Asparagus, Olivje, Aubergine & Brussels Sprouts

Rustic Asparagus Gruyere Tart

Our friend Melinda came down from Orlando last weekend. She and Sally made a real "girl's weekend" of it by going to a wine and paint class at Matlacha, lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant on Pine Island, and then a Spiro Gyra concert Saturday evening. To feed this frenzy of activity I made them a fabulous vegetarian tart for Saturday dinner.

Just a quarter of the Asparagus Tart

Rustic here means "freeform" -- the puff pastry dough is not constrained by a round pan, it's just rolled out a bit and laid on a baking sheet before being topped.

"Rustic Tart" just sounds better than Asparagus Pizza, doesn't it?

1 sheet Puff Pastry

1/3 cup Sour Cream

1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese

1 lb fresh Asparagus -- the thinnest stems you can find

EVOO, salt and pepper as needed

Bench Flour (flour on a work surface to prevent dough from sticking when rolling/kneading)

Pre-heat oven to 400F. Thaw one sheet of puff pastry until it unrolls easily. Throw down some bench flour and roll out the pastry into an approximately 10x16 rectangle. Leave about a 1" edge, and dock the rest of the dough with a fork at 1/2" intervals, so it won't rise as much. Bake for 10 minutes.

Cool the pastry slightly. Brush the crust with sour cream, and sprinkle with the cheese. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus so they fit inside the border, and lay the stems down in a single layer, alternating tips and butts. Drizzle with EVOO, and sprinkle with salt & pepper as desired. Bake 10-12 minutes or until asparagus is tender. Serve with lemon wedges for drizzling on a hot slice of yummm.

Can't fine new spring thin-stem asparagus? You could make this by halving or even quartering thicker stems, and it would be almost as good.

Olivje (oh-liv-yuh)

A week or so back we had a couple of charming guests of Russian parentage, Irina and Ruslan, who have lived most of their lives in Germany. In our cabana guest book, they left me the recipe for Olivje, which they said could be a salad or a spread. The way it was written, it was hard to tell if the 4th letter was a U or a V, so I plugged the word into the internet and discovered some interesting history. But first, the recipe. Basically this is potato salad with additions:

4 Potatoes - cooked ( I used 4 large reds, skin on)

2 Carrots - cooked

2 Eggs - cooked

5-6 ounces Chicken or Turkey sausage - cooked

1 Onion - raw

3 Tbsp Mayonnaise

3 Tbsp Olive oil

Salt & Pepper - to taste

I'd never heard of a potato salad recipe that contained meat!!

Hard boil the eggs and cool them. Cut the potatoes (skin on) and carrots into 1/2" dice or thereabouts and cook them al dente. Chop the cooked eggs. Dice the onion fine. If you use bulk sausage it can just be cooked into crumbles, otherwise remove the sausage meat from the casings, and then cook. I used 6 oz of ground chicken with a teaspoon or so of Pride of Szged Chicken Seasoningtm, my new favorite poultry blend. Eight ounces would have even been better.

Mix everything together in a large bowl (I used a bit more mayo and no oil), adding liberal amounts of salt and pepper. 

Let the flavors 'marry' in the fridge for "several hours", although this is pretty darn good eaten warm like German potato salad. Serve as a side, put a big scoop on a bed of lettuce as a dinner salad, or serve as an appetizer spread on crackers or flatbread.

This salad was invented in the 1860s by the head chef at The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia -- a Belgian gent named Lucien Olivier (Oh-liv-ee-aa). Hence the linguistic shift and the present name of the dish. The original recipe was very complicated and contained things like duck or grouse, crawfish, capers, and an assortment of other meats and vegetables with the potatoes and a proto-mayonaise dressing (oil and raw egg beaten together). Read all about at Olivier Salad on Wikipedia.

The recipe which Irina and Ruslan left me is for a simplified or "country" version of the dish, made from readily available ingredients. Many country versions also add diced dill pickle, which I did too -- about a half cup of diced pieces. The pickle adds a nice bit of texture, and the vinegar adds depth to the overall flavor without overpowering anything.

This is really GREAT potato salad, folks! Next time I'll add a bit more sausage and a dusting of nice paprika on the surface of the finished dish. That's the beauty of this recipe -- you can take it in all sorts of directions depending on what you have handy and what your wallet can afford -- quail eggs, capers, exotic poultry or other sausages. But make this simple, tasty, country version first, so you get a feel for the basic concept.

Shrimp Creole Stuffed Sicilian Eggplant

Sally and Mel picked up these two gorgeous Sicilian eggplants at the Sanibel Island Farmer's Market over the weekend, and I decided to stuff them.

Cut off the tops, and use a knife and spoon to hollow them out. You may want to microwave the hollowed aubergines for a minute or so, to make sure the meat inside is cooked a bit and isn't just a shell. As you can see in the cutaway, my 'shells' were quite thick and needed abitmore cooking time.

Saute about 3/4 of the removed 'meat' along with the Trinity - celery, onion and bell pepper. Add about a dozen cherry tomatoes, halved, plus a good amount of your favorite Cajun Seasoning -- I used the Healthy Solutions tm Cajun Seafood Blend. Don't forget the shrimp. I used eight large 21-24 deepwater Argentine shrimp, peeled, de-veined and chopped.

As things saute, a lot of liquid will be released. When the onion is tender, add about 1/4 cup of Panko or other breadcrumbs to soak up the yummy juices. Pack the eggplant globes with the saute mix, top with some shredded cheese, and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes.

 Here's a look inside the eggplant:

Pan -Fried Brussel Sprouts

A reader reminded me that I've mentioned Pan-fried Brussels Sprouts several times but never showed them, or really described how to make the dish. So here goes:

12-20 Brussels Sprouts (serves 2-3)

1+ tsp Your favorite spice blend (Creole, Evergladestm, Old Baytm, Cavender'stm, Emeril'stm, Fajita, Italian, etc)

Halve the sprouts from pole-to-pole, not at the equator. 

Rinse and shake them mostly dry. 

Place the still slightly damp cut sprouts in a plastic bag. I usually use one of those you get in the Produce Department. Sprinkle the seasoning blend over the sprouts, twist the bag shut, and shake well to distribute the spice.

Heat a griddle or large skillet and a tablespoon or so of oil. Place the sprouts cut-side down -- this is the finicky bit -- to start. Let them fry for 6 minutes or so, until you get some nice caramelization on the cut sides. 

 Now flip them over, more or less, and continue frying for another 6-8 minutes. At this point you can cover the pan if you like to speed the cooking process. Test with a fork, and when the sprouts are nicely al dente remove to a serving bowl. Want to be really decadent? Sprinkle finely grated Gruyere or similar hard cheese like Aurabela or Parmesan, on top.