Weeknight Cooking

Hamsteaks with Asparagus-Rice Salad

Of all the cookbooks I've bought and looked at over the years, it still seems hard to find The One that really matches my interest in cooking relatively easy but gourmet weeknight meals.  During the past year, however, I think I finally have in a little section in the Food Network Magazine called "Weeknight Cooking," an assortment of just those sorts of recipes I've been looking for.  Out of the ten in April's issue, for example, I feel like I probably could make each one and that they would all go over well here at home: Chicken Rice Soup, Foil-Packet Chicken Puttanesca, Cumin Pork with Beans, Oven Fried Fish with Potato Salad, Turkey Sausage Tacos, and others.   There were a few things that I thought stood out in the Ham Steaks with Asparagus-Rice Salad recipe on that list.  First of all, it calls for a rice concoction that I never would have thought of – cooked rice, mayonnaise, sour cream and some bits of chives and mustard.

My own batch didn't come out quite with the crisp (not gummy) texture that I normally like with rice, but the flavor was a perfect support for the chopped asparagus, which had been also boiled along with the rice, soft and pungent.  Underneath this bed of rice mix was simple hamsteaks, cooked on a hot pan for sear, and then asked to coat with brown sugar for a cooked glaze.  This very simple final step, sugaring, made a big difference, and the natural saltiness of the ham contrasted the sweet of the sugar.  Ham is one of the most potent meat selections that we have.  It makes sense then this gourmet concept would then be served with a much more subtle flavoring of asparagus rice.

Kid eyes weren't shocked; kid mouths opened and ate; there were soft mutterings around the table that sounded something like "that was pretty good."

Ingredient Fact:  Asparagus is often used as a companion planting to tomatoes.  The tomato plant

repels the asparagus beetle, and the asparagus may repel some harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants.