Asparagus Tomato Goat Cheese Puff Pastry Tart

This Saturday I picked up some more green asparagus at the market, I love asparagus season: just can't get enough of them!! The other day I didn't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, but I also didn't feel like ordering fast food. So I had a look at my fridge/freezer and decided to play with what I had on hand.

The oven was preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I thawed some puff pastry sheets and rolled them out, I then scored a line about 1/2 inch from the edges of the puff pastry to get a nice rim after baking. Two tablespoons of pesto were spread onto the center of the puff pastry and then topped with halved cherry tomatoes (9 whole, 12 half tomatoes). This was baked for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile I washed 400 grams of asparagus and used pencil-thin ones, if they were thicker I halved them length-wise. I layered these on top of the puff pastry and sprinkled some salt and pepper over them. I topped the asparagus with slices of soft goat cheese and popped the tart back into the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes until the edges of the puff pastry is golden.

Doesn't it look delicious???

Here's a close-up for you!! Yum!! Serve this tart with a nice salad and it'll serve two.

Enjoy!!

Asparagus with Roasted Garlic Sauce

There's and abundance of Asparagus around here at the moment, which is fine with me: I love asparagus!! So I started looking for new recipes for me to try out. To my big surprise most recipes out there are for green asparagus, whereas most Dutch people eat white aspargus. I love both varieties. Last weekend I picked up a kilo of green Asparagus at the market.

Today I made the most delicious and simple dish: Asparagus with Roasted Garlic Sauce. I found the recipe here and followed Susan's directions (both for this dish as on how to roast the garlic) exactly, except for using pecans instead of walnuts. Let me tell you: this was amazing!! There's no cream in this sauce, but it tastes sooo creamy! I loved that I could taste all the ingredients: the garlic, pecans and lemon juice, Delicious!! I'm definitely making this again!!

Asparagus with Roasted Garlic Sauce

1/2 head roasted garlic
1/4 cup walnuts (pecans work too)
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp. water
salt to taste
1 pound asparagus

Lightly toast the walnuts. The easiest way to do this is to put them in the oven with the garlic during the last 5 minutes that it’s roasting. When they’re hot but not burning, remove them from the oven and grind them in a food processor (or mash them to a paste in a mortar and pestle). Add half a head of roasted garlic, the lemon juice, and the water and continue to puree. Add salt to taste.

Prepare the asparagus by snapping off the tough ends (just hold a spear at the bottom and in the middle, and it should snap off in the right spot). Steam them lightly for 3 minutes or until they are bright green and just starting to become tender. Place them in a serving dish, and toss them with the roasted garlic sauce. Serve, trying not to fight over the last spear on the plate!

CEiMB: Garden Risotto and Confession Time...

I have a confession to make: I've never made risotto. For some reason I've always been quite intimidated about it. But there's a first time for everything and thanks to Jessica of A Singleton in the Kitchen yesterday I finally made risotto for the first time in my life!

I was amazed by how easy it was put together, although the risotto did need to be stirred a lot..... My entire family loved this dish: I cooked this at my parents house, my mom couldn't eat it as she's not allowed to eat rice at the moment, so I brought leftovers to my brother and put one portion in the freezer.

From now on I'll be making more risotto!! I did make three small changes in the recipe: I used Pecorino Romano instead of Parmesan, red onion instead of regular onion and I added a bit more spinach and peas to the risotto 'cause I love veggies! My risotto was paired with köfte from the Turkish butcher. What a nice combination: the creamy softness of the risotto toned down the spicyness of the köfte. Jessica, thank you so much for picking this recipe and showing me that risotto is made easy-peasy: you've made my entire family happy!!

Check out what my fellow Elie-istas thoughts on the Garden Risotto were here, the recipe can be found here at Jessica's blog or here at Foodnetwork. Up next are:

• May 14th: Jerk Chicken with Cool Pineapple Salsa, hosted by Jen B. of Notes from the Table
• May 21st: Thai Style Halibut with Coconut Curry Broth, hosted by The Not So Skinny Kitchen
• May 28th: Crispy Fish Fingers, hosted by Anne of Rainforest Recipes

Taste & Create XVIII - Mirch Masala - Asparagus Spaghetti

This month I decided to join another interesting cookgroup: Taste & Create.
I had seen this event over at Grumpy's Honeybunch and instantely fell in love with the idea of Taste & Create: it’s whole purpose is to create a community of bloggers who test each others’ recipes and share links. Every month you send an email to let Nicole from For the Love of Food know that you'd like to participate that month, she makes pairs and then you select one (or more) recipes to recreate from the persons blog that you're paired with.

This month I'm paired with Superchef of Mirch Masala. Superchef is a very talented cook that has a lot of Indian recipes on her blog. My intention was to go ahead and try to recreate one of the lovely Indian dishes, but time flied this month and before I knew it it was time to post. As I was in a hurry today I made this easy-to-prepare pastadish.

I really enjoyed it, it was put together very quickly and very tasty. It gave me a chance to use my leftover spinach from the CEiMB-recipe. I absolutely loved it: the way the egg-parmesan mixture coats the pasta that makes an ordinary sauce completely absolete. Go here to check out Superchefs pasta. To see what the other creators made, visit Taste & Create.

Asparagus and Spinach Spaghetti with Garlic,
Basil and Parmesan Cheese

250 grams Spaghetti

300 grams Spinach

4 cloves garlic, minced

8-10 stalks of Asparagus, cut into 1 inch length

1 egg, beaten well
1/2 cup, grated Parmesan + more for garnish

a few basil leaves, chopped finely

a handful of sweet cherry tomatoes, halved

2 tbp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the pasta as per package instructions, drain and keep aside.
In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the asparagus, spinach and garlic.
Add the spaghetti to it and toss well.

Meanwhile, mix the egg and the grated parmesan in a bowl and keep aside.
Remove the sauté pan from the heat and then add in the egg-parm mix to it.

DO NOT add this mix while the pasta is on the stove as this will only scramble the eggs.
This way, the eggs cook enough in the heat of the pasta and forms
a nice smooth sauce with the parmesan.

Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Toss in the cherry tomatoes and serve with the basil leaves and
more grated parmesan as garnish.