Miso Ginger Asparagus

So, a while back I bought a package of miso. I’ve never cooked with it, so it sat in the cabinet for a few months while I was too intimidated to use it. Then I made these, which were so delicious they did not make it into a photograph and thus will not be on this blog. While they were delicious, they only used about 2% of a large package of miso. I’m predicting that this once intimidating ingredient will be making an appearance in many of our meals in the near future…

I’ve been trying to get more creative with our vegetables, instead of just serving a side salad. The recipe for this asparagus also comes from Steamy Kitchen.  The author of that blog recommends Miso and Easy, which would be a lot easier and maybe a better option than the big package of miso paste that I bought. Also, the miso I bought was dark colored…I’m not quite sure what the difference is between the colorsMiso is kind of like adding soy sauce, only way better. You only need a little bit to add a lot of flavor. I also LOVE fresh ginger in anything, so I loved this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of asparagus, washed and trimmed
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp miso paste mixed with 1 tsp hot water (or 1 tsp miso and easy)
• 1 T water
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste (or 1 clove of minced garlic + 1/2 tsp grated ginger)
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)

Recipe

Preheat your oven to 375º. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay your asparagus in 1 layer. Toss with cooking oil. Roast asparagus for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until tender.

Whisk together all of the other ingredients. When the asparagus is ready, drizzle the sauce over it and serve immediately.

 

Pretty Perfect Baked Potatoes

So, potatoes are ugly to photograph. But, these taters are pretty good. This seems like kind of a ridiculous post because it is so short, but I thought I’d share anyway! There’s all kinds of fancy potatoes out there, but this works great with the cheap baking potatoes you get at the store.

A lot of people wrap potatoes in foil, but if you want crisp skin you are better off placing them directly on the rack.

I don’t have anything more to say. I warned you this would be a ridiculous post. Easy, tasty, do it.

Ingredients

• baking potatoes
• olive oil
• coarse salt (regular would probably work)

Recipe

Preheat your oven to 350°. Scrub your potatoes and dry them thoroughly. Rub olive oil all over the outside. Rub salt all over the outside. Poke holes in the tater with a fork. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack; you can put a cookie sheet underneath if you are worried about oil dripping. Bake for about an hour, or until a fork comes out easily. (I did these at the same time I made this; since the temperature was higher, I baked them for 45 minutes and that seemed to work).

Enjoy!

Beer Braised Honey Mustard Brussels Sprouts

Candy. Brussels Sprouts. Who thinks these two things go together? I do, now. I always felt sorry for brussels sprouts. They get a bad rep though they are actually really good! I feel the same way about bats, spiders, and my home state of Wild Wonderful West Virginia. (Bats and Spiders- good because they eat other bugs, like my enemy, The Mosquito. WV is just plain awesome).

This is my cousin Tara’s famous recipe. I knew it was a good one when Andrew kept stealing them off of my plate. The honey makes them sweet, but they have a hearty taste to them too. Now that I’ve figured out how to make brussels sprouts so that Andrew will eat them, my next task is to figure out how to create the insanely addictive ones at Uchiko….lofty goal.