Roasted Paprika Shallots and Asparagus with Red Potatoes, Carrots, and Broccoli

While going through my asparagus archive I noticed that I have two separate photo shoots for what was essentially the same shallot and asparagus recipe. It's a great recipe that's easy and versatile so that would make sense why I have so many pictures of it. While I attempted to narrow down my favorites I came to find that this was no easy task. So rather than giving myself more work, and subsequently never getting around to make this post, I decided to just post them all. This is going to be a longer post than usual, filled with a lot of beautiful pictures and it has a great shallot and asparagus recipe. Since both photo shoots involved steak dinners, rather than going over how to grill a steak again I am instead going to go over acceptable or appropriate garnishes to go on steak. I would be upset to think my blog could be getting redundant.

Steak topped with Chimichurri 

Shallot and Asparagus Recipe:

What I like about this recipe is it's basically all you need to make. It could be its own meal if it needed to be. I've also included brussel sprouts along with the rest of the vegetables. They all roast for the same amount of time except for the broccoli. I like to have mine a little charred though so I wouldn't wait too long to add them to your mix.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus
2 reasonably sized shallots
1-3 carrots
2 crowns of broccoli
3-4 red potatoes
Olive oil
Salt, Pepper (to taste)
Paprika 






Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees with your roasting pan inside. Wash and cut the ends off your asparagus. Peel your shallots. Chop your carrots. Quarter your potatoes. Add them to a large bowl. Add your salt, pepper, olive oil, and paprika. Mix them all together.  When your oven and pan are hot pour out the contents of the bowl into the hot pan and evenly distribute throughout. Cook for about 20 minutes. While that's cooking chop the flowers off of the crown of your broccoli and add them to the same bowl. Add some olive oil to those and more salt, pepper, and paprika. Check to see how far along your other roasting vegetables are. You want to pour the broccoli on top of the rest of them but make sure your broccoli has enough time too cook without over cooking your other vegetables. When they're all the desired texture remove pan from oven. Let them stand for 5 or so minutes, and then enjoy!


Appropriate Condiments for Steaks:

Argentina which is widely renowned for their beef and wine consumption, which for any respectable person are admirable traits. There's a condiment that you can find at most any restaurant. It's generally for steak but I've seen it used for dinner rolls. I've even heard it referred to as "Argentina's Ketchup". It's called Chimichurri. And with anything that is as wide spread through a region as chimichurri is through Argentina you can imagine that opinions on the correct way to make it are even more ubiquitous than the condiment. Ubiquitous²?


Ingredients:

1 bunch of parsley
5 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
Red pepper flakes (to taste)
Pepper/Salt (to taste)
Juice from 1 lemon wedge

Instructions: 

Add contents into food processor. Process. It comes out tasting better if you let it chill in your refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

This next garnish is a piece of guanciale that I roasted on the top of the steak. Guanciale is made from the pigs jowl or cheek and is similar to bacon but richer in flavor and fat. As it was finishing on the grill I added the guanciale to the top of it and I finished it off in a hot oven at 425 degrees. This is my version of the bacon wrapped filet mignon.

 The white sauce on the plate is 50% crème fraîche and 50% horse radish. Mixed together in a bowl and served cold. It can add a nice tangy flavor to your steak.