Manna Asparagus & Rice

I never realized before I took my current job how difficult getting enough food for the family can be when you struggle with mental illness and are unable to hold a job. Luckily, there are many resources out there for low-income families. The resource I use most often is called Manna, a reference to a story in the Bible. It provides families with pantry items and canned goods, as well as some fresh produce and pastries, once every 30 days. From what I understand, it’s all donated, and an astounding number of volunteers help out. There are a lot of really good people out there.

I go to Manna frequently, probably about once a week, in order to pick up food for my income-eligible clients. Sometimes, the Manna nutrition expert is there demonstrating how to make a simple dish from the items in today’s box. In the fall, she was making things like pumpkin pancakes, whereas now, springtime, she uses a lot more fresh produce.

Last week I helped myself to a sample of the dish that she had prepared to use rice, chickpeas, and asparagus. It was so delicious that I took a copy of the recipe. It had a dumb name, though, so I changed it. We’ll get to that.

The secret to this recipe, the one that rescues it from blandness, is the honey mustard dressing, which you make first.

Start with some lemon juice.

Add extra virgin olive oil.

Next, a plop of Dijon mustard to give it some tang,

and some honey to give it sweetness.

It said “1 clove garlic, grated (optional).” I interpreted this to mean garlic powder (especially since I don’t have whole cloves) and definitely didn’t omit that. Never omit garlic.

And a healthy amount of salt and pepper, as well.

Whisked together, this is what it looked like. The recipe could probably do with store-bought honey-mustard, but this one seems as good as any. I might redo that dressing for salad at some point, now that I think about it.

And now, for the substance of the dish. I spread out some almond slices to be toasted in my toaster oven.

That was easy.

One of the main ingredients, and one that makes this dish so healthy, is the asparagus. It’s easy to get this time of year and is just so wonderful. It’s very versatile, but I only know a few ways to make it, so I’m happy to learn new ways.

Here it is, cut into 1-inch pieces (more or less).

And one onion, chopped. I had intended to only use part of the onion, but once I started, I thought, “What the hell.” It’s a sweet onion and I remembered the onions in that sample being a welcome addition.

Now for the actual cooking part. Drain a can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), and then dump them in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil. The recipe said to use vegetable oil, but I stuck with olive oil. Yummier and fancier.

Sprinkle them with a healthy dose of salt, then stir them around on medium-high heat for a few minutes while they hiss and pop.

Once the chickpeas have a bit of color, add garlic and onion. The recipe said to let them cook for “a minute,” but I let them go for a few minutes. They didn’t need to be overly soft, but they certainly shouldn’t be raw.

Finally, add the asparagus, cover, and let steam. Again, the recipe said “a minute or two,” but I let them go a bit longer because the asparagus still seemed tough after that. I waited until they were bright green and more tender.

Finally, add cooked rice. I would have used brown rice, as the recipe called for, but we happened to have plenty of white rice from ordering Chinese takeout the night before. I also added water, since it seemed to need it.

And add the toasted almonds from earlier. I should have added more. They were wonderful.

Finally, the last step. Add that honey mustard vinaigrette from earlier!

Stir and enjoy.

This dish is very hearty. With the exception of a bit of oil, it’s also very healthy. It has protein and vegetables and the perfect combination of strong flavor and warm, soft texture. Plus, it reheats well. I even had some for breakfast the other day.

My only complaint is that this was originally called “Ten Minute Tasty Asparagus and Brown Rice.” Okay. Ten minutes? I don’t know what planet the author was from. It took me that long to cut up my veggies alone. When you consider that you’d normally have to make rice (brown rice, at that), plus all that stove time, I think you’re looking at a lot more than 10 minutes. Unless, of course, you are a host on the Food Network and everything’s already pre-cut, pre-measured, and half-way prepared when you start.

But maybe that’s what Jenna from Manna had in mind. :-p

I’ll have the recipe in my Tastebook eventually. In the meantime, feel free to email me for it.

Zippy Barbecue Sauce

Recently, my younger brother asked what grilling recipes I could recommend. Turns out, I didn’t have any. I live in a condo and we have silly rules like “no grills” and “use the correct parking tag” and “no more happiness” (extra points if you got the Brian Regan reference). So I wasn’t able to give him any recipes, though I did suggest branching out into meats that he isn’t used to grilling, like pork or shrimp.

Not too long after that, I had some leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. In thinking how to make it appetizing, I decided to cut it up and drench it in BBQ sauce. I was pretty set on that, too, so imagine my disappointment when I pulled out a nearly-empty bottle of BBQ sauce from the fridge. Time to make my own!

Truth be told, I selected this one based partly on the positive reviews but also based on the fact that I had the ingredients. Who knows what better recipes are out there.

I started taking pictures after I started dumping together ingredients.

I started off with some ketchup, water, and molasses.

Some Worcestershire sauce…

And some white wine vinegar…

Add some Dijon mustard.

And top it off with some brown sugar, kosher salt, hot pepper sauce (I used Buffalo wing sauce), garlic powder, and ground black pepper.

Here’s a shot of everything that I included:

After everything was in the bowl, I whisked it.

Then I read the directions and saw that I was supposed to simmer it for a while, then let it chill for 8 hours to let the sweetness of the sugar overcome the tang from the vinegar. I elected to add a touch of white sugar instead of waiting. But I did let it simmer for 10 minutes, as directed.

Then I added my chicken and let it cook for a few more minutes.

The verdict: VERY GOOD! Hubby had a few bites before asking where the simultaneous tang and sweetness came from. I’ll definitely make this again.

It would go so well smothered over chicken, wrapped in foil, and grilled. Oh, summer. I plan on making someone with a grill do this for me this summer.

