Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter

If you ask me, anything with browned butter is pretty delicious.  And throw in some rich flavors like balsamic and soy and it makes an unbelievably incredible sauce.  Oh and the asparagus is pretty good too.  Although in my mind it's main purpose is a means to transport the sauce.  Okay, I'm not giving it enough credit; the asparagus is pretty good too.  No, it's great.  And you may now know my penchant for roasted vegetables.

This recipe has been in my repertoire for quite some time.  My first food magazine subscription was given to me as a Christmas present by my now sister-in-law.  It was a subscription to Cooking Light Magazine, which is one of her favorites.  I became engrossed, I bought the annual cookbooks, perused the website on a regular basis and thumbed through every last page when the magazine came.  This recipe appeared twice in the nine years or so that I've had a subscription.  The first time it made just a regular appearance as a side dish and the second time was in an anniversary issue featuring the 'best' recipes.  Yup, I already knew that.

I've modified it quite a bit from the original so don't let the 'light' label fool you.  Made in it's original stingy sauce proportions I'm sure it is light, but since I usually at least double the Cooking Light sauce recipes I'm not sure I can call it 'light' any longer.  Oh well, that's not what I was going for anyway, and it's not as though I would call this a super indulgent recipe or anything; we are talking about asparagus here!  Plus, it's the perfect time of year to make it.  Springy, but still a little chill in the air and since the sauce is a bit rich it goes well with the cooler weather.  I would highly, highly recommend having a side dish of rice or perhaps roasted potatoes as to soak up the sauce that the asparagus leaves behind.  I can see a rice pilaf with wild rice, parsley and pine nuts or maybe some steamed red potatoes with fresh herbs and a little olive oil going really well with it.

There are so many reasons why I wanted to make this recipe.  For one, I promised you a spring recipe and this is one of my favorites, the sauce is unbelievable and I am super excited about the new produce box that I signed up for.  In it this week came asparagus, among other interesting findings.  If you live in the Chicago area you probably have the option to do it as well.  Or I'm sure wherever you live there is a CSA that offers it and I would highly recommend.  Actually, maybe I'm not in a position to recommend just yet seeing as it just arrived mere hours ago, but I'm pretty certain I'm going to love it.  I already had such a good time taking out my cookbooks to find recipes for each of the ingredients.  Most people would probably just 'wing-it', but I'm not the 'wing-it' type in any way, shape, or form in any aspect of my life.  Plus, then I wouldn't have the fun of finding new recipes to make with it.  All of the ingredients are local, in-season and many if not all, are organic.  And although I'm pretty revved up about this whole thing I have to admit I don't even know what some of the ingredients are.  Some I have heard of, but certainly wouldn't recognize and in fact I'm still trying to distinguish between the nettles and sorrel.  I'm thinking at this point I might just do something with them both.  There you go, how's that for 'winging' it!

After all this cookbook/internet/cooking binder recipe searching I had a pretty good menu planned out.  Although of course there was one ingredient that I didn't have to ponder what I would do with.  And you can probably guess which ingredient I was most excited about seeing as it's the one that I am making first.  So I watched my front door like a little kid today waiting for my produce box and finally, it's here!  It's here!

I know, I can get carried away.... but you haven't tasted it yet.

Trish's Tips:  Browned butter can be a bit tricky.  I oddly didn't have a problem with it for a long time, but then did manage to burn it, and now I can get a bit scared and not truly brown it.  But I say go for it, what's the worst that can happen, you waste 3 minutes of your time and a few tablespoons of butter?  Here's a link to some pretty detailed instructions on it.  (By the way, that photo above isn't the browned butter, that would be WAY burnt butter.  That's the browned butter with the balsamic and soy mixed in.)

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter
Adapted from Cooking Light September 2001

Ingredients:
1 - 1 1/2 lb asparagus spears
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 TBL butter
1 TBL soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
cooking spray or olive oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.
Arrange asparagus on a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 400 for 6-10 minutes depending on the thickness of your asparagus.

Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat; cook 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.  Drizzle over asparagus, tossing well to coat.

Grilled Eggplant and Goat Cheese Salad

Excuse my absence for the last couple of weeks here.  I've been in a food rut.  I know, even me.  I think most people go through it, but me, not so much.  Usually long after everyone is sick of cooking I want to make something else that involves a food processor or several steps.  But it's true; I barely cooked dinner for a good two weeks straight.  The low point was last week when I had a scoop of ice cream for dinner in a coffee mug with some chocolate milk (a sort of milkshake?) and a handful of nuts for dinner.  I just haven't been feeling very inspired.  I breezed through two of my cooking magazines without hardly dog-earing any of the pages, which is the sign to move it to the coveted cooking binder, and even the old favorites seemed so boring.  Nothing sounded good.  I don't know what the root of it is... maybe it's the time of year.  I'm sick to death of stews and soups and heavy winter dishes, and although all of the cooking magazines the last couple of months were filled cover to cover with recipes for spring dishes of peas, artichokes and asparagus I STILL wasn't inspired...

Then last Sunday; I forced myself to make a grocery list which included mostly remake recipes that you have seen here and unfortunately nothing new and exciting.  But then I saw a forecast for two 80-degree days in Chicago... IN APRIL!  I'm loving it, so I completely bypassed all the spring recipes to the summer ones; beef stew one week and grilled eggplant salad the next (with some Thai take-out and ice-cream dinners in between.)  In my defense as my friend Marcie says, we don't really have a spring here.  It's snowy one day and then 80 a week later, who knows maybe I'll still get around to sharing another favorite of mine that I've been waiting to share with you.  It's an asparagus recipe, so spring is obviously the best time to share it with you.  I had written this eggplant salad recipe (and the asparagus one too) on a list of recipes to post here months ago and couldn't wait to share it, but since it's a grilled salad, February or March just didn't seem like the right time to post it.  Although an 80-degree day seemed like the perfect time because we're all in the mood for summer, right?  Especially those of us who live through frigid, snowy winters.

This is by far one of my most favorite recipes.  In fact whenever Johnny will see an eggplant as we're unpacking the groceries he knows it means I will be making this salad.  The last two summers it appeared just about once a week on the menu.  And although I like it best as it is written here, there are many variations as well.  If I don't have basil or mint I will just use parsley.  I've substituted shaved parmesan for the goat cheese.  I've grilled it on a grill pan indoors, but this is really the best way.  And once you make it once you don't even really need a recipe, it's more the combination of ingredients that makes it great.  You can add more or less of whatever you prefer.

So go ahead, break out the grill... or grill pan.  We have spring fever here in the Reynolds' household errr... summer fever, or whatever... Whatever you call it I'm sure you are feeling the same way!  Stay tuned for some spring recipes!

Trish's Tips:  There are many recipes that talk about salting the eggplant to remove the bitterness, but I never do it.  Just skip it.  Japanese eggplants are also delicious with this, I used to only use them, but they are a lot more expensive and not as readily available as your standard eggplant, so that's what I call for here.  If you aren't a fan of goat cheese, shaved parmesan is also delicious.  Eggplant is like a sponge and will literally suck up all of the oil that you give it.  You could grill it without but the oil gives it a nice brownness that you won't get without.  Just be sure to ration yourself or you will end up using a whole bottle.  I pour half the oil in a bowl to get me through brushing one side, then pour the other half in the bowl and brush the other side.  This can be served hot, room temperature or cold.  I like it for entertaining because you don't have to worry about keeping it warm, but if you did want to you could grill it first then keep it warm in the oven.  I like to toast my pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat, but keep a close watch as they do burn quickly.  Then I will put them in a jar in the freezer to use whenever I want, that way I don't have to toast each time.

Grilled Eggplant and Goat Cheese Salad
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants, ends trimmed and cut into 1/2-3/4 inch wide length-wise (into circles)
6 TBL olive oil, separated
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup thinly sliced basil,
3 TBL thinly sliced fresh mint leaves
1 TBL balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Heat grill or place a grill plan over medium-high heat.  Place the eggplant slices on a sheet pan and brush with 2 TBL of the olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Flip and repeat on the other side with 2 more TBL of olive oil and more salt and pepper.

Grill until tender and grill marks appear about 4 minutes per side.

Place the eggplant slices on a serving platter.  Drizzle with more olive oil (1-2 TBL) and drizzle balsamic vinegar to your liking.  Sprinkle with the pine nuts, goat cheese, basil and mint.