Asparagus Season

Asparagus

I love eating fruit and vegetables in season. While many of them lend themselves to the creation of exciting preserves and a few can be frozen successfully – peas, sweetcorn and tomato pulp for winter use as well as raspberries and stewed apples – for the most part I do prefer them fresh. I look forward especially to those very seasonal vegetables like asparagus, globe artichokes and runner beans and with fruit – to the strawberry season. However, I also find that, after the original excitement of them, those flavours pall after a few weeks.

This year I started harvesting my asparagus in mid March. I have waited for three years to be able to eat it and was totally thrilled to be able to take home my first small bunch. However, I caught a rather inconvenient virus a few weeks ago, which affected my sense of smell and taste. As anyone, who is familiar with asparagus knows, it does funny things to your sense of smell. During this time I found it quite difficult to eat – I could even smell it from my skin. I found I was giving lots of bunches away. For such a luxury vegetable this is really a shame – well maybe not as, the friends I gave it to were delighted.

When I was young, few recipe books had recipes for asparagus and many of those demanded that we have special asparagus pots for cooking it – of course, it was very expensive and had to be treated with respect. Mostly it would be served with Hollandaise sauce and, how delicious was that! Many of these books would be hung up on whether it was white, purple or green asparagus – the white variety being the best and most expensive, the green being the least expensive [but, many thought, the most flavoursome] these days, do we care? We just eat and enjoy it.

Now, of course, asparagus is much more readily available, is much cheaper and is available – imported – all year round. For me, I will not buy out-of-season imported vegetables and I personally think that imported out-of-season asparagus is fairly tasteless. So, let’s enjoy it while it is available – fresh.

If you grow your own asparagus, harvest by cutting the stems close to the ground. The thicker ones are probably the male plants [many seed/plant companies will guarantee male only plants when you buy them], the thinner ones are probably the female plants but, don’t sneer at them, they are thought to have a much better flavour.

When you take your spears home, you will find that when you bend the stems, they will break at the point between where the stem is woody and where it is lusciously edible. It’s funny that, although I’ve been a dedicated cook for many years, I didn’t know this until I holidayed at a cookery school in Andalucia [in southern Spain] last autumn where they actually have two asparagus harvests each year.

If you have a suitably deep container to keep the asparagus upright then it is best cooked that way – the stems need longer to soften while the tips are best cooked in the steam above. About 20 minutes in gently boiling water should do it. Steaming is probably preferable. Allow  6 – 8 minutes [ less if the asparagus is thin]. Then drain well on kitchen paper.

I was listening to a TV chef giving advice to someone last week on cooking asparagus [I regret that I don’t remember who to give him credit]. However, he suggested that asparagus should be cooked in boiling salted water for 1½ minutes then plunged into iced water. It would then keep in the fridge for several days to use in a variety of dishes. That said, I have kept freshly cut asparagus in my fridge for 3 – 4 days before using and it has remained quite crisp.

My personal favourite way of presenting asparagus is also probably the easiest;

Freshly cooked asparagus – 4 – 5 spears per person

Good quality butter

Freshly ground black pepper

A sprinkle of sea salt

Lemon wedges.

Try it also with Hollandaise Sauce: Now, if you have ever tried to make Hollandaise Sauce you will know that it can be quite tricky and time consuming. However, Hugh  Fearnley-Wittingstall in his ‘River Cottage Veg, everyday’ which my son-in-law bought me for Christmas [a wonderful book, do buy it if you can afford it!] has come up with an easy method – as he calls it ‘ a cheaty hollandaise’ ( Melt 150gm butter and whisk it, a little at a time, into an egg yolk until it has a loose consistency, like mayonnaise. Whisk in a generous squeeze of lemon juice and season with a pinch of salt and some pepper.) Of course, this recipe is also good for lots of other vegetables and dishes.

Asparagus is also excellent with a variety of other sauces:

Asparagus in Almond Sauce [from Finca las Encinas – if you can, do book in for a course on cooking there – a truly memorable experience – www.finca-las-encinas.com  or cooking@finca-las-encinas.com ]

1 small ripe tomato

½ small head garlic, unpeeled

50 – 60 g slivered blanched almonds

½ tsp sherry vinegar

60 ml extra virgin olive oil

375g asparagus, ends snapped off

Salt

Method

* Roast the tomato and garlic in the oven 180ºC/Gas 4 for 15 minutes

* Peel the tomato and the garlic cloves.

* Toast the almonds on a baking sheet until golden for about 4 minutes.

* Add tomato, garlic and almonds, vinegar and salt to a food processor or blender until very smooth. Continue mixing. Slowly add the olive oil until it appears like mayonnaise. Taste for salt.

* Grill the asparagus on an oiled skillet or griddle, occasionally turning, for about 10 minutes.

* Serve immediately topped by the almond sauce.

Asparagus with cheese sauce

1 bunch of asparagus – preferably freshly cut, washed and trimmed

For the Sauce

50gm [2 oz] butter

50gm [2 oz] plain flour

250ml [½ pt] milk

75gm [3oz] grated cheddar cheese

Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Method

·        Steam the asparagus spears.

·        Melt the butter in a saucepan with the salt and pepper.

·        Add the flour and cook until a roux is reached [ don’t allow the mixture to brown or burn!]

·        Gradually add the milk, stirring all the time until the milk has been worked into the mixture without lumps – stirring all the time!

·        Bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute.

·        Add half of the cheese and stir in until the cheese has melted. Season to taste.

·        Spoon the sauce over the cooked asparagus in an ovenproof dish.

·        Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over the sauce and asparagus.

·        Cook under a grill until the cheese is lightly browned and serve.