Slow Bake Asparagus and Shallots w/ Rosemary and Lemon Basil Salmon

I know what you're all thinking. You're thinking that you need a shallot and asparagus recipe that you can combine with a salmon recipe that you can cook all at the same time, on the same baking sheet! It's here friend. Let me revolutionize the way you cook asparagus and salmon together. Introducing my Slow Bake Asparagus and Shallots w/ Rosemary and Lemon Basil Salmon! 

Image 2A

Ingredients

1/2 bunch of asparagus
1 large shallot
2-4 cloves of garlic (How much garlic do you like?)
1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of fresh basil
? olive oil
12 oz salmon fillet



Instructions for experienced cook:

See Image 2A above: Replicate. Cooking Temp: 275° Cooking Time: 21-23 min. 

Instructions for inexperienced cook:

Image 2B

Preheat oven to 275°. Place your baking sheet on your counter top. Take out your roll of aluminum foil and unroll it to approx. 2 inches longer than your baking sheet. You likely won't have to worry about the vertical size. Rip off sheet of aluminum foil. Place the foil on the baking sheet. Place your left hand securely in the middle of the foil pinning it down to the middle of the baking sheet. Use your right index and middle fingers to press foil down around the inner perimeter of the baking sheet to line the inside. This will create a "pool" for extra oil and juices that will be easy to contain and clean when you're finished. Take your bunch of asparagus and remove the rubber band from around the circumference of them. Some people take this opportunity to run them under cold water to "clean" them. Once they're clean shake them about a bit over your sink to get the loose water droplets off. Hold the asparagus loosely and pat the blunt side of them gently against your counter top. To even out the bunch. Now lay them out on a safe cutting surface. I use a cutting board. Once they're laid out you can cut the ends off the bottom of them all simultaneously (See Image 2B for example). Now that your asparagus is ready place them on the left side of your baking sheet. (See Image 2A for example). Locate your shallot. Cut off both ends and remove the outer layer. Slice your shallot into pieces roughly 4-5mm wide. Scatter shallot pieces generously across the top of your asparagus which are now where? That's right, on your baking sheet! Drizzle olive oil over the top of your shallots and asparagus. Use your judgement. You don't want your shallots and asparagus to be "soaked" with olive oil, though you also don't want them to be dry. If you feel this is a fickle distinction then you can pour some olive oil into a small bowl and using a brush simply paint a healthy amount of oil over the shallots and asparagus. Add salt and pepper (to taste). Locate your cloves of garlic. Cut the end off and skin 1-3 cloves. Mince your garlic cloves, or as I prefer you can use a garlic press. Take the sum of your garlic efforts and spread them over your asparagus. Take your rosemary and hold it by the top of the stem above your cutting surface with your thumb and your forefinger. Use the same fingers on your other hand to strip the stem of the needles in a downward motion. Collect the stems into a pile on your cutting surface and chop them into small pieces. Sprinkle them over the top of your shallots and asparagus. Now you're ready for your salmon. You're going to be reusing a lot of the techniques we just discussed for the asparagus on your salmon so this part should go fast. Remove from package and place salmon skin side down on the right hand side of your baking sheet (See Image 2A for example). "Paint" olive oil over the top of your salmon using your brush. Add salt and pepper (to taste). Chop up your basil and sprinkle over your salmon. Take 1/2 of a lemon and squeeze roughly 2 tablespoons of juice onto your salmon. If you would like you can follow the previous garlic step and add some garlic as well. Make sure everything is evenly distributed throughout the landscape of your salmon. By this time your oven should be heated to the desired 275°. Open the door to your oven and place tray inside. Close door, and set timer for 21 minutes. Cook your salmon until it's opaque in the center. If you have a thermometer that should be about 135°. It may take a little longer than 21 minutes. Use a fork to check the density of your asparagus when you're checking your salmon. When finished, let rest for a minute or two, plate it, and enjoy!

