Lemon and Asparagus Risotto

'Tis asparagus season here in Ontario, and it makes me feel good inside to support local farmers and buy what's in season. So, I've been splurging on asparagus over the last few weeks. It's not my absolute favourite but I enjoy it quite a bit. I had this Lemon and Asparagus Risotto lying around, didn't know until just know it was from Martha Stewart (oooh fancy), but either way, I figured it was a good way to eat asparagus, use up my white wine before going on holiday and try a new risotto recipe - I just keep making the Cheddar Cheese Risotto I posted earlier. Nice to get some veggies in there once in awhile.

First step with risotto is always to warm up your stock. This recipe called for 6 cups - I used one carton of chicken stock (4 cups) and it was plenty. Bring it up to a boil then turn it off and leave it covered. In a large pan, cook 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped shallot for about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup arborio rice, and cook 2-3 minutes to toast the grains. Throw in 1/2 cup white wine, and stir until liquid is gone. Then ladle in the warm stock, a little bit at a time, waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more, stirring, always stirring, for about 20 min.

Now the healthy, colourful additions: Chop up one bunch asparagus, and throw that in near the end (with last addition of stock) and 1 cup peas (yay freezer peas) in the last minute. Take off the heat, and stir in 1/2 c parmesan cheese, zest of one lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon, and 2 Tbsp olive oil. I left out the parsley and added some torn basil leaves instead - I had them in the fridge, so might as well use them!

The end result was quite good - lemony, but not a lot of flavour otherwise. Not as cheesy as I usually make risotto, and not a lot of strong flavours... if I had added 1 cup parsley I suppose it would have made quite the difference but the basil worked well. It's a very classic risotto so I'm glad I tried it, though I may stick with adding in lots of grated cheddar cheese - just maybe with some green vegetables next time.

White Bean Tapenade

This is really a side dish, a nice addition to a picnic or your next get-together. I got it from a recent Bon Appetit - they were showcasing a southern French picnic, featuring roast chicken with herbes de provence, apricot cakes and this White Bean Tapenade, to be served on a baguette with cured meats. I'm always on the look-out for ways to eat more beans, in dips and things, so I gave this one a try. Allez-y!

It's quite simple, because everything gets stirred in together - my favourite way to cook! Though I did roughly chop the 1 can of white beans. To the beans, add 1/2 cup chopped olives (I used a mix of kalamata and those big garlic-stuffed green ones, yum), 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp grated lemon zest (maybe a bit more, I never measure), pinch of red-pepper flakes and 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. I left out the parsley and added one finely chopped shallot.

I left it overnight the fridge for the flavours to meld together, and had it on toast with some nice cheese on the side. I really liked it - I forget what fresh lemon juice and zest can do to a dish to make it nice and bright. The olives were perfect - salty and briny - and the shallot wasn't overpowering. The only problem is, it's a little chunky - it was a bit hard to eat on toast since it would fall off the sides. Oh, well. A nice addition to a simple lunch or platter of meat, cheese and bread.

Spicy Mint Beef

Guys, this recipe was a rare one for me. Actual meat! I usually avoid cooking it, keeping my meat-eating to a minimum and mostly just at restaurants. But I had just bought some fish sauce for the first time (surprising, given the amount of thai food I eat) and I was flipping through the Food Network mag and this recipe sounded really good - especially with the mint and basil, yum. So I give you Giada de Laurentiis' Spicy Mint Beef. Made with real beef.

Of course, this special meat-buying occasion meant I wanted something good - so I went with Rowe Farms, all organic etc. Might as well splurge on the fancy stuff. First into a large pan was 4 minced garlic cloves and 2-3 minced thai chiles. Now, I wasn't sure what 'thai chiles' were, the shop had tiny red ones and jalapeno-length red ones. I went with the larger ones, they weren't that spicy, so I assume the smaller ones are hotter. Cook those about 1 minute. I cut about one pound of steak intro strips and fried those for two minutes to mostly cook them. This recipe comes together very quickly - but there's a lot of chopping to do first.

Next I threw in 1 chopped green pepper and 3 sliced shallots, and cooked 1 minute. I mixed the sauce in a small bowl: 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey (the soy sauce and honey replaced her original ingredients - 2 Tbsp each sweet soy sauce and black soy sauce. It was printed in the magazine so I went with it), and 2 Tbsp Chinese chili-garlic sauce (what I had, though she calls for chili paste in oil). Add sauce to pan, bring to a boil and cook about 2-3 minutes so everything is nice and cooked and saucy. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup basil leaves and 1 cup mint leaves.

I served it on brown rice. And you know what? It was fabulous! Amazing! Super salty but in a delicious way. I needed ice cream afterwards. It tasted like a restaurant dish. The fish sauce, man, it makes all the difference. I even made it again the next night with tofu and ... still awesome. The mix of salty, spicy, sweet, the umami of the fish sauce (which smells terrible in the bottle, but obviously works!), the mint and basil, it all combined into loveliness. We gobbled it up. Maybe a little less soy sauce/fish sauce next time, though. Not a low-sodium dinner, but the perfect way to show off my thai skillz.

