One of my slightly ill defined roles on our household is to ensure that my lovely wife has something to eat for lunch during the week while her ever faithful cook is off hammering out spaghetti code. In my haphazard pursuit of said task I recently made an Asparagus Frittata loosely adapted from a recipe in Recipes: The Cooking of Italy from Time Life Books published 1968.

Parboil around 5 large Asparagus (I like the large ones best.)
Fry sliced Asparagus in olive oil until slightly browned.
Add 1/2 sliced onion and continue frying until onion is translucent.
Cool.

Beat 4 eggs to as if making scrambled eggs with Salt and pepper to taste.
Add the Asparagus and onions to eggs.

In 10" Iron frying pan heat 3 TB butter until foam subsides.
Add the egg and vegetables and cook until the eggs are mostly  set and remove pan from heat.

Slice 2 tomatoes thinly.
Top the egg and vegetables with the sliced tomatoes and over each tomato add a slice of Mozzarella cheese and a handful of chiffonade of Basil or some other herb.

Melt the cheese and ensure the eggs are set to your satisfaction under a broiler. The eggs should be able to be lifted from the pan with a spatula.

My wife said the dish was delicious.

Broccoli salad


2 Cups Broccoli cut into flowerets.

1 bunch green onions slivered

1 large or two small carrots slivered

1 Red Pepper deveined and deseeded sliced thinly

2 Tbs sesame seed roasted.

Dressing:

3 TB Sesame oil

1 TB Chili Garlic Sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 Tb soy sauce

1 Tb black vinegar

Bake broccoli at 400 until just tender

Cool and combine with the green onions, carrots and red pepper

Dress and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes serve with roasted sesame seeds on top.

Sunday -- Recovering From A cold

My wife has just returned home from a trip. Cannot convince her to go out to lunch. She is busy with taxes and has been eating our for sometime. I agreed to make her Cream of Cauliflower soup. Like most soups I begin with:
sweat onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
I used 1/2 red onion and three cloves garlic. Sweated with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.
Add Cauliflower and stock
I used 3/4 head of large cauliflower and "No Chicken Broth" with a pinch of dried oregano
Simmer until Cauliflower is soft

With immersion blender, cuisinart or blender blend until smooth.

I use and immersion blender. My wife blanches snow white whenever I do as I have had several mishaps when I forget to unplug the thing.
Add salt, pepper milk and cream to taste
I used about 1/4 cream and about the same amount of non-fat milk.


This is what we ate for lunch
































For dinner I made seared tombo tuna with an anchovie cream sause and a green salad.

For me the most important aspect of making a green salad is drying the lettuce. I use a salad spinner (sadly the spinner I had for over 20 years that I bought for $1 at a garage sale gave up the ghost and we bought a new model).
1 head Boston lettuce washed and dried.
1/2 red onion marinated in industrial strength vinegar with a little sugar
1/2 Red pepper sliced thinly
1/2 English Cucumber seeded and chopped into bite sized chunks.

Salad dressing
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 - 1/2 cup champagne vinegar
2 TB Dijon Mustard
Whisk together and use as little as possible to dress the salad.

To sear the tuna I use an iron frying pan and heat it until it smokes, grind a liberal portion of black pepper directly onto the pan and put the fish (no oil) onto the  hot pan.

After 2-3 minutes I turn the fish over and cook another minute or so until it is still raw in the center.
For this dinner I sliced the seared tuna into strips.

I made a sauce by sauteing about 3/4 cup diced onions until translucent added minced anchovies and about 3/4 cup heavy cream. I boiled the cream down by about 1/3 until thick. Off heat I added 1/2 teaspoon mustard.