Improv: Asparagus Cheese Tart

There are two things I didn't realize until I went to type up this post. 1. I haven't posted since last month's Improv Challenge.  Oops! It's been a long time since I went a whole month without posting. But Lent/Holy Week/Easter is a super busy time of year for pastors' families and time just got away from me. 2. I missed my blogiversary. :(  Whoops.  March 29th was the 8th anniversary of my blog.  No fanfare this year!  Maybe I will remember next year.

So onto this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.   

This month's assigned ingredients were asparagus and egg.  Lovely spring ingredients.  I love asparagus, but I rarely experiment with it.  I have seen lots of yummy-looking asparagus recipes, but I love it so much just simply roasted with olive oil and kosher salt, that I have never strayed too much from that.  I did make a new asparagus dish for Easter, though.  The asparagus was wrapped in herbed goat cheese and prosciutto.  It was really good and kind of fancier for a special occasion.  But since it didn't involve eggs, I couldn't use it for Improv.  I did a Google image search for "asparagus and egg" and wanted to try every single dish I saw!  Oh man, there are so many yummy things you can do with asparagus and eggs.  I almost went with a dish that involved polenta, bacon, asparagus, and a poached egg on top.  I still want to make that, but decided to go with something a little simpler.  I have had this recipe from Food Network Magazine pinned for like 2 years.  I had two firsts in making it: I had never made a savory tart before (maybe not even a sweet one at that), and I had never used puff pastry before.  Even so, it seemed like an easy recipe with big "wow" factor; right up my alley!

Asparagus Cheese Tart

Ingredients:

½ - 1 lb. asparagus, trimmed

Olive oil

Kosher salt

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Flour, for dusting

2 egg yolks

3 tbsp milk

1 cup grated smoked gouda (3 oz.)

1 cup grated comte (3 oz.)

½ tsp Fox Point Seasoning or shallot salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Put asparagus on a baking sheet and lightly coat with olive oil.  Sprinkle with a little kosher salt.  Roast in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.  Remove and set aside.

Meanwhile, sprinkle a small amount of flour on a cutting board.  Roll puff pastry into a 10x15” rectangle.  Sprinkle a little more flour on a baking sheet and carefully transfer the puff pastry to the baking sheet.  Prick several times with a fork.  When the asparagus is done, put puff pastry in the oven and bake for 12 minutes.  Remove and let cool slightly.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks, milk, cheeses, and seasoning.  When puff pastry has cooled slightly, spread the cheese mixture out on to it, leaving a 1” border.  Arrange the asparagus spears on top of the cheese mixture, as many as you can fit on there.  Return to oven and bake for another 15 minutes or until puff pastry is puffed and golden.  

Cut into pieces using a sharp pizza cutter.

Makes 8 servings.

 The puff pastry after rolling out.  I didn't do a perfect job of rolling it out, so one edge was a little "rustic".  Rolling things out is not my forte.  I used my stoneware for baking.  You can put parchment underneath the dough if you are worried about it sticking, but mine was fine with a little flour.

 After pre-baking for 12 minutes.

 These are the cheeses I used.  I had never even heard of Comte, let alone cooked with it before.  I was going to use something else instead, but then I just happened to see it at Trader Joe's when we were there over Spring Break.  It's a harder cheese like Parmesan.  I used my Microplane to grate it, while I used my box grater on the smoked gouda.  If you don't have Fox Point, you can use shallot salt, or fresh minced shallots and some salt.  I was going to use fresh shallots, but I forgot I was out.  So the Fox Point was the next best thing.  I love the little bits of green flecks it created in the finished product. 

 I looks like scrambled eggs, I know.  But it's the cheese mixture.

I forgot to get one after I laid the asparagus on there.  The original recipe called for a whole pound of it, but I only used about half.  My asparagus stalks were super skinny, so there were lots of them in that pound.  I could have squeezed some more in, but I was happy with it the way it was.  Use as much as you like.

 I thought it was very pretty coming out of the oven.  One of those "looks harder than it really is" kind of dishes.

I cut it into 8 squares.  

This is so yummy!  The cheeses blend together really well and are just perfect.  You can use different cheeses of course.  The original recipe also suggested fontina and gruyere.  