"Better than a Cobb" Shallot and Asparagus Steak Salad

I started to get a lot of hits off of the term, "Asparagus Salad". I should qualify that statement. I started to get a lot of hits for an asparagus blog off the term Asparagus Salad. If you Yahoo! search Asparagus Salad my asparagus salad comes up in the pictures. My blog isn't mentioned. It's just the picture. It's a great picture done by a lovely photographer that does a lot of pro bono work for me out of pity. I don't really know who even uses Yahoo! as a search engine. Does Alta Vista sometimes get too bogged down with traffic? Having seen that and wanting to respond to a vague sense of what my audience (I use this term really loosely) would want, I set out to make the best asparagus salad I could. This is what I came up with, and honestly I think it's better than a Cobb.

Here's the long name:

Steak salad with blanched asparagus, grilled shallots, avocado, cherry tomato, crumbled blue cheese, and a fried egg.

Or for short: S.S.B.A.G.S.A.C.T.C.B.C.F.E. (This is how you will affectionately order it at Chili's when they buy the recipe from me)

Ingredients:

Mixed greens

Blanched asparagus

1 grilled shallot

Crumbled blue cheese

1/2 of an avocado

Cherry tomatoes

Grilled steak

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons of Grey Poupon

Red wine vinegar to taste

Salt

Pepper

1 fried egg per serving

Instructions:

I've previously talked about blanching asparagus, and I more recently talked about grilling steak. For the salad dressing in this all you need to do is put 1/3 of a cup of olive oil in a small bowl. Add your mustard and your red wine vinegar. Whisk it all until the mustard makes it emulsify. Add salt, pepper, and additional oil, mustard, or vinegar to taste. It's a fickle process and you're going to have to do taste tests until it's to your liking. I had most of my salad assembled as I was grilling my steak. When I say assembled what I mean is I just took the ingredients and I put them on a plate. What's nice about this recipe is that timing isn't a factor. A lot of the stressful element of cooking is derived from trying to cook several different things that cook at different rates and having them all ready at the same time. Friend, this is a salad. There's no need for any of that. When the steak is done let it rest and cool. I had everything sliced, chopped and plated and then I just fried an egg with ease for the final garnish. It made a hearty dinner that was easy and delicious.

Broiled Parmesan Shallots and Asparagus with Grilled Steak

Remember that time you went out to eat and you thought to yourself, "That was good, but there was just too much cheese?" Neither can I. You should keep that in mind when you're performing the tedious task of cheese grating. This is another broiled asparagus recipe that will take about 8 minutes so when you put the asparagus and shallots into the broiler you should be grating cheese for at least half of the amount of time that the asparagus is under the heat. Unless you're slow at grating cheese. Then you should be grating for the full amount of time. I don't like to give strict measurements on cheese but in my experience the more you have the less likely you are to be disappointed that there's not enough. It's math.

Grilling Steak:
It was brought to my attention earlier today that grilling a steak isn't just common knowledge passed from one generation to another that can be taken for granted. I was at a butcher shop with a man that confessed that he wasn't that good at grilling. He said that he considered "taking a class on it". I thought it was the most effeminate thing that I had ever heard from a man before. I always knew it was a fickle art form but it's nothing like trying to teach your rebellious child appreciation for abstract expressionism. So this is how you're supposed to grill a steak:

1. Lay your steak(s) out so they reach room temperature.
2. Heat your grill (high medium heat) so they're going onto a hot grill and they're searing when they touch.
3. Leave it on the first side for 7-9 minutes. (This varies depending on the thickness)
4. Flip once. Only once. When you keep turning it over it dries it out.
5. Let it cook until it's just a little too pink for your taste.
6. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before you serve it.

If you under-cook your steak just a bit then as you're letting it rest your steak is going to cook itself to your desired outcome. If you cook it on the grill to the place you want it done to, then as your steak is sitting it's going to over-cook itself and you will end up with a slightly over-cooked steak.


Now that that's settled we can move on to the important part: shallots and asparagus!

