The March of Asparagus

[Marlene]

It was very different! Would make a great conversation starter at a party!

Yes, they were stinging nettles. We used gloves to remove the leaves from the stem.

[Marlene]

This is my recipe for an asparagus appetizer, "Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus with Honeydew Sorbet."

Honeydew Sorbet

2 cups chopped honeydew melon 

1 cup simple syrup

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves 

1 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup Midori melon liquer (substitute with Vodka) 

Mint leaves for garnish

 

Simple Syrup  

1 cup granulated sugar  1 cup water

1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves 

 

Make the simple syrup first. Bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add mint leaves and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook syrup for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and strain syrup into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until ready to use.

Place melon, syrup, mint leaves and lemon juice in a blender. Puree until smooth, about 1 minute. Strain puree into a bowl. Add Midori liquer, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Pour melon puree into ice cream machine and process according to manufacturer's instructions, about 20 minutes. Keep sorbet frozen in freezer until service.

Asparagus

8 spears of asparagus, peeled

4 slices prosciutto, cut in half

1 tbsp. olive oil

Heat 1 quart of water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add asparagus and blanch until just tender, about 3 minutes. Remove asparagus and drain on paper towels. Let asparagus cool to room temperature.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Brush skillet with a little olive oil. Add prosciutto slices and saute until just crisp, about 30 seconds. Turn prosciutto over and sauté another 30 seconds. Remove prosciutto from skillet and blot off fat with a paper towel.

To serve, wrap each asparagus spear with a slice of prosciutto.

Place a scoop of melon sorbet in a large martini glass or in a large soup bowl. Add two spears of asparagus on either side of sorbet. Garnish sorbet with a mint sprig.

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This just went on my list to try!

[David Ross]

This is my recipe for an asparagus appetizer, "Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus with Honeydew Sorbet."

Honeydew Sorbet

2 cups chopped honeydew melon 

1 cup simple syrup

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves 

1 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup Midori melon liquer (substitute with Vodka) 

Mint leaves for garnish

  

Simple Syrup  

1 cup granulated sugar  1 cup water

1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves  

  

Make the simple syrup first. Bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add mint leaves and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook syrup for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and strain syrup into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until ready to use.

Place melon, syrup, mint leaves and lemon juice in a blender. Puree until smooth, about 1 minute. Strain puree into a bowl. Add Midori liquer, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Pour melon puree into ice cream machine and process according to manufacturer's instructions, about 20 minutes. Keep sorbet frozen in freezer until service.

Asparagus

8 spears of asparagus, peeled

4 slices prosciutto, cut in half

1 tbsp. olive oil

Heat 1 quart of water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add asparagus and blanch until just tender, about 3 minutes. Remove asparagus and drain on paper towels. Let asparagus cool to room temperature.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Brush skillet with a little olive oil. Add prosciutto slices and saute until just crisp, about 30 seconds. Turn prosciutto over and sauté another 30 seconds. Remove prosciutto from skillet and blot off fat with a paper towel.

To serve, wrap each asparagus spear with a slice of prosciutto.

Place a scoop of melon sorbet in a large martini glass or in a large soup bowl. Add two spears of asparagus on either side of sorbet. Garnish sorbet with a mint sprig.

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This just went on my list to try!

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Thanks. I hope you'll like it. You get the tender asparagus, crisp, salty, prosciutto and then the cool, sweet, minty melon. It's wonderful.

I should also add I always peel the stalk of the asparagus before I cook it. I find the peel a bit stringy if it's left on.

[Marlene]

Thanks David, I'll let you know this weekend. My ice cream maker is at the cottage so we'll make this for company on Saturday when we are up there.

My favourite way to do asparagus. Roasted, with a little melted parm, then sprinkled with extra parm out of the oven and drizzled with balsamic.

We are getting US aparagus here now. Ontario asparagus is probably still a couple of weeks away yet.

[Emily_R]

Now that I'm being inundated with asparagus from the garden, thought I'd revive this thread. Am planning on making what was one of my best new asparagus recipes last year -- Asparagus Pesto, from Elise at Simply Recipes. Here's a link to it -- http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/asparagus_pesto_with_pasta/ -- I use almonds rather than pine nuts, and when I add it to pasta often add a scoop of ricotta as well. Totally amazing, and even better -- it froze really well! So that I had a hit of asparagus in the dead of winter this year!

