Orange Glazed Asparagus

Couple of my non-technical interests are cooking and photography. The ever-increasing popularity of Food Network has only added to my interests. When I finished my high-school and was getting ready to go apply for colleges, I had a good mind to apply for a culinary institute. With no background in my family in professional cooking (although my spiritual/religious background has a strong foundation in cooking - more on that in another blog), that thought did not take much shape and eventually led me to follow the herd and become and Engineer, although I have been quite happy with that decision as well. The fact that I am a vegetarian probably didn't help build a case for a culinary institute as well!

Switch to present, I enjoy watching Alton Brown and Ted Allen shows in Food Network. Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking" gave me a peek into the science behind cooking, only increasing my curiosity. It's amazing to look at how different flavors come together and how our mind converts the sensations into beautiful emotions.

With that background, I thought I'll share a recent recipe I tried out.

Asparagus is a healthy, fiber-rich vegetable. The best thing about asparagus is that it can be cooked very quickly with very minimal effort and makes for a great healthy snack.

I wanted to check out if there are some good variations one can create with asparagus and came across an interesting recipe for Orange Glazed Asparagus in All Recipes, a favorite recipe website of mine. Intrigued I prepared it today and it turned out to be quite delicious. I added a few variations of my own to make it a little more interesting than the default recipe, which is what you see here.

Serving Size: 2 | Time to Cook: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 bunch asparagus (broken near the tender region)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup Orange juice (fresh squeezed may give better flavor. I used the store-bought one)
2 tsp orange zest
1-2 tsp paprika or mild chili flakes
1 tsp cumin powder (dry-roasted, powdered cumin seeds may give better flavor)
2 tsp olive oil

Method

1. In a 12" skillet, add olive oil, asparagus, and salt and saute for a minute
2. Add orange juice to the asparagus and toss lightly. Close the skillet and let the asparagus steam for 5 to 10 minutes in medium-high heat
3. Once the asparagus is tender, remove them from the pan. Keep the liquid in the pan.
4. Add orange zest to the liquid and heat till the juice gets into a saucy consistency
5. Pour the glaze on top of the asparagus in a plate
6. Sprinkle paprika and cumin powder on top and serve hot

Enjoy!