Ingredients:
1/2 bundle of asparagus
1 1/2 shallot
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan Cheese (To Taste)










Instructions:
Cut (or snap) the coarse ends off the asparagus. Place them in a pan that's broiler safe. Cast iron or a cookie sheet that has aluminum foil across the top. Add your salt, pepper and drizzle olive oil over them all evenly. Put them in the broiler on high for 7-8 minutes. Grate your cheese while this is happening. After they're blackened and almost done pour your grated Parmesan across the top and put back into the broiler for an additional minute. Serve immediately. Enjoy.

I have two post scripts to add to this post:

1. I assume children don't care for abstract expressionism for two reasons. 1. Most people don't seem to. 2. They always seem to be concerned with coloring inside of lines. Which is counter intuitive to the abstract expressionist.

2. When I made this recipe the person I cook for ate all of her asparagus before she ate all of her steak. As you can imagine she's tired of asparagus. I took this as a compliment.

Roasted Asparagus and shallot soup w/ Avacado

This is a new soup I tried. I couldn't sleep the other night so I did what everyone does in this situation: midnight asparagus Google searches. I found a recipe that sounded promising but I felt it needed some changes. The soup turned out really good but just like everything else that's worthwhile in this life it left me with more questions than answers. This soup is served hot with roasted asparagus and shallots.  It's made me curious about trying an asparagus gazpacho though. However, not wanting to be gauche I will have to wait until the Summer to attempt something like that. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I love avocado. When I cut into a fresh avocado it fills me with hope. Something as piquant as avocado is proof that there's a divine force in the universe. That I'm not alone. If something this delicious can exist it has to be an indication that there's something more than me. My trite existence is one small piece of some larger scheme. Nothing this beautiful can be created purely by chance or serendipity. Sometimes though when I cut into one and I see it's brown and rotted, a rush of doubt enters my mind. I'm reminded that I'm all alone in an indifferent universe that's cold and bleak. And Serendipity is just a shitty John Cusack movie, not the driving force behind existence.

 Ingredients:

1 bundle of Asparagus

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 shallot

2 avocados

1 clove of garlic

Salt/Pepper

2 cups of chicken

1/2 lemon, juiced

                                                                                    1 teaspoon of bacon grease

Instructions:

Heat your oven to 425 degrees. Put your roasting pan in the oven to heat it. Cut (or snap) the ends off your asparagus, slice your shallots and your garlic. When the pan is hot and your oven is warmed take the pan out and lay the asparagus across the pan with the shallots and garlic. Roast them for 12-14 minutes. While this is happening take out your food processor and add everything else to it. The chicken stock, the avocados the salt and pepper the bacon grease and the lemon juice. When the asparagus is done roasting add those to the food processor and puree. Don't puree the stuff that's going to end up garnishes. Leave a few spears of asparagus and some slices of avocado and shallots out. Serve quickly in bowls and enjoy! Garnish how you see appropriate.

Shallot and Pickled Asparagus Bloody Mary

Years ago I had a weekly Sunday tradition where I would go have Bloody Mary's and play pool all afternoon in an Irish Pub. There was this lovely but haggard old bartender that made the best Bloody Mary's I've ever had. Mine still don't compare to my recollection of hers. After I watched her make one after another she eventually shared her recipe with me. I always liked the drink because at noon on a bright California Sunday it helped to relieve your head of a late Saturday night. As your self-induced cognitive paralysis set in the Bloody Mary was there to help lubricate your mind. To get it going again. It acted as a catalyst to encourage the synapses in your brain to begin to fire. As thought began to return to your mind you could again have conversations that included more that just groans and grunts. When I had a sufficient amount of elixir my friends and I would wander next door to eat Mexican food.

Here's my Bloody Mary recipe.