I know that the egg wasn't really prominent in this dish, but it played a very important role and I'm glad I picked this recipe for Improv this month.  I would have loved to have shared this in time for Easter, but I guess you'll have to hold on it until next Easter.  :)

Be sure to check out all the other great asparagus and egg recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with cilantro and lime.  

An InLinkz Link-up

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Fresh Rhubarb Pie

Are you a rhubarb fan?  If so, you've got to try this pie. It is the best rhubarb pie recipe ever. It takes all of five minutes to throw together (not counting oven preheating and pie crust thawing), has only 5 ingredients, and doesn't require any precooking of the rhubarb or anything fussy like that. Line a pie plate with a pie crust, mix together some flour and sugar, and dump in the rhubarb. Whoever coined the term "easy as pie" must have been making this one!  I got the recipe from Allrecipes and didn't change a thing about it.

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:
2 (9”) pie crusts
1⅓ cups white sugar
6 tbsp flour
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°.  Remove pie crusts from fridge at least 15 mins before using.  Coat a 9” pie plate with baking spray.

Place one pie crust in bottom of pie plate.  Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle ¼ of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust and pinch edges together.

Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before cutting and serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Isn't it a gorgeous pie?  Just look at that beautiful pink color!  I didn't edit the colors in these photos at all.  The rhubarb is just perfect: soft, but still keeping its shape.  And it's just the right amount of sweet and tart.  This pie holds up really nicely.  The flour thickens it up perfectly.  It won't run all over your plate, provided you let it rest for a while after it comes out of the oven.  Putting a layer of the sugar/flour mixture on the bottom ensures that the bottom crust says perfectly crisp and doesn't get soggy from the filling.  

This is a really great pie for beginners because it's fairly fool-proof.  I had a little bit of trouble with my pie crust the last time I made it (last week), but that's because I used the store-brand pie crusts instead of the Pillsbury.  I used the Meijer brand frequently before, and it was fine, but the store brand I tried last week was not so great.  As the pie went into the oven, I was sure that it was going to end up too ugly for the blog. But even despite problematic pie crust, this pie still turned out beautifully.  And since all you do is dump the other ingredients in, there is very little room for error.

The only way, (yes, there's only one way) to eat this pie is warmed up with a big scoop of homestyle or French vanilla (none of this vanilla bean nonsense) ice cream.  We put individual pieces in the microwave for 15-30 seconds and then plop on the ice cream.  It is heavenly!  The combination of the warm and cold is always good, and the creaminess of the ice cream pairs perfectly with the tartness of the pie.  

I know somebody is going to ask: Can I make this with rhubarb that I have frozen?  The answer is: I don't know.  I have never tried it.  If you try it, definitely do not put the rhubarb in there frozen.  That will create too much liquid.  Try thawing the rhubarb and then patting it as dry as you can get it before adding it to the pie.  If you try it, please leave a comment and let me know how it turned out for you.

So if you have a bunch of rhubarb and don't know what to do with it, please try this pie.

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Secret Recipe Club: Penne with Asparagus and Prosciutto in Lemon Cream Sauce

It's my favorite Monday of the month: Secret Recipe Club reveal day.  The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

I was so excited when I got my assignment for this month.  I was assigned to the blog penned by our group's lovely hostess, Jane.  Jane is a super sweet lady who is always there to help out and can be depended on for anything.  Jane is the reason Group A is the best group in the SRC.  (Not that I am biased or anything!) Jane's blog is called The Heritage Cook.  It is an amazing blog with a great variety of recipes.  Jane posts a chocolate recipe every Monday (gotta love that!), and has lots of yummy gluten-free recipes to offer.  It was so hard choosing which recipe to make! Since it was just before Easter that I was deciding, the first recipe to catch my eye was her Bourbon Glazed Ham.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to make a big Easter dinner this year, but I did buy a ham to stick in the freezer, so I am definitely trying that one soon.  Another one that interested me was her Peach Mustard Grilled Pork Chops, but I am currently grill-less (getting one this week though, yay!).  And then, of course, there are desserts.  I know it's the wrong season, but her Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars look so good! 

But you know, I love to cook seasonally, so I absolutely could not pass up the opportunity to make her Penne with Asparagus and Prosciutto in Lemon Cream Sauce.  Nothing says "spring!" more than tender asparagus, delicate prosciutto, and lemon.  If you read my blog last Wednesday, you probably already know that I like a little hint of lemon in my pasta (yeah, probably should have planned better and spaced these two recipes out a little, but oh well!).  But this takes the whole lemon pasta thing up a notch by adding fresh verdant asparagus and salty prosciutto to make it a main dish with a lot to offer.