Honey-Lime Oat and Black Bean Salad

Summer to me means salads. Not lettuce-based salads (bleh) but grain salads. Quinoa and couscous mostly, orzo sometimes, and occasionally new grains I've never had before. Cue me flipping through Canadian Living and finding Honey-Lime Oat and Black Bean Salad, which sounded fabulous and involved oat groats, which are minimally processed and so retain much of their nutrition. Well hey, as long as my local bulk store carries it, I'll try it!

So oat groats are pretty tasty, they look a bit like thick brown rice and have a nice nutty taste. Either they're a little chewy or I didn't cook them long enough - the water (2 cups to 1 cup groats) was all gone after simmering about 35 minutes, while the recipe states it should take 45. Hmmm. The other ingredients in the salad: 1 can black beans, 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes, 1 jalapeno, finely chopped, a little bit of diced red onion, 1/2 avocado, diced, and fresh cilantro.

Mix the vinaigrette: 3 Tbsp oil, 1 tsp lime zest, 3 Tbsp lime juice, 1 Tbsp honey, 1/4 tsp chili powder, and salt and pepper, and pour on! I think it was better the next day, once the dressing had soaked into the groats overnight in the fridge. A great south-western inspired side dish. My only complaint: not spicy enough! I wanted more lime and jalapeno, and less honey, but then again adding more heat to recipes is a recurring idea on this blog. Just can't get enough.

Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcakes

We had a games night (CATAN) with some friends a few weeks ago, and though it was more beer-themed than anything (our hosts had recently come back from Vermont, and who knew, it's big on the craft beer scene) we had some good food to coat our stomachs - pizza made by the hosts, guac with mango and pomegranate seeds from the other guests (amazing!) and cheese from us. And me being me, I brought cupcakes. I've already mentioned the amazing Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, my main go-to for cupcakes, vegan or not. This Apricot-Glazed Almond Cupcake recipe is on p. 89, and I just so happened to have apricot jam in the fridge and was already thinking of almond cupcakes - fate! FYI I used dairy, not soy products.

The batter itself is pretty simple. In a large bowl, mix 1/3 cup oil, 3/4 cup sugar (I usually use a bit less), 1/4 cup (soy) yogurt, 2/3 cup (soy/almond) milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 tsp almond extract. Then sift in 1 cup + 2 Tbsp flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and a pinch of salt. Mix, then stir in 1/3 c almond meal (I love things with almond meal). Because of the yogurt the batter was thicker than some in the book, and I hoped it would be thick enough for the next step. After filling the muffin cups 2/3 full, place 1/2 tsp apricot preserves (is this jam? I just used jam) on top of each cupcake.

Some of you may remember my somewhat failed attempt at putting jam in the middle of cupcakes (hint: it didn't work) but I hoped, since the jam here was on the very top of a thicker batter, it wouldn't fall to the bottom. Bake for 24-26 minutes @350. You also get to make a fruit glaze for these ones, instead of icing. In a small pot, place 1/2 cup apricot preserves with 1 Tbsp water over medium-low heat. Bring to boil, stirring often, and boil for 1 minute. Then turn the heat off and stir for another 30 seconds. To be honest it didn't really make much of a difference, other than warming the jam so it was spreadable - was it supposed to thicken? Either way, after the cakes had cooled I brushed the glaze over them and then garnished with sliced almonds.

So these were quite nice. The cake was thick and dense, and the apricot glaze was sticky but sweet and gave it a nice fruity kick. Definitely something a little different but for me, who makes cupcakes too much to make full buttercream icing each time, it's a nice recipe to keep for next time. I'd toast the almonds, since I was too lazy this time, and maybe try different fruit jams. I bet blueberry would be delicious.

Power Bars

Here's another good freezer recipe - that is, if you open my freezer at any given time you would find either muffins or these Power Bars from Canadian Living. I saw them made on Best Recipes Ever a few summers back, when I was watching lots of daytime TV, and thought they would make a great snack. These are definitely not dessert - despite being full of sugar they aren't very sweet. But they are perfect for a good hit of energy in the afternoon, or before a workout (that advice is from the TV hostess, not me, HAHA).

First the dry ingredients. Two cups whole wheat flour (I usually use 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup oats), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup skim milk powder (this you have to buy at the bulk store, but could probably leave out, as it's just there for extra protein), 1/4 cup wheat germ (I don't usually have this, so I leave it out or throw in some ground flax) and 1 tsp baking powder. Then comes the fun part - mixing your choice of dried fruits, nuts and seeds. For this batch I used 1/2 cup each chopped dried apricot, dried cranberries, raisins and sunflower seeds.

The wet ingredients are particularly yummy - 2 eggs, 1/2 cup oil (I had to use olive oil because I was out of canola, oh well!), 1/2 cup molasses and 1/3 cup (natural, obvs, so it needs a few seconds in the microwave) peanut butter. Yes, I buy molasses pretty much solely for this recipe, and it's delicious. It tastes just like those cheap candies they used to give out at Halloween in the orange wrappers that no one liked at the time but I would totally eat now.

Now you give your arm a bit of a workout stirring all of this deliciousness together. It is super thick and sticky. I advise using parchment paper in the 8x8" pan for easy lifting once they're cooked. Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. And unlike brownies or cake, cut these into pretty small squares. The pan should yield about 20 at least. They're hefty little things. Not overly sweet, but with a rich molasses taste to them, and studded through with fruit and seeds. Way better than store-bought power bars or granola bars.