Ingredients: 

Most of this list is going to be to taste:
Salt
Pepper
Vodka
Horse Radish
Tobasco
Shallot
Pickled Asparagus
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato Juice
 

 

Instructions: 

The way to properly do this is to mix all of your ingredients and then add the tomato juice last. I use tomato juice instead of Bloody Mary mix because I like my list of ingredients more than I like Mr. T's or a store bought brand. The first thing you do is to salt the rim of your cup. You can do this by spreading some water around the rim with your finger and then dipping it into a small plate that you've covered with salt. I prefer sea salt. Fill the cup about half way up with ice. The size of the cup is directly correlated to the level of ambition you have for that day. If the cup is too big you're probably not going to get a lot done. From there I'll add vodka, Worcestershire, grated shallots, pepper and Tabasco. The last ingredient I'll add before the tomato juice is horse radish. About a 3rd of a teaspoon.  I'll use the spoon to mix it all up. Like I said before it's mostly to taste. I will typically do about 30 to 40% of the cup with ice and vodka. Two to three shakes of Worcestershire and Tabasco. A few shakes of salt even though the rim of the glass is salted. Lots of pepper. Just fill the rest of the glass with the tomato juice and garnish with a slice of shallot and a pickled asparagus.

P.S.
After having this recipe proof read I made the argument that it's not really a recipe. Bloody Mary's are a very subjective taste. I can't tell you how you like yours. I like mine to be overly spicy. There are just going to be some things you need to figure out. 

Shallot and Blanched Asparagus Salad

This is a really easy salad recipe. I'm unsure if recipe is the accurate word when you're talking about salads. It's more of a guideline. You can follow this exactly or follow your whims. I will be truly impressed if you can screw up a salad.


Ingredients:

Lettuce
Blanched Asparagus
Shallots
Sun dried tomatoes
Red bell pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive oil






There's a long-standing philosophical debate that divides salad culture regarding the basic preparation of salads. I think it even predates Socrates. He didn't have the audacity to get involved with this heated discussion and I will take his cowardly example. Whether you want to have all of the ingredients prepped and ready before you start to embark upon your creation or if you want to start with some ingredients in the bowl and simply add to your conglomeration of ingredients is up to you entirely. Each technique speaks volumes about you as a person and I refuse to weigh in to either side of the argument. You either make salads like Camus or you make salad like Kant. You will be judged accordingly.

Tips:


For this salad I used the olive oil that was in the jar of sun dried tomatoes I had for a light salad dressing. When you do that a few times you can just add more olive oil to your jar and let it get infused with the sun dried tomatoes.



Instructions:

Take the aforementioned ingredients and put them in a bowl. Once all the ingredients are in the bowl you should drizzle the olive oil over the top of it all.

Blanching Asparagus

I could make up reason as to why I neglected you. The justifications would would end up being transparent. I respect you too much for that. Mostly it's because I doubt you even noticed. Nice days in Portland aren't very common so I've been out galavanting whimsically instead of taking the 20 minutes it takes to write one of these. We can both acknowledge that I am selfish. I'm o.k. with that.

So my next recipe isn't a recipe. It's more of a precursor to my next recipe. It's delicious and simple and difficult to ruin. If you've read any of my other posts then you should know by now: that's what I'm all about.

Ingredients:
Asparagus
Maybe some salt
Water
Ice



Instructions:

Boil some water on the stove. You can add salt to increase the rate of the water boiling. (Does that actually work?) When the water is boiling throw in the asparagus you want to cook. When it's cooked for about 2 to 5 minutes then take out your asparagus and shock them with a bowl of ice water. You can drain your asparagus with a strainer. I've used tongs to pick them out and drop them into the ice water. I trust your judgement. Your asparagus will be cooked and delicious and still maintain some crispness without being hot. Perfect for salads.

Thai Yellow Curry w/ Shallots and Asparagus

Even the leftovers look good

 Last weekend I went out for Thai food with my girlfriend. I ordered the Thai yellow curry which turned out to be as delicious as expected. Midway through my meal though I had a vision of how to make my meal even more delicious. You may find it hard to believe that I eat meals that are unrelated to Asparagus or Shallots and unfortunately sometimes I do. This generally leads me to having a recurring epiphany. Each time it happens it strikes me with the same sensation of childlike wonder and amazement. "This is good," I'll typically say, "but what if..." I'm sure you get the picture. The only part of the scenario that isn't really easy to believe is each time I have this revelation it's met with openness and encouragement even from an understanding person in my life. She is subjected to a lot of asparagus.

Do you ever need to revitalize your asparagus? Try This!