Penne with Asparagus and Prosciutto in Lemon Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1 lb. fresh asparagus, trimmed

1 shallot, peeled and sliced

6-8 oz thinly sliced prosciutto

1 tbsp olive oil

1 lb. penne or other short cut pasta

1 cup heavy cream

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest, finely grated

Salt and pepper, to taste

¾ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, divided

3 tbsp fresh chives, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cut asparagus spears into bite-sized pieces. Combine with the shallot and prosciutto; place on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil. Transfer to oven and roast until nearly tender, about 15-20 minutes. (Timing will depend on the thickness of spears.) Remove from oven and set aside.

While asparagus is roasting, bring a large stockpot of water to a boil over high heat and add 2 tbsp kosher salt. Cook pasta until just barely al dente. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water and drain the pasta.

While pasta is cooking, combine the cream, garlic, butter, lemon juice, and zest in a large skillet,. Warm over medium heat until butter melts, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and remove the garlic pieces and discard. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

Whisk ½ cup of the cheese into the sauce until smooth. Add the cooked pasta and stir to coat thoroughly. Cook over medium heat for about 3 more minutes or until pasta is cooked through. Stir in the roasted asparagus, shallots, and prosciutto, tossing to combine and cook another minute to warm it through. Add a little of the cooking water at a time, if needed, to get the sauce to your desired consistency.

Transfer to serving platter, sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup cheese and chives. Serve immediately.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Isn't that a beautiful dish?  Oh my goodness, it is so good!  The lemon isn't overpowering (you can easily customize the amount of lemon to your preferences), and it pairs so well with the asparagus and the prosciutto.  And the grated cheese and snipped chives just take it over the top.

Asparagus, prosciutto, and shallots before roasting.

 And after.  I love how these roast at a lower temperature, so they don't get too brown and crispy.  I love brown and crispy, usually, but in this dish they are perfect just being tender but still keeping their gorgeous bright color.  

 I also loved the shallots in this dish.  I had never roasted shallots before; now I want to put roasted shallots in everything I make!

 I just love the colors in this dish.  

The lemon cream sauce is light and bright, with just the perfect amount of lemon and garlic.  It coats the pasta nicely without being thick and heavy.

Thanks for a great recipe, Jane! And for being the best hostess in the SRC! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention one thing.  Jane is a San Francisco Giants fan.  And since I am a Cardinals fan, I just have to ask: Jane, did you see the score from yesterday's game? Ouch! :)  I am seeing the Giants play the Brewers in Milwaukee next week, so I will give them a special cheer just for you!

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Baked Lemon Spaghetti

Have you been seeing a lot of lemon recipes lately?  I think we are all ready for warm weather and the bright, citrusy recipes that go with it.  I know personally, I have made two different kinds of lemon bars in the last week!  I hope you're into the lemon recipes too because I've got a great one for you today.  Light and tender vermicelli is cooked in a creamy lemony sauce. This is a great side dish for all kinds of meals: roasted chicken, steak, anything on the grill, really.  It's slightly adapted from RecipeGirl.

Baked Lemon Spaghetti

  

Ingredients:

12 oz. vermicelli

⅓ cup butter

2 cloves garlic, grated

2 cups (16 oz.) light sour cream

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

⅓ cup lemon juice, about 1½ medium lemons

1 tsp Italian seasoning (I use Tuscan Sunset)

1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, divided

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cook vermicelli according to package directions, minus a couple of minutes. You want it to be al dente. Drain vermicelli and place in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a medium skillet. Add garlic and cook until sizzling and lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Pour lemon sauce over the vermicelli and stir. Add Italian seasoning and ½ cup Parmesan and stir some more. Pour lemony spaghetti in a greased 1.5 quart casserole dish.

Cover dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Take dish out of the oven and remove foil. Sprinkle remaining ½ cup Parmesan on top. Place dish back into the oven for 7 or 8 minutes, just until cheese is melted and noodles have begun to turn golden in a few places. Serve immediately.

Makes 6 servings.

This is the perfect spring and summertime side dish.  The lemon turns what can be a very heavy pasta dish into a light and refreshing side dish.  While you can certainly use regular spaghetti, using vermicelli makes it nice and light too.  And vermicelli cooks up really quickly, which is nice.

