Saturday, April 5, 2014

Stir Fry Instead of Butter or Cheese.

I'm not a huge fan of broccoli or asparagus, but my hubby is and I will make these vegetables for him.  Usually it's, "Hunny, how do you want your broccoli?" and he will either answer "butter" or "cheese".  For the asparagus, I use it to make two quiches, one for him and one for his mother.  Yep, it's a "rut" thing.

Well I'm tired of being in a rut, so this time I decided not to ask him how he'd like his broccoli; nor even ask his opinion when I worked out how I was going to cook it.  Let him be surprised!

For the stir fry, I chopped up one medium sized head of broccoli; removing the woody ends off a half pound of asparagus, I cut that up into one inch pieces.  Now a medium sized stockpot, filled halfway with water and three tablespoons of salt, was coming to a boil on medium-high heat.  I put the cut up vegetables into the boiling water to cook for only three minutes; I had ready a large plastic mixing bowl filled halfway with cold water.  After three minutes, I used a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables from the stockpot to the mixing bowl; the cold water would stop the cooking process and keep them bright green.  I strained the vegetables, spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels and let any excess water be absorbed.

I had a couple of very small bell peppers (one orange, one red), cut them open, seeded, and cut into half inch pieces.  A large skillet went onto the stove top, three tablespoons of olive oil inside and the heat turned up to medium-high.  I put the broccoli, asparagus, bell pepper in plus a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic and a tablespoon of Italian herb mixture.  It only took five minutes for the entire mix to heat up nicely; I didn't want any of the vegetables to wilt or get any browned edges.  Hubby's opinion?  Oh yeah, he liked it big time!  He thought it tasted fresh and savory; especially when paired with the protein cooked up with it...New York Strip Steak.



The steak was prepared via a lazy woman's grilling; seasoning the steaks with sea salt and ground black pepper (both sides); they were laid on an aluminum jellyroll pan brushed lightly with olive oil.  A large onion was cut into rings and laid along side the steaks; into a preheated to 450F they went for twenty minutes (turn the steak and onions over after the first ten minutes).



Now this kind of rut we can both live with for awhile.  Enjoy!

Mary Cokenour