5 Best Tips to Get Adventurous with Asparagus -- It's Coming in Season Now!
By Sue Style
In the western, industrialized, urbanized world where everything is available all year round and we've almost lost our sense of the seasons, our own locally grown asparagus can be a rare and precious treat. Let's vote with our shopping baskets, turn our backs on (and our noses up at) the imported, canned or frozen stuff, punch the air and rejoice that some things are still truly seasonal. There's a time to eat this wonderful vegetable, and it's now.
As to which is the best kind of asparagus, white or green, opinions are sharply divided. Loosely speaking, Anglo-Saxons favor the green, as do generally the Italians and the Spaniards. In Alsace, the Black Forest or Switzerland, people are more into the white or the mauve-tipped varieties.
Related: Learn how to cook straight from your bountiful garden this year.
Tip 1 -- Steaming: When cooking asparagus, there's just one rule: Keep it simple. A tall, straight-sided asparagus pan with a wire basket inside to hold the spears upright does the business if your favored method is to boil and/or steam them, though the pan has a hard job earning its keep the rest of the year.
Related: Explore other great seasonal greens.
Tip 2 -- Roast asparagus: Nowadays I more often lay the spears in a roasting pan, anoint them with olive oil, sprinkle them parsimoniously with sea salt and give them a 10- to 15-minute roasting in a 425 F oven until just tender.
Related: Roast any vegetable to perfection.
Tip 3 -- Grill asparagus: Alternatively I give them the olive oil/sea salt treatment and cook them instead on a ridged grill pan or on the barbecue.
Related: Master the art of grilling everything from veggies to steak.
Tip 4 -- Sauce up asparagus: With my asparagus I like to serve a sunset-colored sauce maltaise (hollandaise with orange juice) made in the blender. Beat three egg yolks at high speed in the blender with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon each of lemon juice and blood orange juice. Then heat 4 ounces of butter in a small pan till liquid (or in the microwave in a small microwave-safe pitcher). With the blender still on high speed, pour the butter in a steady stream through the hole in the blender lid. The sauce "should thicken perceptibly," assures Julia Child. (If, nevertheless, you flunk the 8-year-old child test and it doesn't thicken, go to plan B, vinaigrette.) When the sauce is thick, add another couple of tablespoons of orange juice and a smidgen of grated orange zest.
Serve the sauce with the asparagus and provide some finely sliced cooked and cured ham (Parma, Bayonne, Serrano).
Tip 5 -- Use asparagus in a salad:
Grilled Asparagus and Tomato Salad with Feta
Bursting with flavor, this easy asparagus salad with juicy tomatoes and creamy cheese makes a great addition to a weekend brunch with eggs. Although it's most delicious warm, the salad can be assembled ahead of time and dressed just before serving, which makes it a great choice for a potluck or a picnic. Consider doubling or tripling the recipe for a crowd.
Contributing: Elaine Corn
Serves 4 to 6
For the vinaigrette
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ pounds asparagus
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3 slices country-style white bread, about 3 ounces total, cut into ½-inch cubes (you should have about 2 cups)
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
Directions
1. Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat (350 F to 450 F) and preheat the grill pan.
2. In a small bowl whisk the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle and whisk in the oil until it is emulsified.
3. Remove and discard the tough bottom of each asparagus spear by grasping at each end and bending it gently until it snaps at its natural point of tenderness, usually about two-thirds of the way down the spear.
4. Spread the asparagus on a large plate. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette and turn the spears until they are evenly coated. In a medium bowl, toss the tomatoes and bread cubes with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette.
5. Brush the cooking grates clean. Spread the tomatoes and bread cubes in a single layer on the grill pan and lay the asparagus on the cooking grate. Grill over direct medium heat, with the lid closed as much as possible, until the asparagus is tender, the tomatoes begin to soften, and the bread cubes are toasted, turning often. The asparagus will take 6 to 8 minutes, and the tomatoes and bread cubes will take 2 to 4 minutes.
6. Arrange the asparagus on a platter and top with the tomatoes, croutons, feta and chives. Serve with the remaining vinaigrette.
Elaine Corn is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food editor. A former editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Sacramento Bee, Corn has written six cookbooks and contributed food stories to National Public Radio.
Sue Style is the author of nine books, including "A Taste of Alsace and Alsace Gastronomique." She writes on food, wine and travel from her base in southern Alsace close to Switzerland and Germany, and for her website www.suestyle.com
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