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs
2 cups of chicken stock (homemade if at all possible)
2 shallots (diced)
1 medium onion (diced)
1/2 bunch of asparagus (cut into pieces)
1/2 red bell pepper (chopped)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 1/2 red potatoes (cubed)
1 1/2 cans of coconut milk
Salt/Pepper to taste
2 cups of jasmine-scented white rice
1 cup of water








                                                                                                        Instructions:

Pour some olive oil into a stock pot that's being heated on your stove. Put your chicken thighs in skin down. I recommend using chicken thighs because I feel like they're the part of the chicken with the most flavor. Use salt and pepper generously. Brown both sides of your thighs. Remove the chicken and set them aside. You can add your spices to the pan to toast them. I forgot to do this and my dinner still turned out. Put about half the spices in the pan and save the other half for later. Add your diced up onion and half of your diced up shallots to saute them. Pour some of your chicken stock into the pan and deglaze. Scrape up all of the brown pieces of chicken that are sticking to the bottom of your pan. Add your diced onion and half of your diced shallots and saute them. When they're starting to look good and everything is smelling amazing, put your chicken back in and add your chicken stock. Your chicken is going to take a while to braise. I recommend not doing this at 10 pm on a Sunday night. While your chicken is braising you should get your coconut rice going. It's really easy, just put some jasmine-scented white rice in a sauce pan add some water and some coconut milk. If you don't feel like measuring things (which I often don't) then just cap off your rice with about 3/4 of an inch of liquid above the rice. If you want it to be sweeter, add more coconut milk. If you want it to be less sweet, add more water. As the chicken approaches the end of the braising step, drop in your potatoes. They're going to need more time to cook than the remainder of your vegetables. When the chicken is tender and falling off the bone it's time to add the rest of your shallots, your asparagus, your bell pepper, the rest of your spices and the coconut milk. When you do this you should remove the chicken and pick the meat off the bone. Or you can buy boneless chicken. I didn't do either and I thought it turned out fine. At this point it's not going to take long to get the asparagus nice and tender. Once everything is done to your satisfaction then serve with the rice and enjoy!

Topped with a little fresh cilantro from our garden and a lemon

Fettucini in a White Wine Reduction w/ Shallots, Asparagus, and Shrimp

Despite the theme of this blog you may have had a difficult time inferring that I like to use the same ingredients in different venues, but that isn't the case. There's a few things that I like to cook with that I think can usually make any dish exponentially better. Shrimp happens to be one of these ingredients. I'm writing this introduction because I already have a recipe that has shrimp, shallots, and asparagus. I'm going to be adding another one today, and not surprisingly: I still have more to add later. This is a really easy pasta dish that you can put together quickly. There are times when you can be in the mood for long drawn out recipes and then there's most of the time, when you aren't. Subsequently this recipe is perfect for most of the time.

Ingredients:
3/4 box of Fettucini
3/4 of a lb of shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 medium shallot, sliced
1/2 bunch of asparagus, chopped
1/2 cup of white wine (whatever is open)
Parmesan cheese to taste
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt to taste




Instructions:

 The first step to this meal is putting water in a large sauce pan on an alternate burner than what you're going to be using to cook your shallots, asparagus and shrimp. This is going to be for the Fettucini. The water coming to a boil and the pasta cooking are the things about this dish that takes the longest. (When the water is coming to a boil, add the pasta.) Then just like when you're making the risotto what you want to do is heat up a large shallow pan. Add your two tablespoons of olive oil and your sliced shallot. Cook your shallot until it becomes iridescent but not browned. Take your shallots out of the pan. Add your 1/2 cup of wine and make sure the heat is low. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get any remnants of shallot to mix in with your wine. Let the wine slowly simmer and reduce. When the wine is coming to the consistency you're looking for (don't let it all evaporate, feel free to add more if it begins to) you want to add the asparagus and the cooked shallots. Cook those for a few minutes or until the asparagus is almost getting soft. Add your shrimp. Salt to taste. What you're looking to do is have everything finish at the same time. The shrimp is the one ingredient that really shows when it's overdone. When the shrimp is turning pink on both sides and your asparagus is cooked but still firm and crispy, then hopefully your pasta is being drained. After I drain the pasta I usually like to add about another tablespoon of olive oil to it and mix it all together. Then incorporate all of your pasta to your shallow sauce pan and mix it all together. I usually add a little Parmesan cheese and mix that into the dish as well, in addition to adding some after plating. Feel open to the idea of cooking some garlic along with the shallots and the beginning, or squirting some lemon juice over it all before you add the pasta in the end. You can even add a tomato that has been chopped into large pieces when you add the shrimp. This is your dish and I hope you enjoy it.
 

