Pan-roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Butter

This is the easiest recipe when you are in a hurry.   Fresh asparagus require very little cooking and lemon, butter, sea salt and black pepper make the simplest of seasonings which allow the vegetable to shine.  You will want to eat these one at a time with your fingers.  Then lick them clean.

Ingredients

450g or 1 lb fresh asparagus

Juice of 1/4 lemon

20g or 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Sea salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Method

Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus, usually at least 2-3 inches or 5-6 cm.

Heat a non-stick skillet to roasting, and throw in the asparagus.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Leave the asparagus to brown, stirring occasionally.  

This will take just a few minutes if your fire is high enough and your pan is hot enough.  Sprinkle with sea salt and a good couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.  Just keep tossing them around.

When the asparagus is nicely caramelized and brown in places, turn your fire off and add the butter.  

Squeeze the lemon juice into the hot pan and stir the asparagus around until the butter melts.  Taste one and add more salt if necessary.  Serve!  This goes great with the Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Prosciutto.

Enjoy!

Toffee with Chocolate and Almond Slivers

Toasted almonds on the bottom, salted toffee in the middle and more almonds and semi-sweet chocolate on top. Break this apart like peanut brittle with a little hammer. Buttery, sweet and salty, and delicious. 

So, my house-hunting trip to Cairo was indeed canceled.  We had been blessed by an invitation to share Thanksgiving with a family there on Friday and I was planning to make this to bring, to share, since I wouldn’t have a proper kitchen in the serviced apartment.  I decided to make it anyway, because, so rich are my blessings, I have been graced with another invitation to share Thanksgiving here in Kuala Lumpur.  Since I have an actual kitchen and oven, I will also make an apple pie.  And green beans, just like my grandmothers used to make, to bring as well.

May you all be blessed richly with friends and family who love you this Thanksgiving.  I am firmly convinced there is no greater blessing than friends and family who love you!  I am more grateful than I can express.  Surely, I do not have my family with me, but they are safe and I hope that they also know how much they are loved by me and how much I wish we could be together. 

Ingredients

2 rounded cups or 300g of slivered almonds

2 cups or 450g unsalted butter

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 cups or 450g sugar

1/8 cup or 30ml light corn syrup

1/3 cup or 80ml water

1 1/2 rounded cups or 290g semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Toast the almond slivers in a dry non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.  Stir or toss them frequently to make sure they brown evenly. 

It's hard to see how toasted these are but they were darker than the photo makes them appear. 

Line a baking pan with sides  (minimum 15 1/2in x10 1/2in or 40cm x 27cm) with foil.  Butter the foil liberally.

Sprinkle half of the toasted almonds on the foil.

Ah, see! They look more toasted in the natural light.

In a heavy saucepan, add butter, salt, sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook over medium-high heat.

Cook the mixture until it reaches 290-300 degrees using a candy thermometer, which is the soft crack stage. Be really careful at this step, at 280 it goes really fast, and can burn in mere seconds. 

Pour the mixture immediately over the almonds. Set a timer for five minutes and let it cool until it is firm but still hot.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee.  Set your timer for two minutes and, when it rings, spread the chocolate all over the toffee.

Sprinkle with remaining toasted almond slivers.  Chill in the refrigerator until it hardens completely.

Peel the toffee off of the foil and turn it over.  Gently break it into pieces with a small hammer. 

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, with waxed or parchment paper between the layers.  Or serve immediately!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating this weekend!

Adapted from this recipe, but originally from Pinterest and The Idea Room.  I tried to find the original post on Pinterest but I don’t really understand how it works, I guess. 

Extra Rich Creamed Potatoes

Extra rich creamed potatoes aren't just creamy because they are well mashed; they must have added cream. These are a family favorite.

The secret to smooth, lump-free mashed potatoes, if that is your thing, (I thought they were everyone's thing until I watched Friends, Season 1, Episode 9 when Ross wanted his with lumps, please.) is mashing them while they are hot and warming anything you want to add to them: butter, cream, milk or stock.

These are my very special extra rich creamed potatoes and they make an appearance at Thanksgiving, Christmas and other occasions where there will be gravy and roasted things, like chicken. Tonight is possibly my last Pokeno night in Kuala Lumpur. The promised roasted chicken and gravy, with creamed potatoes, almost cheers me up. Gonna miss these ladies terribly.

Ingredients
4lb or almost 2 kilos russet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup or 113g butter
1 cup or 240ml whipping cream
1 tablespoon or 30g vegetable stock granules
A couple of good grinds fresh black pepper

Method
Peel your potatoes and drop them into a pot of cool water as you do. This keeps them from discoloring or turning brown.



Slice them and pop them back in the water.



Dump that water and add fresh water. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and put on the fire to boil, uncovered.



Meanwhile, gently melt your butter in the microwave.



Add the cream and warm it through too. Add the tablespoon of stock granules.



Whisk well. Add the black pepper to the cream/butter mixture.




When the potatoes are very fork-tender, drain and leave in the hot pot. Using a potato masher, get all the lumps out before it cools and before you start adding anything to it.




Add the cream/butter mixture and continue to mash.





Stir it around as well. Finally, use a spoon to stir the potatoes to make sure they are thoroughly mixed.



(To rewarm, it is best to put the potatoes in a microwaveable dish and give them a quick zap. Potatoes rewarmed on the stove tend to stick and burn.)

Enjoy!



P.S. It looks like my house hunting trip to Cairo will have to be postponed because of the coming elections and unrest. Now I am really sad again.