Grilled Cornish Hens with Asparagus

I want to put more of my own recipes on this blog, sometimes though, some of the things I make don't really have a recipe other than "throw it on the grill." I take pictures of nearly everything I cook, but when I sit down here and try to write up some sort of instructions to follow or ingredients to include, my first thought usually is, "Well, duh! Folks know that already."

Maybe it's time I do that anyway. For instance, the other morning as I peeked into the deep freezer for something to thaw that wasn't pork or beef or standard chicken, I saw these Cornish Hens I had. Yes, granted, they're "chicken" but they're tiny chickens in a manner of speaking, and I suddenly had a vision of them on a plank on the grill, and Wah-Lah!, that night's dinner was born.

Sure, I surfed the web throughout the day looking for further ideas, but I was technically supposed to be working so I knew anything that required any real prep time was out of the question. I decided to stick with my original vision even though I knew I'd have nothing original for this blog.

It was quite simple. I thawed the Hens, soaked a plank in water, eventually spread some seasonings on the poultry, fired up the grill, and put the planked birds on indirect heat. Took about an hour, but can't say I really timed it. Near the end, I took some asparagus and laid them one the grill as well. If you like asparagus, it's a real good "go to" veggie for grilling with just about anything, i.e., steak or salmon especially.

Needless to say, dinner turned out great, and even though I have no real recipe to share, I thought at least I could slap a couple of pics up here for your inspiration.

Until Next Time...
Here's a real recipe for smoking Cornish Hens, but please don't tell The Boss or else she'll make me make it next time.
Cornishly Yours,
Michael

Eastern Inspired Pork Tenderloin

During my "Grill Only" cooking phase, I would pick up pork tenderloins on sale, sprinkle some off-the-shelf rub on it, and drop that baby on the grill. Good stuff. There's only many so many times you can do that though before the family starts complaining about "same ol' same ol'", and to be completely honest I was bored with it too.

But pork tenderloins were on sale a few weeks ago, and I decided to pick one up and see if I couldn't dig up some recipe online that might inspire me. Well, needless to say, I found four recipes within my skill set, thought I'd throw in a lonely box of couscous from the pantry, The Boss's two favorite spices, curry and turmeric, and include my go-to veggie asparagus.

Ta-da, I had a tasty pork tenderloin that sent us back for seconds, and seems to photograph well enough to post.

Eastern Inspired Pork Tenderloin
Ingredients

- 1½ pound to 2 pound pork tenderloin

- ¼ ounce (or to taste) of each of the following: curry, turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper, celery seeds, parsley, dill seed

- half cup of EVOO

- half cup of balsamic vinegar

- 5 ounces of couscous

- half can (7 ounces) of peas

- half can (7 ounces) of diced carrots

- ½ ounce of curry (or to taste)

Directions

 - mix all spices together
 - marinate pork tenderloin in a mixture of the EVOO, balsamic vinegar, and spice mix (I did it for four hours in the refrigerator, but you can do it for one hour or even overnight)
 - preheat oven to 400 degrees
 - place pork tenderloin in casserole pan and pour the rest of the marinade over it, cover with foil
 - place tenderloin in oven for 30 minutes (until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees)
 - prepare couscous per product directions; mix in curry (to taste), peas, and carrots (I added some extra scallions at the last moment; and keep an eye on that couscous, it soaks up the water faster than you realize)
 - after removing tenderloin from the oven, keep it covered while steaming asparagus for about two minutes in the microwave until they are the perfect combination of flexible but still crisp to the bite. (this takes practice and varies per microwave) 
 - serve it and listen for the choruses of "oohs" and "ahhs"

Calories per serving
Total 470 calories
Carbs 221; Protein 115; Fat 29 (5.2g Fiber; 649mg Sodium)

I'm pretty proud of this considering its simplicity. As with all my recipes to date, I'm sure it's been done a thousand times by a thousand people, but I don't have a lot of experience cooking with curry or balsamic vinegar, and I think I've made couscous twice in my life, so for this to come together and compliment each other gives me another template in my cooking repertoire.

Until Next Time...
Here's an interesting video on another Eastern way to prepare pork tenderloin, although in this recipe, I'd personally exclude honey.

Easternly Yours,
Michael


Calorie Breakdown
Pork Tenderloin (per three ounce serving)
Total 122 calories
Carbs 0; Protein 88; Fat 27 

Asparagus (5 stalks)

Total 70 calories
Carbs 70 calories

Couscous per serving (one half cup)
Total 88 Calories
Carbs 72; Protein 12; (1.1g Fiber; 4mg Sodium)

Peas per serving (four ounces)
Total 70 calories
Carbs 52; Protein 12;  (3g Fiber; 350mg Sodium)

Diced Carrots per serving (half cup)
Total 32 calories
Carbs 27; Protein 3; Fat 2;  (2.2g Fiber; 295mg Sodium)

Baked Mushroom Salmon with Wild Rice and Aspargus - RECIPE

On a night like any other I had to come up with some new creative way to cook an entree we've had a hundred times. In the past, I knew of only one way to bake salmon - sprinkle some garlic powder on it, a small slab of butter, wrap in aluminum foil, and throw it on the grill or in the oven.

There's only so many times that can be done before salmon becomes boring. We've all heard it (or even said it) at some point, "Oh, that again. <sigh> Can we order out?"

So I thought it would be great to put some kind of sauce or something on it to change things up. I decided to stay with butter since it gives the salmon a nice flavor, and honestly, who doesn't like butter. Then I thought mushrooms would be a good choice because we love mushrooms around here and I knew we had a paper bag of them left unused from a previous night. I also had some scallions that needed to be eaten before they went bad and became slimy. Finally, instead of cheese and broccoli rice (because The Boss had had steamed broccoli the night before), I chopped up asparagus and mixed it in wild rice. Wah-lah! I looked like I knew what I was doing.

This is what makes cooking fun - creating something new and delicious using just random bits about the kitchen.

Baked Salmon with Mushrooms and Scallions
Ingredients 
- six salmon fillets
- three tablespoons butter
- one cup of fresh mushrooms, sliced
- half cup of scallions (green onions), sliced
- crushed cloves of garlic or garlic powder (to taste)
- one-quarter cup tarragon

Wild Rice with Asparagus
Ingredients
- chopped asparagus
- box of Rice-a-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Melt butter in a medium sized pan, add the sliced mushrooms, scallions, garlic, and tarragon. About two minutes until butter is melted and ingredients are well coated.
2. Place salmon fillets in a baking dish. Pour sauce over salmon, distributing as evenly as possible.
3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil to retain moisture4. Place in 375-degree oven for 20-25 (which is about how long the rice will take)
5. Prepare the Long Grain and Wild Rice per the instructions on the box
6. When there are only about five minutes or less left on the rice, add the chopped. Any sooner and you risk the asparagus becoming too soft.
8. Plate and serve

Entree Calories
Salmon
100 calories; 10 calories from fat;
Total Fat 2.5 g
Sodium 7.5 g
Protein 20 g

Side Dish Calories
Wild Rice
240 calories, 50 calories from fat;
Total Fat 0.5 g
Sodium 750 mg
Total Carbs 43 g (1 g Fiber)
Protein 5 g

Asparagus
3 calories;
Protein 0.4 g

It's quite a quick and simple dish and well worth a try. Low calories yet high in protein and the good fats from the salmon.  

Until Next Time,
Spring is here and summer is coming, time to move some of this cooking outdoors. So here is a great video on how to grill shrimp without a plank (because those planks are expensive) and includes a link to a nice sauce to top your salmon.

Salmonly Yours,
Michael