My favorite cookbook so far in this new life of regular food prep has been Simply in Season, a cookbook from the Mennonite community. The book is organized into five color-coded sections; each section contains recipes using fruits and veggies that are harvested during that season. (The fifth section is with foods available in all seasons.) Each of the five sections has recipes for breads & breakfasts, soups, salads, sides, main dishes, desserts and some extras. One of my favorite parts of the book is the separate indexes for vegetables, fruits, herbs, proteins and grains, and also recipe titles.
When Elizabeth saw that I'd been given this book as a wedding present, she wrote down some of the Polak family favorites so I've already been off to a good start. A good number of those recipes are becoming Avery family favorites too.
Today after work Tim and I took this frisbee to Hoffman Park to run around since it's a gorgeous day here with the temps in the low 70s (is this really July?). Unfortunately when I suggested running around I'd forgotten that he had to leave a bit after 6:30 for a missions meeting.
The good news for us was that "Lemon Asparagus Pasta" from Simply in Season doesn't take too long to prepare. The bad news was that I didn't have any green onions. But since last time I tried this recipe, the lemons didn't have any flavor, I figured we could go ahead with it. (Have you ever heard of lemons without flavor? I bought them from the cheap, on-the-edge-of-going-bad produce section of my favorite grocery store, but I don't think I'll do that with lemons again – it was pretty pointless.)
So here is "Lemon Asparagus Pasta" lifted straight from Simply in Season.
(another great thing about this book is how the ingredients and instructions are integrated)
8 oz / 250 g angel hair pasta
2 1/2 cups / 625 ml asparagus (cut into 1-inch / 2.5 cm pieces – I cut them on the bias)
Cook pasta in boiling water 4 minutes. Add asparagus and cook 2 minutes longer or until tender. Drain.
1 Tb. butter
1/2 cup / 125 ml green onions (chopped)
1 1/2 tsp. lemon peel (grated)
3 Tbs. lemon juice
While pasta cooks, melt butter in large frypan over medium heat. Add green onions and lemon peel and saute 1 minute. Add lemon juice and cook until liquid is almost evaporated.
3/4 cup / 175 ml milk
2 eggs
Beat together. Add with pasta and asparagus to pan with green onions. Cook over low heat until milk mixture is slightly thick, about 4 minutes. Do not boil.
1 Tb. fresh dill (chopped; or 1 tsp. dried)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Stir in. Serve immediately.
1 comment:
Great recipe for varying as you like with other veggies or meats. Did you notice it is a similar recipe/technique as spaghetti carbonara? So - a good one to have in your repertoire and throw together on a weeknight! Agreed! And maybe bacon and asparagus would be good. Hmm.
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