It's all about the recipe. Really, it is! I have amassed quite a collection of recipes from my favorite cookbooks and food magazines, and now, because of all the foodie blogs out there, I am adding more every day! I test every recipe I post. Some I've been cooking for years, decades even, others I have cooked just once or twice. I don't post mediocre recipes. I don't post good recipes. I post GREAT recipes, recipes that I LOVE. When I find a recipe like that, I can't wait to share it! And the only thing better than sharing a recipe is hearing that someone else tried it and is as excited about it as I am :) Please, try something! Then let me know if you love it as much as I do! Or even why you don't... Either way, I'd love to hear from you!
I belong to a cookbook club. We meet every month to feed each other some spectacular food and then to share the recipe for the food. Sometimes the meeting/recipes follow a theme like “Your Mom’s Best Recipe” or “Picnic Food”. Sometimes the meeting/recipes are from a particular cookbook, a particular chef, a particular location or focus on a particular ingredient. Usually I have it covered. This month though, I didn’t. Our meetings are on Sunday at 3, I was searching recipes at 8 PM on Saturday. Nothing was speaking to me. Desperation was setting in, but then desperation-inspiration hit and I googled Best Recipes of All Time. Five entries down I saw 10 Best Recipes of All Time at Food 52. I clicked on it. Then I clicked on the recipe in the #9 spot. Originally uploaded to Food52 by community member kaykay in 2010, this recipe has racked up an impressive amount of attention with upwards of 12,000 favorites and 300 comments. Pretty good creds, so I made it. Then I made it again. It was delicious. Don’t know why it’s only #9. Here’s the recipe; I only made a few minor changes, but if you want the original recipe, the link is above.
Absurdly
Addictive Asparagus
SERVES 4
4 ounces pancetta, cut into 3/8 inch to 1/4 inch dice
1 tablespoon butter
1 pound asparagus, woody ends trimmed and sliced into 2 inch pieces on the bias
1 leek, thinly sliced crosswise (white and pale green parts only)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Zest of one lemon
1-2 teaspoons orange zest
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts, optional
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped (more to taste)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
In a large non-stick pan, sauté pancetta, stirring frequently, over medium heat, until crisp and lightly golden.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter to pan. Add leek and sauté for a few minutes, or until halfway cooked.
Add asparagus pieces and sauté until asparagus is tender crisp, about 3-4 minutes.
Add garlic, lemon and orange zest, toasted pine nuts and parsley and sauté for about 1 minute, until fragrant.
Season to taste with freshly ground pepper and salt and serve immediately.
I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!
I’ve been promising to post this recipe forever, but I have held off because it’s impossible (for me anyway) to get a good picture of Mac n’ Cheese. The issue is partly Mac n’ Cheese’s fault, right? It’s just not photogenic; it’s flat, it’s monotone (just white noodles and melted cheese), and it has NO pops of color anywhere! Garnish Mac n’ Cheese? That would just look silly. So here it is, my recipe for Mac n’ Cheese, without a good picture 🙂
It’s taken a long time to perfect this recipe and there is nothing crazy about it. It’s a traditional macaroni and cheese; no fancy cheeses. No veggies, no lobster, no bacon, no truffle oil, no breadcrumbs and definitely no Flamin’ Hot Cheetos! Just elbow noodles, cheddar cheese, and a roux.
That being said, I do have ONE secret ingredient, I use some chicken broth in the sauce to add more umami, if you will, to the dish. I use homemade chicken broth/stock/bone broth, not the processed, canned or boxed stuff.
If you must use a commercial broth, deepen the flavor first. Pour the broth into a pan, add some bone-in
chicken (anything: a thigh, a drumstick or two, leftover carcass of a
rotisserie chicken…). Then toss in a bay leaf or two, some chopped onion (with
the skin), and perhaps some chopped carrot or celery (whatever you have
languishing in the veggie drawer). Let the to-be-enhanced broth simmer while
prepping the rest of the ingredients. Drain solids from broth and discard. Use
broth as directed below.
One other tip, I wouldn’t use that pre-shredded cheese. I haven’t tasted
any pre-shredded cheese that has the required sharpness, and I don’t know how
all those additives used to prevent the cheese from clumping will affect the
final dish.
Just for the record, Mac n’ Cheese is a side dish, never a main.
INGREDIENTS
2-3 cups homemade or enriched Chicken broth, heated
2-3 cups whole milk, heated
NOTE: you need 5 cups total of liquid–use 50/50 chicken broth/milk or 60/40 or 25/75, whatever suits you or whatever fits what you have on hand.
4 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
¼-½ teaspoon powdered mustard (not so much for taste, but to help with emulsion)
1 lb sharp cheddar cheese grated, approx. 4 cups (Ok to sub a bit of mozzarella, up to 1 cup, for some of the sharp cheddar. Also, if you have odd bits and pieces of various cheeses leftover, use them but remember that the flavor of the dish will change–and kids will object)
Salt and pepper, to taste (chicken broth varies in saltiness, so taste the cheese sauce and add salt and pepper as needed.)
1 lb elbow macaroni (cooked in generously salted water, for the shortest time mentioned on the package, rinse with cold water, and drain.)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to
350 degrees.
Combine milk and
chicken broth in a large container and microwave until hot.
In a large
skillet, melt butter and stir in the flour.
Stirring
constantly, cook the flour-butter mixture over medium heat for 3 minutes,
taking care not to brown the roux.
Turn off the heat
under the roux.
Slowly add about
1 cup of the chicken broth-milk mixture into the roux. Whisk and stir
constantly until all liquid is absorbed and mixture looks homogenous and there
are no lumps in the sacue. Repeat until all milk-broth mixture has been
incorporated into the butter-flour mixture.
Return mixture to
heat and simmer gently for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Taste. Add salt, pepper to taste along with a small quantity of
powdered mustard.
Gradually add
cheese a handful at a time. Stir until completely melted, then add another
handful and repeat process until all cheese has been incorporated.
Stir cooked elbow macaroni into cheese sauce.
Pour into greased 9×13 casserole dish.
Bake in
preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes. Do not overbake or cheese sauce will
begin to separate.
Cool for 10
minutes or so before serving.
NOTES from experience: To make ahead, make cheese sauce and boil noodles, but store separately. Bring to room temperature. Combine. Bake as above.
I have made premade cheese sauce and frozen it , then defrosted it overnight in the refrigerator. I do reheat the cheese sauce and whip with immersion blender before combining with boiled noodles.
OK to sprinkle extra cheese on top if you like that look.
