Pasta with Asparagus + Tilapia

Hi kids,

This week:

Onion and asparagus

Pasta with Asparagus from SkinnyTaste
1 bunch of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 of a box of spaghetti, cooked
1 tbsp of sesame seed oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 egg yolks
1/3 of freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Get four cups of water boiling in a pot and pop the asparagus in for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, reserve 1/4 cup of water, drain and put asparagus aside. Add in more water, and let spaghetti cook. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, asparagus water and grated cheese - don't scramble the egg. In another pan on medium heat, add in sesame seed oil, garlic and onion. Saute for about 10-15 minutes. Add in asparagus, cook for another 5-10 minutes. Drain spaghetti, add back into pot, add in sauteed veggies and egg yolk mixture. Cook for another 5 minutes until liquid thickens.

The results: Delicious. I definitely didn't make it right the first time - I didn't bother to add the egg yolk sauce to the mix over heat, so it ended up being a bit watery, but still tasty. The next night, I brought over the recipe to a friend's house and made it for them. I substituted shallots the second time around, and it was okay. The sweet onion I found added a new dimension to the dish. I'll definitely have to experiment and perfect this recipe.

Because puppies make everything cuter and awesomer.

Kiwi Lemon Curd Tarts

My produce Items: Kiwi, Lemon, Grapefruit

5 kiwis
1 lemon
1 grapefruit
1 cup of sugar
1 stick of butter
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
sprinkle of all spice
6 keebler mini graham cracker pie crusts

To create the curd stir together egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat.  Add lemon and grapefruit juice, lemon zest and sprinkle of all spice (I used Penzey's Pumpkin Pie Spice).  Stir constantly until curd thickens.  Add butter and stir until it melts.  Pour into container and refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.

Spoon curd into pie crusts.  Top with cut up kiwi.

Serves 6 (plus a huge bowl of leftover curd)

Final Verdict: I didn't like it

It honestly looks way cuter than it tastes.  I got this recipe off of Sugar Crafters but the recipe calls for juice from 3 lemons.  I only had 1 lemon so I decided to use the grapefruit I had leftover from the previous produce box to make up for the lack of lemons.  The juice equaled out to about the same (should have been around 1/2 a cup).  Perhaps that was the downfall of this attempt.  I have always hated lemon flavored desserts so I got a second opinion and the consensus is that the flavor is off.  Also, the curd isn't thick enough at all.  It's very runny and liquidy.  More like a sauce than a curd.  I guess I was also already biased because I was turned off by the ingredients.  6 egg yolks, a stick of butter and a cup of sugar.  That just sounds gross.  The sprinkle of all spice was a personal touch but it didn't really do anything for the dish.  I honestly made these because the picture looked both yummy and cute.  And they do look cute, they just don't taste all that yummy.  The recipe also calls for creating your own pie crust which I don't really know how to do.  Never attempted to make pie crust from scratch.  The graham cracker pie crusts were good though.  Also, this recipe makes way too much curd.  I have an entire bowl of it left after I made these 3 tarts.  I think this recipe can definitely be halved.  I'm sure if someone else attempted this it would have turned out good, it just didn't work for me.

Baby Bok Choy Sesame Noodles

My Produce Items: Baby Bok Choy, Broccoli, Lemon

2 baby bok choy
1 head of broccoli
3 green onions
1/2 lemon
1 cup of baby carrots
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 box of linguini pasta

Boil pasta until soft.  In a different pot, cut baby bok choy into quarters and boil with broccoli and carrots until soft, be sure not to boil too long or they will be oversoft.  Drain all.

Chop up onions (white part and some of the green).  In a large skillet fry the onions with a little bit of sesame oil.  I just did a quick fry, I didn't want them to burn.  Add in the pasta and sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic powder and salt.  Stir evenly.  Add in the vegetables and juice from 1/2 a lemon and continue to stir until everything is evenly coated.

Serves 5-7

Final Verdict: Good

It turned out pretty good.  I was going for an Asian type of noodle and it does have the familiarity and flare of asian noodles.  I think it could have used some ginger and toasted sesame seeds (I didn't have either on hand).  With those 2 ingredients it would have been even better.  Also, I should have used actual garlic instead of garlic powder.  I did have garlic on hand that I could have minced but I admittedly was just being lazy.  Next time I won't cut corners and fry up the minced garlic with the onions.

Potato Casserole/Vegetable Soup

Okay, well, I seem to have accidentally deleted all the pictures I took of this month's food. Not sure how that happened. But here we go with the recipes:

1. Grandma's Potato Casserole
Ingredients: Russian banana potatoes, green onions

This is based on a dish my grandma makes a lot (well, you probably could've guessed that from the title). Considering I have never made this casserole, never looked at the recipe for it, and did not call to ask her about any of it, I think it came out remarkably well. (For the record, she uses regular russet potatoes, and peels them. I did not peel my potatoes.)

Quantities of other ingredients will depend on how many potatoes you're using, so adjust as needed. I wound up with about 4 servings.

6-7 Russian banana potatoes, scrubbed and diced - parboil them first. You don't want them too done, since they're going in the oven. (Or 3-4 small russet potatoes.)

After the potatoes are parboiled, combine them with:
1 cup low-fat sour cream
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
The white parts of 6-7 spring onions, chopped--save the green tops for garnish (or 1/4 cup white onion, diced)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Stir it all together and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Garnish with reserved onion tops.
 

2.  All the Vegetables Soup

Ingredients: Carrots, Broccoli

This will be a cursory step-by-step write-up, since the recipe was really not worth making.Sometimes you have a bunch of vegetables all going soft--not bad, just limp--at once, you know? And sometimes when that happens, you own an immersion blender, and then attempts at "health food" happen. Or something. I mean, this might be great with a different assortment of vegetables.

Roast carrots (I had about seven tiny carrots) and broccoli (I had one head) with other vegetables--in my case, mushrooms (about half a carton) and a quarter of an onion, until soft. Puree with about 25 oz. vegetable broth (I actually used chicken broth as I had a carton open already) until souplike in consistency. At this point, I realized I also had spinach on its way out, so I heated up the soup, added the spinach, and pureed again when the spinach was cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.

So I guess I was hoping that if I pureed a bunch of random roasted vegetables together, it would be good, but it wasn't. It tasted...exactly like a bunch of random vegetables, pureed with broth. And the color was kind of unfortunate, a sort of murky greenish brown. All in all, very reminiscent of baby food. It didn't taste bad, exactly, just...not really worth making.