Grilled New York Steak w/ Rainbow Chard, Sopressata wrapped Asparagus and Shallots

Slowly and consistently as the months progress towards summer our weather here in Portland is turning around. Last weekend was the first chance I had to break out my barbeque this year. Grilling is the first way I learned to cook and it's subsequently the first thing I refer back to. If I'm ever wondering how I should do something in a kitchen I'll consider how I would do it on a barbeque first. The simplicity of an open flame is something that the rudimentary cave man inside of us all can easily relate to. Living in a condo/apartment isn't entirely conducive to the grilling lifestyle most of us try to maintain. I am sadly relegated to a small charcoal grill where every square inch of cooking space is valuable. I envy those of you with the opulence of space. I appreciate what I have, but it would be an easy and accurate accusation to say I've planned entire camping trips solely because I wanted to cook over an open flame. As the sun was slowly starting to wane towards the West Hills I set up our barbeque and this is what I threw together:




Ingredients:

1 New York steak (or Ribeye)
1 Bunch of Asparagus
1 Chopped shallot
7 slices of Sopressata
1 bunch of Rainbow Chard
3 tablespoons of butter sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

I usually end up buying huge steaks that most people can't eat by themselves. Split the large steak into as many servings as is reasonable. People's definition of reasonable seem to vary so you should generally trust your own instincts. When the steak is still cold add a coat of salt and pepper to both sides. You shouldn't put the steak on a cold grill. Wait until your charcoal or your gas has heated up your grill to an adequate temperature. While your grill is heating up you should take a long sheet of aluminum foil and lay it out flat. Add the chard in a row all along the bottom. This is going to be a bed of chard. Add salt and pepper to taste. You may even want to consider some garlic powder or garlic cloves if you're a garlic lover. At this point you should start cutting thin slices of butter and interspersing them throughout the chard. The butter is going to add flavor to it and keep it from drying out. You can use Olive Oil if you prefer. Take your asparagus and chop or snap the ends off of the bottom. I like to use three at a time. Take three pieces of asparagus and wrap them with the sopressata. Put the folding ends on the bottom so it stays together, and lay them into the bed of chard. You can use a toothpick to hold them all together if you like. I wouldn't put them too close to the pieces of butter though. The fat from the sopressata is going to soak into the asparagus so you won't need the butter for them. You can also use prosciutto or any other cured ham. Salami could even work. When that's all done you should put your chopped shallot across the entire thing. If your piece of aluminum foil isn't long enough to fold over itself then add an equivalent sized sheet across the top. Roll the corners and the edges into themselves. Try to make sure everything is inside of your aluminum foil before you do this. I forgot the shallots and had to redo it. You need to make sure your seals are tight. There is going to be liquid forming at the bottom when it's cooking and you don't want it to spill onto your fire. This is going to be melted butter and you want your chard to soak in it. It's delicious.

The steak should only be flipped once and should cook roughly for about 9 minutes on each side. This all depends on the thickness of your steak. Right before you think you should flip your steak is when you should put your vegetables on the grill. They're going to take less time than your meat. There's a way to tell if your steak is done without cutting it open. Poke the center of your steak with tongs or with a fork. If the consistency feels the same as the consistency of meat in between your forefinger and your thumb, then it's medium rare. If the consistency of the meat feels like it's the same as the pad of your thumb then it's well done. If you are wanting it rare then you can probably figure out that the less time it's spending on the fire, the more rare it's going to be. When you're approaching the end it doesn't hurt to open up your aluminum foil to check it out a bit.

