PowerCooking.net

These braised leeks go very well with a filet mignon.

Ingredients

• 6 large leeks, rinsed and quartered
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• About 1/2 – 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup sliced shallots
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup dry cooking sherry or dry white wine (wine that you’d drink!)
• 1.5 to 2 cups chicken stock (or 1/2 bouillon cube dissolved in water)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. With cut sides up, season with sea salt black pepper.
3. Heat pan (or dutch oven) over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Pour in 2 tbsps olive oil and wait 1 minute. Place cut side of leeks down in pan without crowding them. (Make in batches, and use more oil, if necessary.) Sear them 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, and turn over. Add shallots, thyme, lemon juice, lemon zest and cook 3 to 4 minutes more.
4. Add wine and stock, almost covering leeks
5. Braise in oven 30 minutes, until tender.

A super quick, easy, healthy recipe that takes less than 10 minutes.  It’s so easy, we almost didn’t post it!

Total Time: < 15 minutes

Ingredients

• asparagus spears (6-8 per person)
• fresh lemon
• sea salt
• black pepper
• olive oil spray

Instructions

• Preheat the grill, low-medium heat (you’ll need to experiment with the temperature for your own grill).  Or you can use a grill pan indoors.
• Wash the asparagus spears and slice (or hand snap) off the tough ends of the spears.
• Put them on a plate and season with salt and pepper.
• Spray with olive oil to coat; then using a fork, roll the spears over so some of the uncoated side shows; then spray again.
• Put them on the grill for around 4 minutes, then roll the spears over with your tongs, and let them grill for another 4 minutes.  This should give you spears that are cooked but still slightly crisp.
• Plate the spears and squeeze lemon juice on them.  DONE!

You may have to try this a couple times to get the heat and cooking time right on your own grill.   If you have lemon salt, that could be a good alternative if you don’t have a lemon handy; although we haven’t tried that yet.