    Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood
  6. To assemble the casserole, oil a 9x13x2 1/2 inch baking dish.  Spread half of the rice mixture on the bottom and cover with half of the eggplant slices.  Spoon half of the sauteed vegetables on top of the eggplant layer.  Repeat this process using the remaining rice, eggplant and vegetables.
    Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood
  7. Pour the beaten eggs (though we just used egg whites) evenly over the top of the casserole so that they drizzle down into it.
    Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood
  8. Optional: Combine the bread crumbs and nuts and saute them on low heat in the oil or butter for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly.  Top the casserole with the nut mixture. What you see below is that he decided against the additional oil or butter and just topped the casserole with Italian seasoned breadcrumbs.
    Transylvanian Eggplant Casserole: from Moosewood
  9. Bake the casserole, covered, at 350 degrees for about 350 minutes.  Then uncover and bake for 10 minutes until the top is crisp and the casserole still moist.
  10. Optional: Garnish with parsley and peppers.

And… I forgot to take the photo of the finished product. OOOPS!

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Watercress and Orange Soup

I realized I haven't done a cooking post for a while, so I thought I would honor the quite warm weather we are having in Portland (in the mid 80s) this Mother's Day weekend with a soup that can be served either hot or well chilled.

Overall the recipe only takes about 20-30 minutes and serves 4 as a main dish (total recipe yield is a little more than 5 cups).

Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, chopped (I used sweet onion)
  • 2 bunches of watercress that have been chopped
  • 2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock or chicken stock
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 orange – you will want to grate all of the rind, and also then squeeze all the juice
  • 2/3 cup of cream
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions:

  1. Saute the onion in olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat until it is soft and transparant.
  2. Now add the watercress and cover the pan. Wait about 5 minutes for the watercress to soften.
  3. Remove the pan from heat and add 2 1/2 cups of vegetable stock that have been pre-mixed with 3 tablespoons flour and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, as well as the juice and grated rind of one orange.
  4. Simmer the pan for about 10 minutes. Then remove and and let cool enough to pour the entire mixture into a blender or food processor and puree.
  5. Return the puree into the pan, and add the 2/3 cup of cream that has been premixed with the cornstarch. Bring the mixture to a boil on low heat. You can salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Now you can serve hot… or place in a container and chill in the fridge.
  7. When serving, you can add a swirl of cream or yogurt (about a tablespoon), and add an orange wedge, or croutons. Or, what I did… which is add a tablespoon of some crispy crumbled bacon.

 

 

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Mini Quiches

With my new lil pie maker! I hosted a Make Your Own Pie station, with insides options including sauteed spinach, mushrooms in a white wine and butter sauce, broccoli, diced turkey, crumbled crispy bacon, and sauteed onions, and then also options of grated Jarlsberg swiss and/or sharp cheddar cheeses. You then poured in the quiche mix so… ok, so maybe it was more a Make Your Own Quiche station. I originally thought I would do fruit pies too, but it ended up being too much prep with the other items I was already making.

Anyway, here are some examples I made to give away to my coworkers with leftovers afterwards. I had leftover mini pepperoni too from the Bloody Mary station. so threw those in when the ingredients ran low. I made some with tops at first, but found that these cook much better topless.

I have several recipe books for more mini-pies, which I love. I have never really liked baking much because it requires more precision and I'm an improv kinda girl. But, these are small so that I can make portions that I wouldn't feel so guilty about… or I can easily give away!

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Tofu Tasteoff- A Tale of Two Tofu Dishes, Round 1

One of the new things that I have been spoiled with is what fresh tofu tastes like. There are several companies in Portland that make tofu using family made recipes, and generally I have been purchasing from Bui Natural Tofu- my first vist there and the goodies I came home with were blogged about earlier this year in April– so since then I've been a repeat customer. I am not the only one- their parking lot is always busy each time I've been there, and I know to go earlier to get the fresh hot egg rolls. Don't be put off by the busy lot- people go in and out quickly from this barebones storefront.

I hadn't tried Ota Tofu or Thanh Son Tofu, so I thought I should give them a try. There's only so much tofu we can eat, so we decided the first faceoff round would be Bui vs Thanh, simply because they are located close to each other (within 1/2 a mile).

First tofu try- Bui Tofu in a curry. I like to buy the Maesri curry paste. I heated up the one small can of curry with one can of light coconut milk (I think the instructions make it too milky and wuss out the curry), threw in some additional chopped Thai chili peppers, and once those were heated through just added in the cut up fresh tofu uncooked and turned the heat off. This is a great use of fresh tofu because if you get the prepackaged tofu in liquid, you have to drain it by putting heavy objects on it and it ends up not quite tasting like anything. By using fresh tofu and putting it at the end you get bites of a light clean flavor with the chewy texture to contrast the richer curry.

Second tofu try- Thanh Son Tofu with Bow Tie Pasta in Chipotle Pesto. Cook the pasta, slightly saute the cubed tofu in olive oil, and then throw in the al dente drained pasta and the pesto in the pan and stir with the heat off to mix.

The Chipotle pesto is from Pesto Outside the Box containers of 5oz pesto, which I got from the Portland Farmers Market. As you would expect from the name, the owner creates interesting pestos using an more unique combination of herb and nut besides the standby basil and pine nuts (hey, pine nuts are expensive! And I don't like the parsley blends), such as using pistaschios and creating roasted asparagus hazelnut or a strawberry basil or pineapple macadamia version of pesto. He also makes other kinds of dips for sale sometimes as seasonal specials, varying from the cranberry port chutney to the smoked blue cheese dressing.

Pesto sauce is a nice emergency pantry item to have in the fridge that takes it up a level from just pasta with Ragu when you want a quick dinner and without even a need for cleaning up the food processor afterwards. You can throw pesto in on pasta, with meat, or just slather on bread. His chipotle pesto has a nice smoked flavor that I added in some additional red pepper in for a bit more heat. This is a light dish that tastes pretty good cold too.

Between the two, Bui Tofu wins according to our taste buds! Although we liked the firmness of Thanh Son, and both tasted pretty similarly, Bui had a slight edge in that the fact it wasn't so dense also meant it was lighter on the tongue and the flavor just seemed a bit fresher and appealing. So next round, we'll try Bui vs Ota.

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