 

When you feel like you've gotten everything cooked to the point you want it. You should remove it from the grill and plate it. Now eat!

Delicious

Pizza w/ shallots and asparagus

From the perspective of a misanthrope food is one of the only things that I feel I really have in common with most of humanity. It's a common denominator that we can base a connection off of. Throughout the day I've found that most of the conversations I have with people are based around food. It's mostly me bringing it up and sustaining it. I get nods of approval, disinterest and on occasion I can get someone captivated. Although I do admit that doesn't happen very often when I mention I have a blog about asparagus. It's typically less painful than idle chatter about the weather. Which here in Portland mostly consists of which varying degree of how tired you are of the rain.

I don't understand people who aren't "foodies" or who don't have an interest in food. It's such a significant part of peoples' lives that demands daily attention. Dinner parties, dates and depending on the circumstance even hanging out with friends are all socially food-centric activities that we all engage in. Your diet can be such a strong influence in your life that it can dictate who you spend time with socially. There's socially conscious vegans or vegetarians who can bring morality to the dinner table for you. There's ethnic associations with food where people connect with each other because they have the same heritage and they enjoy the same dishes that remind them of the same things. Basically what I'm getting at is food is one thing that brings people together. It has that affect on me anyway.

When I cook I need someone to cook for. If I were eating alone I would just get a burrito from a local taqueria and call it a night. This has happened before. I end up eating at the same place 4 nights out of the week. When I have someone to cook for though that's when I really want to excel. It's embarrassing but my enjoyment of the dish is based on subtle looks and gestures of the person I want to impress. If they don't enjoy the meal then I'm distraught and I end up enjoying it less. I wouldn't say I don't enjoy it, just not nearly as much.

For this next post I'm going to do pizza. Pizza is something that most people love but some of them can't enjoy anymore. The person I cook for is my girlfriend and she's gluten intolerant. She's a much better cook than I am so I'm going to be linking to her blog on this post for how to make the pizza crust.  If you aren't gluten intolerant then that's alright, my post still has amazing pizza. You should feel free to try some gluten-less pizza crust though. I've worked in a few pizza kitchens and this is one of the best I've had.

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust:
http://glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com/2012/03/gluten-free-pizza-crust-recipe.html

Pizza w/ salami, asparagus, shallots and bell pepper

12 spears of asparagus
8 oz of mozzarella cheese grated
1 shallot sliced
3/4 lb of sausage
8 oz of pasta sauce or 1/2 can of tomato paste
1 tomato







Instructions:

This is a really easy recipe and you can pretty much add whatever you want to the toppings. It's pizza. You're only limited by your imagination. If you're using the pasta sauce as your pizza sauce you want to put it in a sauce pan on medium heat and let it reduce to the proper thickness. If' you're using the tomato paste then just open the can and start spreading it onto the dough. I will say, if you are using the tomato paste I like to put sliced tomato on the paste, under the cheese for texture and flavor. It's also a good idea to sprinkle some salt, pepper and basil on the tomato paste to add some flavor. As you're spreading your sauce onto your preheated dough make sure to have even amounts of it distributed through the entire thing. When I used to make pizza for a job the typical way was to ladle it into the middle and then spread it out in a circular motion, making your red circle grow in circumference with every revolution of your ladle. When this is done to your satisfaction you should spread your cheese out across the entire thing. Add other toppings. When I'm using spinach or arugula I like to put them underneath the meat and other vegetables. I like the asparagus to all point inwards towards each other. Sprinkle the shallots over the whole thing. You're getting the idea. You can add the toppings however you like. This pizza is for you, or really for whomever you're cooking it for. When the pizza is topped to your satisfaction then place it in your oven that's been preheated to 500 degrees. If you're using a cast iron pan like pictured then it will usually take 11-14 minutes to cook. If you're using a pizza stone (like one I recently got) then it should take a little less time. It took mine 9 minutes last week. When the crust has browned and looks crispy and the cheese has browned a bit, then you're good. Pull it out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes. Then enjoy pizza!