RECIPES
January 1, 2018
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
Creamed Kale with Parmesan
By Katie Workman
The Associated Press
Melissa d’Arabian via AP
M
Shrimp paired with pineapple
brings elegance and sweetness
By Melissa d’Arabian
The Associated Press
A
fter all the cooking and shopping
that the holidays inspire us to do,
I’m looking forward to pulling out
some easy recipes that use pantry
ingredients I keep on hand. One of my
favorite items to keep in the freezer is
frozen shrimp.
I have both cooked and uncooked
versions. Raw shrimp cook up in minutes
and have more flavor, so I use them for
pasta dishes and easy sheet-pan suppers.
But cooked shrimp have their place on my
menu, too. I love how quickly they thaw for
salads and appetizers and other cold
preparations.
The downside to pre-cooked shrimp is
the texture is a notch softer. My solution is
to buy the large shrimp and then cut it in
half. I know this may be counter-shrimp
culture, so feel free to leave them large, but
the solution works for us.
A super easy go-to recipe for shrimp for
us is my Shrimp and Pineapple Brochette,
which uses easy pantry ingredients — you
can even use canned pineapple — to create
something that still feels high-end.
It’s healthy and versatile, working as
either a meal when paired with some
greens, a first course, or even an appetizer
for parties. Shrimp brings protein and
elegance, while pineapple balances out
with both sweetness and acid. I use
prepared pesto for some fat and flavor, and
I highly recommend keeping a jar of
prepared pesto in the freezer to scoop out
for recipes. But, if you don’t have any, just
substitute a bunch of chopped herbs, olive
oil, and lemon juice for an easy, tasty
version. And with skewers, I think it goes
without saying that you can swap in
whatever fruit you have in your kitchen —
grapes, grapefruit, orange segments, and
even canned mango all work beautifully.
Food Network star Melissa d’Arabian is an
expert on healthy eating on a budget. She is the
author of the cookbook, Supermarket Healthy.
Shrimp and Pineapple Brochette
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 10 minutes
1 pound large cooked shrimp, cleaned, thawed if frozen
1 cup pineapple cubes, about 1/2-inch each, drained and halved if using
typical large canned chunks (grapefruit or orange may also be used)
1 tablespoon prepared pesto sauce
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
black pepper
a pinch (1/8 teaspoon) kosher salt
chopped fresh mint, parsley, or basil, optional
12 small or 8 large skewers, or 24 toothpicks if making appetizer bites
Cut shrimp into halves or thirds, depending on size of shrimp. Thread the
skewers with alternating shrimp and fruit. Lay the skewers on a platter.
In a small bowl, add the lemon juice to the pesto sauce to thin it and stir. Drizzle
the pesto mixture over the skewers, aiming mostly for the shrimp. Drizzle a few
drops of olive oil onto the skewers. Top with freshly ground black pepper, the kosher
salt, and chopped herbs, if desired. Serve as a first course, an appetizer, or with a
green salad for a light meal.
Nutrition information per serving: 130 calories (35 calories from fat); 4 g fat (1 g
saturated, 0 g trans fats); 145 mg cholesterol; 720 mg sodium; 1 g fiber; 4 g sugar; 16
g protein.
y father and grandfather, both
no longer here, loved nothing
better than a serious steak
dinner at their favorite steakhouse, Peter
Lugar’s, in New York City. If there was
something to celebrate, an out-of-town
guest to impress, or the desire to indulge
an extravagant comfort-food craving,
there was one clear choice.
Ordering was easy: a starter of thickly
sliced tomatoes and onions with the house
dressing, which was also the house steak
sauce (think of Worcestershire sauce
disguised as a thick dressing), and
possibly a wedge salad with bacon and
blue cheese. To follow, there was a T-bone
steak, sliced but with the bone served up
for nibbling, with fried potatoes and
creamed spinach. And after belts had been
loosened, perhaps a piece of key lime pie.
I think that for most of us, to like
creamed spinach is to love creamed
spinach. You have to go all in if you go at
all. And I love creamed spinach.
But because envelopes need the
occasional pushing, I recently decided to
cream up some kale with a generous
amount of cream and Parmesan cheese in
memory of my dad and grandpa. I know
that in some circles, kale is considered the
king of the greens, and in others, it’s
considered “over.” I don’t belong to either
camp, but I do love cooking with kale.