Anyone else making anything new and exciting with asparagus? Tonight I'm finally going to make djyee's Pasta with Eggs, Asparagus, and Mushrooms -- a recipe that's been in my to-try file since last year!

Edited May 16, 2011 by Emily_R (log)

[sparrowgrass]

Just the other night I fried an ounce of diced bacon til crisp, sauteed about half a pound of

mushrooms in the same pan til almost done, then added a pound of asparagus chopped into 1 inch pieces. Cook until the asparagus is done to your liking, sprinkle with chopped chives.

The original recipe called for a tablespoon of butter, but I didn't think it needed it. As a matter of fact, the next time I will probably drain off some of the bacon grease.

Last night, I tossed some with olive oil and salt, and grilled it. I threw some pecans in the shell onto the grill to add some nice smoke.

Edited May 16, 2011 by sparrowgrass (log)

[the old cook]

For company our favorite way is olive oil and Kosher salt, with lots of smashed garlic all over, toss with hands and let sit for a couple hours, then roast in hot oven (400 degrees) for about 8 minutes. We do peel the stems first. At eight minute mark, add cherry tomatoes that have also been salted and oiled, again with lots of garlic added. Continue roasting until asparagus is al dente.

Sometimes when putting it all on platter, we sprinkle with Feta or Parm. Makes for very pretty presentation, we have never had left over asparagus.

[sabg]

i boil it a bit in some stock...then vita mix it to velvet and serve with crispy fried mushrooms and a dab of goat cheese on top

[Pierogi]

Asparagus Pizza....crust from Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice" (actually, could've used a bit of sturdier crust, but it was still damn good). Topping is sliced asparagus sauteed a bit with olive oil & garlic, then removed from pan, and onion added to drippings. Sauteed until soft. Onion, garlic & asparagus mixed into ricotta cheese, with some crushed red pepper flakes. Spread over crusts, topped with slivered hard Italian salami (I used "Calabrese" salami, which is also spicy) and black olives, then topped with shredded mozzarella and the asparagus tips. Onto the stone in a 500°-plus oven for about 5-7 minutes, and you have dinner. It was fine. VERY fine.

Full recipe will be on Da Blog in a day or two...

[kayb]

Bumping this thread up (I guess it would be the April of Asparagus, actually) because I bought my first local asparagus today. A local farmer sells it at the Farmers' Market, but our local market doesn't open until May. He also sells at the market in Memphis, which has been going since the beginning of April. He and his wife also operate a farm-to-fork restaurant near their farm, about halfway between me and Memphis. I had lunch there the other day and asked if I could buy asparagus there. He said sure, and to tell him how much I wanted and when I wanted to pick it up.

 

I told him two pounds, and I'd get it Saturday. I went down there today, and I had THREE AND A HALF pounds. I suspect it was cut this morning. I will eat asparagus all week, and not complain a bit.

 

This purple asparagus cooks up a darker green, and has no bitter taste at all. I'm in spring heaven.

 

 

[pufin3]

I made this last night:

One pound of fresh thin asparagus. Broke off the bottom inch or so.

Cut into thirds.  2 Cups of any kind of mushroom you like. I used fresh shiitakes with the stems removed and rough chopped.

Preheat wok to medium. Add 2T butter. Add 4 crushed/chopped garlic cloves, 1/2 bulb fennel very thin sliced using all the fronds too. 2T fine chopped chives including the buds/flowers (the best part), Turn down heat to very low to soften the fennel. Lid on.

Add in the fresh asparagus and mushrooms and 1/2 C hot water. Turn up heat to medium and cover with lid. Steam-saute until the asparagus is just barely cooked. This will take a few minutes. Add in 2 C hot half and half milk. Don't boil the milk!

Serve with whatever else you want for the protein.

I removed the asparagus and mushrooms with a slotted spoon and put it in the oven to keep hot. Into the milk I added two fillets of fresh cod cut into 3" pieces and two hundred grams of rough chopped fresh caught small squid bodies. No tentacles. I very slowly cooked the fish until barely cooked through. Plated the asparagus with the fish. Absolutely marvelous! Making it again tonight! Adding creamy mashed potatoes.

