This was…wonderful. Wait, I’m getting a little emotional. Hold on. Okay. I’m fine now. This recipe is from a cookbook that I’ve had for six years and have never made anything out of before. And now I’ve made this and I’m planning my dish for Cookbook Challenge4 to be from this book too. Why, it’s Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook and it’s full of pretty, sexy photos of half naked people wearing vegetables/nuts/shellfish/fruit/other as clothes (or using as props! whee!) and decadent, luscious recipes.

I’m not quite sure how in the mood a heavy sauce (by the way, I lightened it up with half and half instead of cream) and asparagus would put a person, but hey, it was a really delicious bowl of pasta all the same.

Pasta with Chicken, Asparagus & Gorgonzola:
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
8 ounces pasta — I used orecchiette (little ear pasta, but rigatoni, fusilli or even linguine would work well)
1 tbsp butter
1 big breast or 2 small chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
3/4 cup half-and-half or cream
red pepper flakes to taste
1 shallot, finely diced
dash of nutmeg
2 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp fresh tarragon
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
salt & pepper
Optional: Parmesan cheese for garnish

Start your sexy, sexy culinary adventure by cutting the asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cook in boiling water for about 4 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta of you choice until it is al dente. Then, you will set that aside too. Perhaps by the asparagus so that they can get to know each other and it won’t be quite so awkward later. You know, when they get together in the pan.

Speaking of which, melt the butter in a large pan. Add the chicken and shallots, brown the chicken 2-3 minutes each side. Next, whisk in the half and half, red pepper flakes, and nutmeg. Here, I turned the heat to medium-low and put a lid on the pan to give the chicken and half and half a little privacy. wink-wink. Okay — is it getting old yet? Let the chicken finish cooking and the cream simmer a bit, for about 5-6 minutes.

Remove the lid and add the Gorgonzola and stir in until melted. Add the pasta and asparagus and toss to coat. Garnish with the fresh tarragon and walnuts. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese if desired. Oh! And don’t forget the wine and the crusty, sourdough bread! Or your dinner companion. wink-wink.

Actually, I was a little tentative with the tarragon but it really worked here. The sauce was also not overly abundant. I was kind of afraid the pasta would be swimming in heavy sauce but it wasn’t at all. It was the perfect amount and a great meal.

wink-wink

Stop that! It’s not even funny anymore…

Really, it’s just an excuse to post these tuna photos. jwa and I had a wonderful dinner of seared tuna, cucumber slaw and (this time) sesame noodles with bell pepper and shitake mushrooms not too long ago. The original tuna and cucumber recipes are here, which is exactly what I did for this dinner. We try to have seared tuna about once a month or so because it is so tasty.

Noodles
They are very easy. So easy, I’m just going to list everything out in paragraph form and not even like a recipe. Anarchy! Find yourself some udon or soba noodles — even spaghetti would work in a pinch. Cook them in boiling water, add a few broccoli florets about 4 minutes before the noodles are done.

Meanwhile, sauté bell pepper strips and sliced shitake mushrooms in a little vegetable or peanut oil. Add the noodles and broccoli when done and toss with a bit of sesame oil. Add some soy sauce, fresh, minced ginger and some sesame seeds. Garnish with cilantro leaves. Taste and adjust soy, oil and possibly add a little salt if needed.

This is also an excuse to rave about my new grill pan — an All-Clad LTD 12-Inch Round one. I’ve had it for about 4 months and love it. My other pan, which I also loved, finally gave up the ghost a little while ago.

Dinner
Serve the noodles with the seared tuna, dipping sauce and cucumber slaw. This is just so good and I can’t believe I love the cucumber as much as I do here. I think the secret is using an English cucumber.

Tomorrow, pasta with Gorgonzola, asparagus and chicken!

We love brunch. And I enjoy making brunch every so often. Mostly egg dishes, breakfast potatoes, English muffins and mimosas. Oh, don’t forget the mimosas! But, I like to make frittatas sometimes just because they’re fun — I get to stick my ovenproof pan in the oven. If you don’t have an ovenproof pan you don’t really need one. It can easily be made on the stove top. That’s the way I used to make them all through grad school and until pretty recently, actually.

For this frittata, I used cremini and shitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, goat cheese and fresh thyme. Our finished frittata wedges were accompanied with pepper bacon (!), scones and freshly pressed Stumptown coffee.

Mushroom, Thyme & Goat Cheese Frittata:
3-4 small potatoes (red new potatoes work well, so did little purple potatoes)
8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
8 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced or julienned
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
3 oz goat cheese
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 400.

Whisk eggs in a bowl with the Dijon mustard and a little salt and pepper.

Slice the potatoes thinly, about 1/4 of an inch in thickness. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Heat an ovenproof skillet (if you don’t have one, just use a normal skillet) and add potatoes. Let cook and brown for about 10 minutes. You should have enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Flip and stir occasionally.

While the potatoes cook, heat another pan and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Sauté the mushrooms, garlic, onion, dried thyme and bell pepper.

When the vegetables are soft and beginning to color nicely, add them on top of the potato layer in the other pan. Next add the beaten eggs and mustard. Add little clumps of goat cheese on top of the egg mixture. Let cook on the stovetop, over medium heat for about 4-5 minutes, until the egg starts to set a bit along the edges.

Then, pop in the oven for about 7-10 minutes or until the eggs are all set and the top is a bit puffed and starting to get golden. If you don’t have an ovenproof pan, turn the heat to stovetop heat to medium-low and cover the pan and cook until the eggs are set and the cheese is soft and warm, 10-15 minutes. You can also slide the half-cooked frittata out onto a plate, hold the pan upside down on top of the plate, and flip it back into the pan, potato side up to cook the top. I never did it this way, mainly because I am lazy, but I hear it works very well.

Garnish with fresh thyme leaves, cut into wedges and serve.

A frittata also makes a great dinner. Another fun frittata fact — you can pretty much, just like with an omelet, put whatever combination of meat, veggies and cheese that you like in one!

Yep, Little Big Head herself! Taking a break at work to scroll through the Powell’s calendar and I see:

Giada De Laurentiis
Thursday April, 27th, 7:00PM Powell’s Books for Home & Garden, 3723 SE Hawthorne…cool. I am a little frightened of her teeth but I like her food just fine.

Now, back to the sprouts!

I tried brussel sprouts for the first time last Fall or there about. I never knew what to make of them before but jwa said they were good. I belived him. Then I found a recipe that called for braising the sprouts with butter, stock and garlic.

Hey! I like butter, stock and garlic! I decided to give it a whirl. Since then, braised brussel sprouts have become a much requested vegetable around here. We like those so much that I decided to try making them another way.

This recipe is from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. I was watching that Chefography program on Food Network a while ago and was surprised to learn that Ina used to be a White House budget analyst. But, then she moved to the Hampton’s and became fabulous.

Anyway, here is the recipe, from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts:
1 1/2 pounds brussel sprouts
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the ends off the sprouts and peel away any top yellow leaves. If your sprouts all look tight and green, just attend to the ends. If your sprouts are freakishly large, like the ones I got at New Seasons last weekend, cut them in half. Seriously, these things were the size of baseballs.

Mix the sprouts in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Turn out on a baking sheet and roast for 35-40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Now, if you have large sprouts cut in half, they will most likely be a little crispy on one side and tender on the other. They are still very good this way but, if left whole, I bet the whole crispy outside vs. tender inside thing is more impressive. Shake the pan from time to time, to brown the sprouts evenly. Since they were cut in half, I actually just flipped mine over halfway through the cooking time.

Sprinkle with more salt, if desired, and serve hot. Realize that brussel sprouts are awesome.