It has similar nutritional perks to
Continued from page 4
border officials and the officials are being
changed every nine to 12 months, then
that makes things all the harder,” said
Justin Hastings, a University of Sydney
scholar who studies North Korean trade
networks. The smugglers’ most recent
troubles, he believes, are from Chinese
officials enforcing sanctions and “cracking
down in ways they hadn’t done before.”
In 2012, North Korean border officials
Celebrate
Earth Day
everyday!
Reduce w Reuse w Recycle
began ordering smugglers to “regulate”
their businesses, says the ex-smuggler
now living in China. Eventually, as the
informal rules tightened, he was limited to
what he could carry. His profits
plummeted.
“I was only making enough money to pay
for my travel expenses and my meals,” the
he says. He left for China when his
business collapsed, moving in with
relatives.
Life was supposed to be easier on this
side of the border. But he barely speaks
Chinese, can’t find work, and knows
almost no one.
“All my friends are there in North
Korea,” he says, nodding toward the
mountains. His one solace is soju, a
vodka-like alcohol loved in both Koreas. “I
drink here at my home. One shot with each
meal, every day.”
spinach (not that I am selling this
particular recipe as healthy), and holds up
to heat with more presence. If you want,
you can use baby kale in this recipe, which
isn’t as tough as fully grown kale, and has
no thick ribs to remove, which makes the
prep easier.
This recipe begs to be served up next to a
roast chicken, a piece of seared or roasted
fish, or, in the most perfect of all worlds, a
juicy T-bone steak.
Katie Workman has written two cookbooks
focused on easy, family-friendly cooking,
Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.
Creamed Kale with Parmesan
Serves 4 to 6
Start to finish: 20 minutes
1 1/2 pounds kale
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
If you are using mature kale, trim the tough middle rib from the leaves, and
roughly chop the leaves. If you are using baby kale, roughly chop that. Rinse them
in a colander. Add the kale to the boiling water and boil for four to five minutes,
until the kale is fairly tender. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, then use
your hands to squeeze as much water as you can out of the kale.
Place the cream in the pot you used to cook the kale. Bring to a simmer over
medium-high heat, then lower the heat to medium and continue to simmer until
reduced by roughly half, about four minutes. Season with salt and pepper, as well as
the red pepper flakes. Add the blanched kale and simmer, stirring often, until the
cream sauce is further reduced and coats the kale, about three minutes. Stir in the
Parmesan until the cheese is melted and everything is blended well.
Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot.
Nutrition information per serving: 272 calories (223 calories from fat); 25 g fat (15
g saturated, 1 g trans fats); 88 mg cholesterol; 332 mg sodium; 9 g carbohydrate; 3 g
fiber; 3 g sugar; 6 g protein.
China says United States should curb
demand for opioids, not blame China
Continued from page 5
Rough times for smugglers who
knitted North Korea to the world
CREAMY & COMFORTING. Creamed Kale
with Parmesan pairs well with a roast chicken, a piece
of seared or roasted fish, or a juicy T-bone steak. (Sa-
rah E. Crowder via AP)
past year.
He urged the U.S. to share more data
and police intelligence with Chinese
authorities
and
said
rampant
over-prescription of pain medication and
lax cultural attitudes toward drugs had
fuelled massive demand for opioids in the
U.S.
Insufficient drug education and the
trend in some states of legalizing
marijuana have hurt drug enforcement
efforts, he said.
“As
many
states
decriminalize
marijuana, the public’s attitudes and
trends of thinking toward drugs will also
have a bad effect” on the fight against hard
drugs, Yu said.
Chinese officials have been eager to tout
their collaboration with American
counterparts on drug enforcement as a
bright spot in the occasionally rocky
relationship.
Officials in Beijing said they busted a
fentanyl factory in November and seized
10.36 pounds of the substance thanks to a
tip-off from U.S. Immigration and
Customs about a major online purveyor
named “Diana” that turned out to be a
front for a 19-person drug ring scattered
across China.
China wanted to work more closely with
U.S. law enforcement, as well as
authorities in Mexico, a transshipment
point, Yu said.
China has backed a successful U.S.
proposal to add several fentanyl
precursors to a U.N. list of controlled
substances. China has listed the two
chemicals, NPP and 44-ANPP, under
domestic drug laws, officials said.
More than 66,000 people in America
died of drug overdoses in the year ending
May 2017, a jump of 17.4 percent from the
year before, according to provisional data
from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The agency reports that most
cases of fentanyl overdose are linked to
illicitly produced batches of the substance.