[Okanagancook]

I put my larger asparagus spears in the little steam oven on Super Steam for 13 minutes.  Perfectly tender. Just a squeeze of lemon juice and some salt.  Pure asparagus flavour.

[Deryn]

I agree, Okanagancook, with 'simple is best' when it comes to asparagus - just as I also like my lobster simply cooked and fairly plain. Steamed or baked (gently) whole and unadulterated with a little lemon, a bit of butter maybe, but that is all. Asparagus still is 'spring joy' to me - a remnant of my childhood when most foods had 'seasons' and were only obtainable for a few precious weeks.

[Okanagancook]

I only buy the local asparagus when it's available.  The imported stuff is a waste of time.  I've got three pitchers of asparagus with their little ends sitting in water ready for consumption later this week.  I like to get the thick ones then I peel off the outer skin to about half way up.  The steam oven got the ends very tender.

[BonVivant]

No imported asparagus for me. This is a small asparagus farm near my house (2.7km) .

 

This machine is called "asparagus spider" . The wheels go on both sides of a aspargus row.

 

Inside the sorting shed. It's a small shed. Look at the last photo inset on left and you see the entire width of the room. Machine with glowing blue light is a peeler. You can get your asparagus peeled and packaged for an extra euro more.

 

Edited April 24, 2016 by BonVivant (log)

[kayb]

8 hours ago, pufin3 said:

I made this last night:

One pound of fresh thin asparagus. Broke off the bottom inch or so.

Cut into thirds.  2 Cups of any kind of mushroom you like. I used fresh shiitakes with the stems removed and rough chopped.

Preheat wok to medium. Add 2T butter. Add 4 crushed/chopped garlic cloves, 1/2 bulb fennel very thin sliced using all the fronds too. 2T fine chopped chives including the buds/flowers (the best part), Turn down heat to very low to soften the fennel. Lid on.

Add in the fresh asparagus and mushrooms and 1/2 C hot water. Turn up heat to medium and cover with lid. Steam-saute until the asparagus is just barely cooked. This will take a few minutes. Add in 2 C hot half and half milk. Don't boil the milk!

Serve with whatever else you want for the protein.

I removed the asparagus and mushrooms with a slotted spoon and put it in the oven to keep hot. Into the milk I added two fillets of fresh cod cut into 3" pieces and two hundred grams of rough chopped fresh caught small squid bodies. No tentacles. I very slowly cooked the fish until barely cooked through. Plated the asparagus with the fish. Absolutely marvelous! Making it again tonight! Adding creamy mashed potatoes.

 

Sounds marvelous! Saving this recipe. I have cod filets in the freezer (no fresh, here in midAmerica). Will pass on the squid, as I have never learned to like it.

[Orbit]

I love peeling and sauteeing asparagus with an equal amount of shallots, and then tossing them in just a little butter when they're done.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

My favorite way for asparagus now is to boil it. I like the thicker ones. I used to be able to get pretty thin pencil asparagus that was good and very tender, but since most of the thin stuff is imported here from Chile now, it just doesn't even approximate asparagus for me anymore. Too stringy.

 

I serve whole spears in these cute preheated oven proof, oval-shaped, fluted-edge individual casseroles I found at the the Dollar General for, you guessed it, a dollar. 

 

I cook up an over easy fried egg in more butter than is necessary, so I have extra to serve poured over the asparagus. After I plate the asparagus spears, I plop a fried egg on top, drizzle over the melted butter, and serve it with a lemon wedge. It makes for a very pretty presentation. To properly enjoy this dish, one must take a knife and fork and totally demolish the lovely dish by cutting the asparagus into short lengths and the eggs into small bits. Then you mix it all up and squeeze the lemon over. It's not nearly as pretty now, but oh brother, is it good!

[Wayne]

 

No photo but I had my first asparagus and chive omelette for breakfast this morning immediately after harvesting.

 

As they say in the MasterCard ads: Priceless 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pufin3]

Yes I made the same dish last night as the night before.

One thing I forgot to mention is I stirred into the butter/garlic etc etc 1t of BTB lobster base.

I LOVE this base! I used to always add just a pinch of anchovy paste to pretty much every cavory dish I make. I mean every savory dish. The anchovy paste adds a very very subtle back-note on the palate.

Now I use BTB lobster base instead. The lobster base is a lighter flavor than the anchovy paste IMO.