You can easily adjust the additional seasoning to your preference.  The original recipe called for chopped parsley, but I'm not a fan so I used Italian seasoning.  You could also use black pepper if you are a lemon pepper fan.

This dish could easily be turned into a main dish by adding some grilled chicken strips and fresh asparagus spears.

I'm hoping that by posting springy and summery recipes, I will be encouraging spring to get here already!  It certainly is taking its sweet time here in Wisconsin!

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Avgolemono (Greek Lemon Egg Soup)

It's Day Three of The Garden's Bounty recipe series hosted by Savannah of Hammock Tracks.

Today we are sharing soup recipes.  Soup in the summer?  I know.  I get totally obsessed with soups in the winter, but hardly ever have them in the summer.  But guess what?  I have an awesome summer-friendly soup for you today.  It is super light and lemony and perfect for summertime.  It was March when I made this soup, but it was during that weird March heatwave, so it was like 84 degrees that day.

Have you ever heard of Avgolemono?  Click on that link to read all about it, but the gist of it is that it's a Greek soup made up of lemon juice and eggs.  Orzo is cooked in chicken broth, then a mixture of lemon juice and eggs is added to thicken the broth.  Meat is optional; I chose some shredded chicken breast for mine.  Topping it off with fresh dill finishes it perfectly.


Avgolemono


6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
½ cup orzo, dry
Salt 
5 eggs
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
Fresh dill


Directions:
In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil.  Add the orzo and cook until tender but still al dente, about 7 minutes. Season with the salt and reduce heat to low; let simmer.


In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and lemon juice until smooth. Ladle about 1 cup of the hot broth into the egg-and-lemon mixture, whisking to combine.


Add the mixture back to the simmering saucepan. Stir just until the soup becomes opaque and thickens as the eggs cook, 1 to 2 minutes. Add chicken and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary.  


Serve warm.


Makes 4 servings.

I know that the dill is technically the only garden produce here, but if you live in Florida, you could count the lemon too. :)  This soup is just so perfect for summertime that I had to share.

Be sure to check out all the other great soups below and come back on Friday when I will share with you a delicious summery dessert.

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Rhubarb Glazed Salmon

This is a new salmon recipe I created earlier this week.  I love pairing fruit flavors with salmon; they just seem to go so well together.  In the past I have used blackberry, lemon, orange, and apricot.  We had a pretty good rhubarb crop this year, and I thought it would taste really good on salmon.  I searched around online for a rhubarb glazed salmon recipe, but all I could find were recipes for salmon with a rhubarb sauce.  So I made my own recipe.  Turned out pretty well!

Rhubarb Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh rhubarb, diced

2 cups water

2 tbsp honey

¼ tsp salt

4 (4 oz.) salmon filets

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.

Place rhubarb in a small saucepan and add water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, or until rhubarb is completely soft and water has evaporated.  Mash rhubarb and add honey and salt.  Taste for seasoning, adding more honey if necessary.

Place salmon on baking sheet.  Spoon rhubarb over salmon.  Bake 15 minutes, adding more rhubarb sauce halfway through, if desired.  Turn on broiler during last few minutes of cooking.

Makes 4 servings.

This was so yummy!  Rhubarb does go really well with salmon.  How much honey you need to add to the rhubarb will depend on how tart your rhubarb is.  Mine was quite tart, so if yours is sweeter, you probably won't need as much honey.

I served this salmon with Gingered Brown Rice.  To make that, I made my standard Baked Brown Rice, and added about 8 coins of sliced ginger to it before throwing it in the oven.  You don't even need to peel the ginger.  The ginger flavor will infuse the cooking water as it cooks.  Then when it's done, just remove the spent ginger coins and discard.  The rice will have a lovely ginger flavor throughout.

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Flower Cookies on a Stick

This is the dessert I made for my Easter dinner this year. I saw them on the blog The Family Kitchen, and had to make them. They are so springy looking!

Flower Cookies on a Stick

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, at room temperature

½ cup canola oil

½ cup sugar

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2¼ cups flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

food coloring

wood or paper lollipop sticks or long wooden coffee stirrers

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the butter and oil with both sugars until light. Add the egg and beat for another minute. Add the flour, baking soda and vanilla and beat on low speed or stir by hand just until you have a smooth dough. Remove about a third of it and set aside; add several drops of food coloring to the remaining dough and knead it in until incorporated. Wrap or cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. (This will cause the dough to spread less.)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Roll the chilled dough into marble-sized balls. On a parchment-lined cookie sheet, arrange one plain dough ball, place a stick with its tip underneath it, then place 5 colored balls around it. (They will spread, so they can be close together without having to touch.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until set.

