Asparagus with Prosciutto & Chevre, recipes Recipe
I said recently that mon mari prefers his asparagus roasted, with just a touch of butter, salt and pepper.
That is absolutely true for ‘Asparagus, the Vegetable’.
For ‘Asparagus, the Starter’, this is his favorite.
In spring we often have asparagus for both the first course and the vegetable.
I’ve heard that there are restaurants in Germany that have entire menus of asparagus for every course.
Mon mari‘s dream holiday
In the meantime, he’s happy with this.
I garnished it this time with a bit of spinach tossed with a Lemon Vinaigrette. A few olives, sliced cherry tomatoes, more asparagus…. all would work.
Asparagus with Prosciutto & Chevre
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 12 asparagus spears- thickness of a pen is best; 4″ (10cm) tips only
- 1/2 box (2.5oz, 75gr) soft chevre (goat cheese) (the little cartons of creamy goat cheese, 5oz (150gr) Chavrie in the U.S., Chevraux in Europe)
- 1 tbs snipped fresh basil
- 1 tbs snipped fresh chives
- 3 thin slices of dry-cured ham, Prosciutto, Serrano, Bayonne
Instructions:
Bring a medium pan of water to boil.
Blanch the asparagus tips for 2 minutes if slender, 3 minutes if thick.
Drain and rinse well with cold water.
Put chevre in small bowl, add basil, chives and stir to mix.
Cut the ham in half the short way – you should have a slice that is about 2″ X 3″ (5cm X 7.5cm) – not important but you get the idea.
Put a heaping teaspoonful of chevre mix on ham slice, add 2 asparagus spears so that half is sticking above the ham, and roll ham around asparagus and chevre so you have a little bundle with the asparagus tops sticking out the top.
Repeat with remaining ingredients. Put 3 bundles on a plate and serve.
Can be made a couple of hours ahead and refrigerated.
Last week, when we were offline, I spent a bit of time looking at cook books.
I have a lot of cook books of all types: church cook books, restaurant cook books, compilations such as Cooking Light, standards like Joy of Cooking as well as cook books by cuisine (French, Italian, Chinese, etc.), category (salads, beef, vegetables, grains, etc.) and cooking method (pressure cooker, roasting, barbecue, etc.)
My oldest cook book dates from the 1930′s and the newest is on my Kindle.
The majority of them (I have not checked each and every one) list the ingredients with the instructions either listed or in paragraph form, each step a separate paragraph.
Except the one I have by James Beard.
Risi Pisi
Cook 1 1/2 cups rice in your favorite way. Meanwhile heat 2 cans of very small French peas in their own juices, drain and add 1/2 cup or more of melted butter. Combine and toss the peas and rice well, sprinkle with a bit of finely chopped fresh parsley, and serve.
Wild Rice
This is not truly a rice, but a wild grain the Indians gather by hand, which accounts for its exorbitant price. If cooked in the manner you use for rice, it usually results in a soggy mess which everybody exclaims over because it would be criminal to say that such an expensive mistake has occurred. Try this instead. Boil enough water to cover the rice with. Let stand for 5 minutes or so. Pour off and repeat the process until the rice is tender, but not mushy. You might add sweet butter and salt.
Most of the recipes are quite long…. I just picked two short examples.
I don’t think James Beard would do well in Google search….
What a shame.
It’s fun reading, though.
Last update on May 16, 2014