Tuesday, April 13, 2010

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH ASPARAGUS


Asparagus is not a native vegetable in Indonesia and it is not commonly used in everyday Indonesian dish. So far I've never bothered myself to think about cooking asparagus.

The first asparagus recipe that caught my attention was Grilled Asparagus wrapped with Proscuitto (by Hungry Girl) I found in LifestyleFood.com. The picture of the dish showed on the recipe was so mouth-watering that I couldn't resist the urge to try it out.

Fortunately, NOW is the right timing for this highly prized vegetable. The season for asparagus production is short, traditionally it begins in April and ends in mid summer. Due to the short growing season asparagus commands a premium. Moreover, in Jakarta where I live, asparagus is imported .....it cost me around 20 bucks for 20 stalks of fresh asparagus so I chose my daughter's birthday on last April 9th as the right occasion to cook these precious vegetables.

But before I cooked the asparagus, I want to learn more about it:

The fleshy green spears of asparagus are both succulent and tender and have been considered a delicacy since ancient times. Asparagus stalks should be rounded, and neither fat nor twisted. Look for firm, thin stems with deep green or purplish closed tips. The cut ends should not be too woody, although a little woodiness at the base prevents the stalk from drying out. Once trimmed and cooked, asparagus loses about half its total weight.

Use asparagus within a day or two after purchasing for best flavor. Store in the refrigerator with the ends wrapped in a damp paper towel, and be sure to place the asparagus in the back of the refrigerator away from any light, since folate is destroyed by exposure to air, heat or light.

Tips for Preparing Asparagus:

Asparagus can be served hot or cold. While it is not necessary to peel asparagus, you should cut off the woody base before cooking. Wash it under cold water to remove any sand or soil residues.You can tie asparagus stalks in a bundle to steam them, as this will make it easier to remove the stalks once cooked.
Avoid cooking asparagus in iron pots as the tannins in the asparagus can react with the iron and cause the stalks to become discolored.

And here is my version of  Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus

The original recipe used Prosciutto for the wrap but I consider prosciutto as similar to bacon so I used the available bacon from my refrigerator. For those who don’t eat pork, you can use beef bacon

Ingredients
  • 10- 20 asparagus spears
  • 10 -20 slices of bacon
  • 1 lemon (optional)

Before Grilling:
  • cut any thick woody ends from the asparagus and discard
  • add asparagus to a pan of boiling salted water
  • cook for 2-3 minutes or until the asparagus is bright green and tender
  • drain quickly and dry the stalks
  • wrap each one or two pieces of asparagus spear in a slice of bacon
  • to make the bacon stick to the asparagus I use tooth-pick.




The Grilling:

  • preheat barbecue grill or griddle plate
  • barbecue the asparagus
  • turning regularly until char marks appear
  • remove from grill
  • Optional: drizzle with a squeeze of lemon and season with pepper (*) this is based on Hungry Girl’s recipe. In my own version, I skip the lemon and pepper, I just love the taste of grilled bacon as it is.



Best when serve immediately.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

COOKING 'OUTSIDE THE WOK'



Along my delightful journey of cooking, I have tried different types of cooking methods: stir frying, deep frying, braising, and even slow cooking (all inside the wok) but so far never try ‘baking’.


Why not baking?

I thought I am not a baking type of a person and I did not even know how to handle the oven. I am the type of a person who prefers simple, easy and free style cooking, and to me baking sounds rather intimidating. For so long, I have been comfortable with cooking inside the wok …….

Until one morning …….

while sipping my coffee, I was craving for oatmeal cookies which I once bought at Star Buck. But I didn’t feel like going out that day and the nearest Star Buck Coffee is around 5 km away from my home …..then I said to myself ‘why not trying to make my own oatmeal cookies?’

But…it means I have to bake.

‘So what if you have to bake’, I challenged myself. The worst thing could happen is I screw-up the cookies. After weighing the pros and cons, I decided to give it a try and start ‘cooking outside the wok’ – get out my comfort zone and start to bake

I checked my kitchen cabinet and yes, I found a bag of oatmeal, brown sugar and unsalted butter. I thought these 3 ingredients were sufficient to create the cookies. I got excited…and here was my simple oatmeal cookies experiment

Ingredients

  • 100 gram quick cook oatmeal
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 50 gram unsalted butter – leave at room temperature to melt
  • 5 tablespoons water
Method

  • Combine the oats, brown sugar, water and melted butter
  • Mix the combined ingredients thoroughly into a dough (note: it would be nicer if the dough is added with raisins coz raisins will give more flavor to the cookies).

  • Take 1 tablepoon of the dough and shape it into a cookie-form
  • Repeat until no dough remains and you will get around 24 cookies
  • Cover the base of a baking pan with aluminum foil
  • Arrange the cookies on the pan


  • Bake in pre-heated oven at 150 degree Celsius (or 300 degree F or Mark 2) with both upper and bottom flame for 30 minutes.

Hey, finally I can bake… and it’s not as intimidating as I thought. And my invented oatmeal cookies were not bad at all …. I love the cookies and it goes very well as ‘the companion of a cup of hot coffee’.