Makes about 1½ dozen cookies.

I actually didn't change anything about this recipe. The only thing I did differently was to make more than one color. My mom helped me make these, and we did blue, pink, and yellow. I thought it would be fun to have a few different colors.

I couldn't find sticks at the store that were the right length, so I used wire cutters to cut some bamboo skewers that I keep on hand. I think between 6 and 7 inches is good; mine happened to be 6¾” long.

We made the first batch on a dark metal baking sheet and they burned. :( So after that we used an air-bake type baking sheet. I think they would bake nicely on stoneware too.

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Lemon Bars

Lemon bars are the perfect springtime or summertime dessert. They are a nice combination of tart and sweet, and their lightness is a welcome change from rich chocolate desserts this time of year.

This is the recipe my mom always made. She got it from a cookbook she had called Eet Smakelijk. It's a cookbook that was published by the Junior Welfare League of Holland, Michigan. My mom worked for GE in Des Moines back in the day and she had some customers in Holland. One year during the Tulip Festival, the customers bought a bunch of these cookbooks and sent them to the ladies in my mom's office as gifts. The title, Eet Smakelijk, means bon appetit in Dutch. We never had a clue how to pronounce it, and because the fancy script on the book made the capital E look like a G, we always called it "Get Smacking!"

I was surprised to hear the history behind this book the other day, as I now live within an hour's drive of Holland, Michigan, and have been to the tulip festival myself. (In fact, my husband reminded me that we saw this book in a bookstore window display when we were there two years ago.)

I never really liked lemon flavored foods as I was growing up, except for these lemon bars. They have a shortbread crust with a tasty lemon filling.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

2¼ cups flour, divided

½ cup powdered sugar, plus more for topping

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups sugar

dash salt

6 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x13” baking dish and set aside.

Combine 2 cups flour and powdered sugar together, then cut in butter until well blended. Press firmly into bottom of baking dish. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool.

Combine eggs, sugar, salt, lemon juice, baking powder, and remaining ¼ cup flour. Pour over crust and return to oven for 25 minutes. It’s done when the edges begin to turn brown.

Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and cut into squares.

Makes about 20 bars.

I only changed two things about this recipe. The original that Mom sent to me called for margarine instead of butter. I never buy margarine, so I tried it using butter and it worked just fine. The only other thing I changed was that the lemon filling was supposed to be poured into the crust right after you pull it out of the oven. I made them this way yesterday and had

problems with it. The pan was so hot that the filling started cooking the second it hit the edges of the pan. That meant that by the time the center was set, the edges were overdone. They weren't burnt, but they were much darker brown than I would have preferred. If you're one of those people who likes the chewy edges of the brownies, you might like it that way, but I am a no-crust brownie person and always go for the inside piece. So in the future, I am going to let the pan cool after baking the crust before adding the filling.

The crumbly shortbread crust.

Pressed into the pan.

The finished product. See what I mean about the edges? They are a little too brown. When Jim came home and saw this on the counter, he thought I had made cornbread!

This is how I cut them to get 20 bars. You may get more or less depending on how you cut them.

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Fruit and Yogurt Parfait For A Crowd

This is the dish I made for our breakfast potluck dinner at church last night. Everybody loved it.

This isn't so much a recipe as it is a method.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait For A Crowd

Ingredients:

9 cups yogurt, any flavor you like

Assorted fresh or frozen fruit (thawed if frozen)

4 cups granola, crushed

Directions:

Spread one cup of yogurt in the bottom of a trifle bowl. Top with one cup of granola. Layer fruit on top of granola, making sure some is right up against the side so it can be seen in the layers. Top with 2 cups of yogurt, alternating flavors if desired. Top with another cup of granola and another layer of fruit. Repeat 2 more times. Finish with the last 2 cups of yogurt and garnish with some of each of the fruit you used. I didn't worry about making each fruit layer pretty (I didn't fan it out), but the top I made pretty.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes ? (a lot!) of servings.

