Tag Archives: quick

Parmesan Orzo with Asparagus

I was immediately inspired by this recipe from Tasty Kitchen. I’d only had orzo once before in my life, and it was in a very fancy dining room at Indiana University called the Tudor Room. I associate orzo with elegance, and the thought of making such an mahvellous little dish in only 20 minutes was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Add to that my love of asparagus and garlic, and you understand that it was quite simply meant to be!

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1/2 lb orzo pasta
1 bunch asparagus
Zest from 1 lemon
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pasta water
2 cloves garlic
4 TBS olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper, to taste

Boil up some salted water, and cook the orzo until it’s al dente.

My package said it would take 9 minutes for al dente pasta, and it was right. Before draining it, measure out some pasta water . . .

. . . and set it aside.

In the meantime, snap the tough ends off the asparagus, and chop it up into 2 inch lengths.

Heat up 2 TBS of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the asparagus . . .

. . . and cook for about 8 minutes, until crisp tender.

For some reason I always want to punch myself in the face after using the descriptor ‘crisp tender,’ but I can think of no other phrase that sums up that ideal quality of the perfectly cooked vegetable so precisely. At least no concise phrase–we could always go with ‘not mushy/schmooshy but not undercooked either, slightly bitey but not tough, with a soft crunch, but by ‘soft’ I don’t mean ‘soggy’ and by ‘crunch’ I don’t mean like a potato chip.’

Anyway, make sure to season the asparagus with salt and pepper as it cooks.

Set the cooked asparagus aside.

At this point, I used the same skillet to cook up a couple steaks.

A little more prep, and we’re ready to get this served up. Locate the nearest pair of man-hands, and kindly request that they grate up mountains of Parmesan.

More! More! I said ‘mountains,’ not ‘one lonely hillside’!

That’s better. Thank you, man-hands.

Zest the lemon:

Pause to inhale the wonderful tangy smell of that golden pile. Mmmm.

Finally, put the garlic through a garlic press or mince it up really, really finely.

Now it’s just a matter of throwing everything together. Return the cooked orzo to the pot. Stir in the Parmesan, garlic, lemon zest, 2 remaining tablespoons of olive oil, asparagus, and pasta water.

Add plenty of salt and pepper, to taste. Et voilà, mon petit chou-chou!

You don’t mind if I call you my ‘little chou-chou’, do you?

Great. I didn’t think so.

Serve with fish, steak, chicken . . .

. . . or alone!

Some shrimp stirred in wouldn’t be bad either, now that I think about it.

Load on the extra Parmesan, if you so desire.

Woohoo! The Tudor Room no longer has a monopoly on my orzo experience.

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Creamed Corn

This Tasty Kitchen recipe (from this blogger) practically jumped off the page at me. As you all know very well, I love anything with heavy cream, and the picture of all those delightful little yellow kernels encased in creaminess was just too much to resist. It only takes about 15 minutes to toss together, with no chopping involved–everything just gets mixed in a pot. And the results . . . oh, man.

I should specify that it only serves 4 if those 4 people eat a ‘normal’ serving and don’t go hog wild like we did. But just to be safe . . . why don’t you go ahead and count on going hog wild.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk
½ tsp salt
1 TBS sugar
16 oz frozen corn (sweet white corn if possible)
1 TBS butter
1 TBS flour
1/8 tsp black pepper

Pour the cream and milk into a pot . . .

. . . and add the sugar and salt too.

Bring the mixture to a boil, and add the frozen corn.

Bring it to a boil again, stirring occasionally.

Toss in some black pepper while you’re at it.

As the corn heats up, put the butter in a little bowl . . .

. . . and melt it in the microwave. Stir in the tablespoon of flour . . .

. . . and there you have your thickening paste. As soon as the corn/milk mixture is boiling, add the paste to the pot:

Turn down the heat to medium-low, and cook that corn until thick, stirring frequently. This will happen quickly, in only a few minutes.

Voilà! Now this part is important: taste the corn, and add more salt and pepper as needed. I needed more of both.

Without tasting as I go, I would be a lost soul in my own kitchen.

Dig in violently:

Are you witnessing this creaminess, people?

This is the perfect low-effort side dish that also happens to taste gloriously good.

Or is it the other way around? A gloriously good dish that happens to be low-effort?

I guess that depends on your degree of kitchen dedication. Sometimes, mine can be . . . quite low. Hence the primacy of ‘low-effort’ at this particular moment.

This recipe could easily be doubled (or dare I say tripled?) and brought to a potluck, where it will quickly make your enemies your friends and make your frenemies do the jig. Twice. While standing on their heads.

Though I have yet to figure out what exactly a ‘frenemy’ is.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Creamed Corn