Drunken Shrimp

My big brother turned 30 last week. He decided he wanted to have a big party with lots of his favorite foods. For him, this meant serving steak, crab legs, and beer. Man stuff. Guests volunteered to bring side dishes. I volunteered to make anything that they needed, adding that I would be using his kitchen because I wasn’t going to cook it in mine and then transport it across 2 state lines.

He asked me to make drunken shrimp, explaining that his favorite restaurant had drunken shrimp that were (was? is?) to die for. He happened to have the restaurant’s cookbook and scanned the page (upside down) with the recipe for me. Hmm, looked simple enough. It called for shrimp, beer, old bay seasoning, cider vinegar, creole seasoning, mutha sauce… Wait, what? Mutha sauce? The recipe said to look on page 165 for that secondary recipe. A quick phone call to my brother, and he’d scanned that page (also upside down) for me, too.

It called for 19 ingredients, ranging from liquid smoke to ketchup to molasses to cayenne pepper sauce to fresh jalapeno peppers.

19.

If I’d been in my own kitchen, I’d have risen to the challenge. Honestly, it looked yummy. But in someone else’s kitchen with all of the ingredients hiding, and with a time crunch, I figured I’d go for something a little simpler.

I found this recipe, the sole drunken shrimp recipe on allrecipes.com.

I also waited until the last minute to make it, as I wanted it to be hot for guests. I guess this made me rush a little, especially since the kitchen was full of people at this point. I pretty much abandoned step-by-step picture-taking in the chaos, too. Sorry about that.

We start off with my first ever experience with fresh ginger root. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of the stuff grated up.

I didn’t really know what to do with it, so I just tried to peel it roughly with a paring knife before running it over the grater. I’m told this grater was a goody-bag gift that my sister-in-law had received a while back (or at least, this is what my distracted brain remembers her telling me, though I could have completely messed that up). 

All I could think of at this point was how delicious the ginger smelled. I didn’t realize how amazing that stuff smells when fresh. Maybe I need to buy more fresh ginger.

The recipe said to heat canola oil over high heat. It should have said medium-high, as high was just way too intense. I subbed olive oil for the canola oil. I’m a rebel like that.

Dump in the ginger, along with a chopped onion and chopped garlic and heat for just 15 seconds or so. Too hot – it was spitting and going crazy. I think I backed it off a bit. Then add shrimp, salt, and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until slightly pink. So far, so good.

Then I stopped taking pictures. Bear with me.

Add beer, ketchup, and some white sugar, and then return it to a boil. Then, dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a tablespoon of water, and add it to the mixture. Or, if you’re like me, decide that you’d be better off just mixing any old amount of cornstarch with any old amount of water, and put probably closer to a cup of starchy water in the sauce. Then regret it, as this is not a stir fry. Probably a lot more liquid than I was supposed to have. I actually ladled a bunch of it back out, taking with it some flavor. Then I realized that the written directions never actually said to add red pepper flakes, though they’re listed in the ingredients, and figured that was supposed to go in with the salt and pepper ages ago.  So I added them now. The recipe said to return to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes. Done and done. Finally, mix in some sesame oil and chopped green onions, and you’re good to go.

Once I dumped it in the bowl, I finally tasted it. My first two impressions were that (a) the shrimp seemed overcooked to me, and (b) there was not enough spice and seasoning. So I picked up a canister of Old Bay, which was out for the crabs, and sprinkled it generously on top of this.

Honestly, I liked the beer/ ketchup combination and I think this recipe would have been a lot better if I hadn’t put too much liquid in and if I hadn’t overcooked the shrimp. The overall reception was pretty good, I think, but then again, my brother is friends with nice people. Still, I found it disappointing.

I may whip up some of that mutha sauce before my brother visits us next time and try it again, this time with the restaurant’s recipe. I can also see myself trying this particular recipe again. I’ll be more careful.

Does anyone have a good drunken shrimp recipe?

Chicken Piccata

My list of things to blog about has been growing. Stay tuned for garlic spinach, spicy chicken, drunken shrimp, barbecue sauce, and more. I still find time to cook, even if I am running around like a crazy person most of the time. I really shouldn’t complain, though, because when I look back on my life, the busiest times have been the times when I was happy and doing really well. Still, finding time to sit down and reflect has been harder lately. I suppose priority is given to hubby and the dogs. You don’t mind, do you?

Last week, I decided to make an easy stovetop chicken dinner. Hubby was at a conference in Chicago and I was feeling both hungry for something new and lazy about preparing it just for myself. I did an ingredients search for “chicken and white wine,” just because I had a giant bottle of pinot grigio in my fridge, and I came up with this. There were a lot of chicken piccata recipes, though most of them called for capers and I didn’t have any, but this one looked like a winner.

First, I measured out some flour.

Added some salt.

And some ground black pepper.

I put them in a large ziplock bag and mixed them up.

Then I added the thinly sliced chicken breasts, one at a time, and shook the whole thing up. Puppy loved this step.

Next, melt some butter in a large skillet. Lots of butter.

And sauté that chicken. I was aiming to just brown both sides initially.

Then pour yourself a glass of wine to make sure it’s safe for dinner.

And pour some in with the chicken.

Just let it simmer for a while.

Finally, at the last minute, drizzle with lemon juice. So simple, yet so, so important.

And serve! Easy, simple.

Served with some sautéed spinach. I was super surprised at how well this worked. The butter and the lemon juice worked well with the crispiness of the pan-fried chicken, and it went very well with the wine. Yum.

The leftovers weren’t as good. I suppose the microwave ruined that nice crispy texture that the outside of the chicken had. But fresh out of the pan… oh yum. I want to make this again.

Reviewers suggested adding capers. I didn’t do that, so I can’t say if it would have made it better or not. But this was pretty good as is.

Here’s the recipe. Try it and let me know how it goes!