A note about the granola: I used the wrong kind. After I opened it up, I realized that it had puffed rice in it. That gave it a kind of chewy, not crispy texture. It was all I had and there was no time to run to the store for more, so I went with it. At the meal, people thought the yogurt had made the granola soggy, but it wasn't, it was just because of the puffed rice. So don't get granola with puffed rice in it.

I would also suggest using regular yogurt instead of low fat. It tastes just fine with low fat, but it was a tad on the runny side. When people dug into it, it just kind of collapsed on itself. Next time I will use a full fat yogurt and see if that helps.

Other than the granola issue, it was a big hit. I was told that I have to make it again for Easter breakfast.

Here is how I layered this one, starting on the bottom: vanilla yogurt, granola, peaches (frozen), strawberry yogurt, granola, blueberries (frozen), vanilla yogurt, granola, banana slices, strawberry yogurt, granola, strawberries (fresh), vanilla yogurt, fruit garnish.

I've never done any type of fruit garnish before, so I think this turned out really well! I covered it right away and chilled for 2 hours and the bananas didn't turn brown at all.

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Sweet Pea Risotto Gratin

I'm back! I kind of took a winter hiatus from blogging, but spring is slowly creeping in and my taxes are done, so I am anxious to get back to posting recipes. Even though I didn't blog much during the winter, I still made lots of new recipes, so I have a backlog of stuff to blog about. I probably won't get to all of it, but I'll hit the highlights.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. There are two ways you go with dinner on St. Patrick's Day: traditional Irish food or green food. This year I have opted for traditional food. I am making my first ever corned beef and cabbage dish (in the slow cooker). But I inadvertently made a green meal last weekend.

This sweet pea risotto recipe is one I saw in Rachael Ray's magazine a while back and was eager to try, but for some reason I didn't get around to until now. Even though it's a side dish, it's kind of time-consuming and a little bit labor intensive, so you'll have to have a super easy main dish to serve it with. I pan seared salmon fillets.

I didn't change very much about the original recipe. Here's my adaptation.

Sweet Pea Risotto Gratin

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen peas, thawed

8 cups chicken broth

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cups arborio (short grain) rice

2 tbsp butter

1 cup parmesan cheese, divided

Salt

¼ cup soft bread crumbs

Directions:

Puree half of the peas in a food processor and set aside with the whole peas.

In a saucepan, heat the chicken broth and keep warm. Grease a 2-quart casserole and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Stir in the onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir well to coat the grains with butter. Add 1 cup of the chicken broth to the rice, lower the heat slightly and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth in ½ cup increments, letting the rice absorb the liquid (about 3 minutes) after each addition, and stirring almost constantly, until the rice is cooked, 20 to 25 minutes. The finished rice will be creamy but still firm to the bite.

A few minutes before the risotto is done, stir in the pureed and whole peas. Turn on the broiler.

Remove the cooked rice from the heat and stir in the butter and ¾ cup of the parmesan. Season with salt, if necessary. Stir the remaining ¼ cup of parmesan and the bread crumbs together. Transfer the risotto to the prepared casserole dish and top with the bread crumb mixture. Place the dish under the broiler about 6 inches from the heat source and broil for about 2 minutes, or until the top is golden. Serve immediately.

Makes 6 servings.

The original called for a total of 5 tbsp of butter, 3 for sauteeing the onion. I used olive oil for that instead. I also increased the amount of stock because I ran out, and it can't hurt to have extra (the leftover can be refrigerated and used for something else). The only other thing I changed was that I used fresh soft bread crumbs instead of dry. I just prefer the fresh and I think it gives it better texture.

This is it after the rice is cooked. So pretty!

Into the casserole dish.

I served this with salmon that had been seasoned with Penzey's Fox Point seasoning. It's made with shallots, chives, and green onions, so it has a beautiful green color. I actually didn't choose it for the color; I just thought the flavor would go well with the rice dish.

My favorite thing about making risotto is using the leftovers (I don't ever halve risotto recipes!) to make risotto cakes the next day. If you think making risotto is a lot of work (it really isn't, though), just remember that you get two days of side dishes out of it! Jim actually made these to go with grilled steak the next night. Mmmm! Take a handful of risotto and form it into a patty shape, coat it in breadcrumbs (dry is fine here), and fry in a little bit of oil in a skillet. A lot of times I end up enjoying the cakes more than the original dish.

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