Grilled Asparagus

A few years ago, my wife and I attended a backyard grilling and barbecuing seminar hosted by our local gas equipment store.  The guest chef was John Henry Abercrombie from Houston Texas.  We enjoyed a several hour seminar showing how to cook with different types of grills and smokers and at the end of the seminar; we sampled the results of the day’s cooking: ribs, brisket, and chicken.

One of the things John Henry cooked which we enjoyed was grilled asparagus.  Before we left the store that day, we purchased a vegetable grill pan and some of John Henry’s seasoning and rubs.

Last night I thawed some seasoned steak to grill for dinner.  I was planning to have grill potatoes to accompany the steak but I also needed a vegetable.  I looked in the refrigerator and found the remains of the two bunches of asparagus I had purchased a few days before and used most of the asparagus for a dinner I made for friends.  I decided to have the remaining twelve spears of asparagus.  As I was already using the BBQ to grill the steak and potatoes, to also grill the asparagus.

The secret to grilling green vegetables like asparagus is to first blanch the vegetable before grilling.  The process of blanching turns the asparagus and nice deep green color and the asparagus retains the color while grilling.  If you don’t blanch the asparagus, they turn a sickly yellow green color and are not very appetizing.

The first thing that I did for the asparagus was to turn on our electric hot pot containing about six-cups of cold water.  While the water heated, I washed and trimmed the ends of the asparagus and placed the spears in a large pot.  When the water was hot, I poured it over the asparagus and let it sit in the pan.  I grabbed a skillet I was going to use for sautéed mushrooms and put a couple of handfuls of ice cubes in the pan then some cold water.  After the asparagus sat in the hot water for about four minutes, I transferred the asparagus to the pan with the ice water and let it sit until it was cold.  The asparagus now had a deep green color and is partially cooked.

I dug through our storage shed and found the vegetable pan and took it to the kitchen and gave it a good washing and then lightly oiled the inside of the pan.  During John Henry’s seminar, he recommends lightly oiling the asparagus and then sprinkling his cherry flavored seasoning on the spears.  In the past I have found that even with a light oiling, the spears end up very oily once they are cooked, I prefer to only oil the pan.

Once the steak was about finished cooking, I placed the vegetable grill pan in the BBQ, added the asparagus, and closed the lid.  I let the asparagus cook for about five minutes then took everything inside for dinner.

We had a great dinner of grilled steak, potato, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled asparagus.  The asparagus was still a deep green color and had a slightly smoky flavor from the grilling process.  I just wish that I had more asparagus to cook.  Next time I need to remember to sprinkle the asparagus with just a little salt and pepper before placing it in the BBQ to grill.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Broiled Salmon – Take Two

For dinner last night, we decided to change our normal chicken and beef routine and have some salmon.  On a recent trip to Costco for other food items, I purchased a bag of frozen wild Alaskan salmon (no added color from feed that’s bad for you).

I started by placing two cups of brown rice in our rice cooker with three cups of water and turning it on.  I thawed out four pieces of the salmon in cold water for about twenty minutes, and then placed them in a gallon Ziploc bag.  Into the bag of salmon, I added about a tablespoon of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, which is a gluten free – low sodium replacement for soy sauce. 

I planned to serve lightly steamed asparagus, so I got out a bundle of very small and tender asparagus and I washed and trimmed the shoots.  When I was eleven years old, we lived in a suburb to the east of Yakima Washington, where we would walk about two blocks to a field where the asparagus grew wild.  We would cut as much as we wanted and take it home for dinner.  Now I have trouble growing one small plant in my back yard.

I turned on the oven to broil at 550 degrees and then after about five minutes, I removed the fish from the marinade and placed them skin side down in a broiler pan.  I placed the fish into the oven to broil for four minutes on each side.  While the fish was cooking, I turned on the pan for the asparagus, washed, and sliced some tomatoes for color.  When I turned the fish, I turned the broil setting down to 450 degrees as the salmon was cooking a little too fast.

After the eight minutes the fish was perfectly cooked; I broke one piece open to see that it was flakey and cooked all the way through.  I turned the salmon so it was again skin side down and quickly grated some parmesan cheese on the pieces.  The salmon want back into the oven and I watched as the cheese melted and slightly browned before I removed the salmon from the oven.

I served the salmon, rice, tomato, and asparagus.  For fun, I also grated some parmesan cheese on top of the asparagus to see how it would turn out.  We enjoyed our dinner, I found that most of the melted parmesan cheese came off the fish in the first bite like a spider’s web, but I was able to spread most of it back over the salmon.  The salmon had a nice flavor with a hint of the soy and salt from the Bragg’s liquid.  I didn’t think the parmesan cheese did much for the asparagus, but also did not distract from the taste.

I’m hoping for some better weather so I can take some of the recipes to the BBQ and write about some outdoor grilling, but I continue to watch the sun/rain/hail/wind/sun/rain as it hourly sweeps by our house while I hope for nice weather.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Dinner and Games

Every few months we invite our Niece Lissa over for dinner and a game night, which happened to be last Friday. I had purchased some Tilapia from Costco and planned to make the Baked Tilapia Rollups using the Paula Deen recipe from The Deen Family Cookbook. We were to make the dinner and our Lissa would bring dessert.

While I prepared the mayonnaise, garlic, and parsley filling, my wife made a very nice green salad. I used the steamer from our new Costco stainless steel cookware set to cook the asparagus. Once Lissa arrived, I baked the Tilapia as it only takes eleven minutes. After everything was done, I found the Tilapia was still a little on the raw side in the middle (maybe because it was almost frozen when I started) so I popped it in the microwave for two minutes to finish cooking.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal of Tilapia, brown rice, salad, asparagus, and rosemary bread. We decided to eat dessert before we started playing our game (no distractions when we play), so Lissa started to prepare our dessert.

This is a strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream and topped with fresh strawberries and blackberries. The berries made a delightful mixture that was sweet and flavorful. Our concern with strawberries this early in the year is that they are raised in a greenhouse and don’t have much flavor, but adding the blackberries really enhanced the taste.

It did not take us long to finish off our dessert and then we cleared the table to play Ticket To Ride Europe. This is a board game that our son and daughter-in-law gave us for Christmas and we had a great time playing two rounds of the game.

What a great way to spend a Friday night, good food, good company, and a great game.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell