{"id":1237,"date":"2006-10-23T15:38:21","date_gmt":"2006-10-23T19:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cleek.lunarpages.com\/blogs\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2006-10-23T15:38:21","modified_gmt":"2006-10-23T19:38:21","slug":"dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1237","title":{"rendered":"Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was reading Baloon Juice, and came across this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.balloon-juice.com\/?p=7498\">salmon recipe<\/a>. It sounded good. And since I made broiled salmon with grilled prosciutto-wrapped asparagus with lemon-caper dressing and shittake risotto, for two, last night, I thought I'd share what I did, too.<\/p>\n<p>Took about 35 minutes. Here's how it went...<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Salmon - 0.75 lbs\n<li>Dry dill - 1\/4 tsp ?\n<li>Arborio rice - 1\/2 cup\n<li>Chicken broth (low salt) - 1 can (14 oz)\n<li>Shittake mushrooms - 4 small\n<li>Asparagus - 8 thick stalks\n<li>Prosciutto - one pre-sliced package from the deli case. <em>Very<\/em> thinly sliced.\n<li>A lemon\n<li>1 Tbsp small capers (drained)\n<li>A bottle of olive oil\n<li>1 tsp grated parmesan (optional)\n<li>1\/4 tsp white pepper (optional)\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Risotto<\/strong><br \/>\nRisotto takes the longest (about 20 minutes). Put a tablespoon of oil in a medium-sized sautee pan (I think mine is 8\"), add the rice and let it cook over medium low heat for a few minutes. While that's going, brush off the mushrooms (don't rinse!), take off and discard the stems, rough chop the caps, then add them to the rice.  Stir it all up and let it cook on medium-low until the mushrooms begin to soften up and the rice turns just barely golden brown (not dark brown!). Then add just enough chicken broth to cover the rice, stir well. Add a good sprinkling of black pepper (1\/2 tsp? - i like a lot of black pepper in this). Add white pepper. If you want, add a bit of dried parsley. <\/p>\n<p>The trick to risotto is to add the broth a little bit at a time, then let it cook down before adding more. You don't want to let all the liquid cook off, and you don't want to boil it, either. You want to keep just enough liquid to just cover the rice, and you want it cooking at a simmer. I probably add more broth three or four times. It's done when the rice is just tender and there is just enough liquid left to make a thick sauce. It'll thicken up a little, just sitting in the pot, after you take it off the heat, too. Add the cheese at the very end - stir well. A Tbsp of butter at the end doesn't hurt, either - makes the sauce creamy. Add salt, to taste.<\/p>\n<p>This particular risotto is my side-dish of choice with broiled salmon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Salmon<\/strong><br \/>\nBroiled salmon is easy: drizzle a little olive oil on top, rub it around. Sprinkle with dill, a little salt, a little pepper. Toss it in the oven, on a low broil. Takes less than ten minutes, so start it when your can of broth is a little less than half empty. Or, you can bake it, if you don't want to deal with the broiler. About 15-20 minutes on 400 deg, I think.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Asparagus<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile the risotto simmers away, heat a grill pan (or a real grill!) for the asparagus. Snap off and discard the dry end of the stalks, lightly brush the rest with olive oil. Toss them on the grill pan and let them get some light grill marks all around - maybe five minutes ? The trick here is to get them very very close to cooked, but not quite there. Mine were pretty thick and were in danger of getting too black on the outside yet not cooked enough on the inside, so I threw a few tbsp of water on the pan, then loosely covered the pan with a piece of foil until the water had boiled off - this cooled the pan enough to stop the grill effect, and it steamed the asparagus a bit, at the same time. Magic. Then, remove the asparagus, wrap each stalk, in a spiral, with prosciutto, then return it to the grill pan for a minute or two. The prosciutto will fry <em>just a tiny bit<\/em> and the asparagus will finish cooking.<\/p>\n<p>The lemon-caper dressing for the asparagus is easy: take 1\/4-cup lemon juice, 1\/2 cup olive oil, mix it up, add the capers. Just drizzle a little of this over the top of the asparagus, after it's on your plate.<\/p>\n<p>I got the asparagus idea from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/food\/recipes\/recipe\/0,1977,FOOD_9936_168,00.html\">Bobby Flay<\/a>. He doesn't grill the asparagus once it's wrapped, and his recipe is a bit more complex, but I like it better my way. Prosciutto can be a little chewy, and that tiny bit of grilling firms it up and shrink-wraps it onto the asparagus nicely. You can also do the asparagus <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodnetwork.com\/food\/recipes\/recipe\/0,1977,FOOD_9936_26307,00.html\">in the oven<\/a>, but the grill flavor is worth it, if you have the technology.<\/p>\n<p>I bought a bottle of pinot noir to go with this (our default wine for salmon), but the rich, salty prosciutto just killed that poor wine. Need something with a little more oomph, next time. Maybe a nice snappy white.<\/p>\n<p>The cat wasn't excited about the salmon, but she loved the prosciutto. Mrs Cleek and I liked all of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was reading Baloon Juice, and came across this salmon recipe. It sounded good. And since I made broiled salmon with grilled prosciutto-wrapped asparagus with lemon-caper dressing and shittake risotto, for two, last night, I thought I'd share what I did, too. Took about 35 minutes. Here's how it went... Salmon - 0.75 lbs Dry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}