With mushroom and asparagus season underway, this was a great challenge. Joining those ingredients were a strong cast of feta cheese, diced tomatoes (I used Red Gold with basil/oregano), thin crust pizza crust, and artichoke hearts. I decided on a simple calzone.
I split the asparagus lengthwise and sauted them in olive oil along with the tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. Once these were slightly tender, I simply put them with a layer of feta cheese into the crust, folded and pleated it closed and baked in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
The savory taste combined with the subtle sweetness of the crust and the tanginess of the feta cheese made for a nice all-around flavor. Good job challengers!
Last Friday night I was given a challenge that turned from the initial idea of a dessert of simplicity to one of decadence. Without further ado, here's a quick yet elegant dessert for you to try sometime.
Ingredients: an angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream, dark chocolate chips, and light rum.
Split the angel food cake horizontally and allow it to soak in light rum for a number of hours. Melt the chocolate chips in order to drizzle over the dessert. Slice a strawberry into thin pieces.
Assembly: one layer of angel food cake, a bit of whipped cream, a layer of strawberries, the top layer of of angel food cake, more whipped cream, a drizzle of chocolate and a strawberry on top. Drizzle a bit more chocolate on the plate and around the piece of cake. Drop a few chocolate chips around with a couple more slices of strawberry. Extremely easy and quick.
When the ingredients came rolling in this weekend, I could see a pattern emerging with some great Asian features. Shrimp, coconut, green pepper, ginger...yep, Asian. And then the curve came--potatoes. Let the thinking begin.
After a bit of pondering, I came up with Asian gingered shrimp with green pepper with a side dish of shredded ginger-coconut potato patties.
Chop one large green bell pepper into bite-sized pieces and stir-fry in a bit of vegetable oil. Add 2t. Chinese ginger. While the pepper is cooking, shell and remove the mud vein from raw shrimp. Once the pepper starts to soften, add the shrimp, another teaspoon of ginger, and 1t. salt. Let this simmer for around 10 minutes.
For the side dish: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and finely shred potatoes; cook until soft, add a pinch of salt. Drain and add in 2t. of ground ginger and 1/2 c. shredded coconut. Combine the ingredients. Spray a baking sheet with Pam and add 1T. of the mixture in flattened dollops to the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until the coconut just starts to lightly brown.
This is a fairly economical dish, not difficult to make, and has a nice, light flavor. Give it a try.
