White Asparagus Grilled (last asparagus recipe, honest!)

This is the last asparagus recipe this year, but I am including it despite the asparagus bias in the last few weeks. Two reasons: one, my sister lives in Northern Germany and apart from her many talents, she is also into food and, being in an asparagus-growing, she is well placed to supply the stuff fresh out of the ground when she comes to Switzerland, which she did last week, the asparagus kept so fresh by being wrapped in a wet linen cloth. The second reason: I had dinner with a journalist in Geneva – no, I am not dropping any names – and she mentioned how she had been served asparagus in Northern Italy. This is a development of her description, really easy, really fast…

So, one last time: asparagus.

What you need

• 1 kg fresh (white) asparagus peeled and with the woody bits trimmed off
• 50 g butter cut into small slivers
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 sprig of fresh tarragon, chopped
• 50-100 ml dry sherry
• freshly grated parmesan

What you do

1. Lay out the asparagus in an oven-proof dish, ideally one layer deep.
2. Spread the slivers of butter evenly over the asparagus and season with salt and pepper.
3. Drizzle with the sherry, sprinkle with tarragon and cover with a dusting of grated parmesan.
4. Put under the hot grill and check after about 10 minutes for the consistency of the asparagus (al dente or soft). If the cheese gets too dark, cover with silver foil.

Risotto with Green Asparagus Tips

The asparagus bonanza continues. The recipe that follows is again based on an asparagus fond and as there will be a fair bit of the slightly less tender stalks left over, another asparagus recipe – asparagus cream soup with fresh herbs – will follow to make use of these. 

What you need

• 1 bundle of green asparagus, cut off from the top, about 10 cm long
• peels and the woody parts at the bottom
• 30 g butter
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tblsp apple balsamico vinegar (or a not too acerbic white wine vinegar)
• vegetable stock cube or powder
• 400 g risotto rice (carnaroli or Ticinesi Riso Nostrano)
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• 100 ml good white wine
• 5 medium-sized leaves of wild garlic, finely chopped

What you do

1. Melt the butter and and sauté the peels and parts of the asparagus that are too woody or stringy to eat until the peels are soft and the pan has taken a bit of colour.
2. Add the sugar, the stock and finally the vinegar, making sure that the browning in the bottom of the pan is dissolved, then cover with water.
3. Leave to simmer for at least 10 minutes, strain and put the fond aside.
4. In the meantime, heat the oil sauté the onions and add the garlic a bit later without letting them colour. Add the rice and stir until it looks glassy.
5. Pour in the wine, then the asparagus fond and stir. Leave to simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the asparagus tips (earlier if they are rather thick).
6. Allow to simmer till the juices have been soaked up and the rice is done (depends on the type of rice you use).
7. Shortly before serving, add the wild garlic but make sure you don’t destroy the delicate tips when you stir it in.
8. Serve with a generous helping of freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano.

Remarks

With the rest of the stalks I make an asparagus cream soup while the risotto simmers. This works well frozen so as not to OD on asparagus. The recipe for this will follow shortly.

Asparagus in a Creamy Fond

This recipe is dedicated to my Dad. I cooked it for him today, he praised it in words and by cleaning out the plate with bread, barely leaving the glazing intact. 

Asparagus for me is one of the quintessentially seasonal foods, at a time when there are not many new things ready picking. I dreamt this one up a couple of years ago because making a real Hollandaise is not that failsafe/foolproof and homemade mayonnaise is something relatively easy to make and yet I often somehow manage to mess it up. (By the way. in one of restaurants near my home specialising in fresh asparagus, they have a homemade mayonnaise with a bit of asparagus fond in it, simply delicious) 

I came up with this very aspargussy recipe as an answer to the above. It’s not terribly quick and easy but, according to my Dad, well worth the effort.

What you need (for 2 people)

• 10 white and 10 green asparagus (all the same kind works too), the former peeled, the latter just peeled at the lower end
• the peelings and the woody bits
• 30 g butter
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1-2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp apple balsamico vinegar (or a not too acerbic white wine vinegar)
• vegetable stock cube or powder
• water to cover the asparagus
• 100 ml fresh (or, if you are feeling naughty, double) cream
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed, or a handful of finely chopped wild garlic
• salt and pepper to taste (possibly a dash of tabasco)

What you do

1. In a frying pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion, the peels of the asparagus and the finely diced bits you have cut off.
2. After about 5 minutes of steady stirring, add the sugar, vinegar and the stock cube/powder; stir.
3. Put in the asparagus and add enough water to cover them just about. This is the asparagus fond, which will form the basis of the sauce.
4. Allow to simmer until the asparagus have reached the desired softness (Caroline likes them quite soft, I prefer them al dente).
5. Take them out and put them aside, keeping them warm.
6. Liquidise what is left in the frying pan with the garlic (if using wild garlic, add that at the end) and strain through a sieve. Press the puréed asparagus material against the mesh so as to make sure that the finest particles end up with the liquid; discard the rest (it is very stringy and woody).
7. Stirring,  reduce the liquid until it barely covers the bottom of the pan.
8. Stir in the cream and reduce to the consistency of a not too thick custard (adding wild garlic at this stage).
9. Add the juices that will have gathered in the dish with the asparagus, and serve them on warm plates with the sauce decoratively poured over them. Some fresh bread to catch the sauce might be appreciated…

Remarks

Asparagus are usually sold with a kind of cover over the bottom end. I suspect this is to make it possible to sell inferior or not very fresh stuff: the best way of checking whether asparagus are fresh (and likely to be tender) is to squeeze the bottom end. If it remains entirely dry, they may need to be trimmed fairly far up. (but then that stuff makes for the rich flavour of the fond!)

As pointed out, white asparagus need peeling (all the way to the very tender top); green asparagus benefit from generous peeling at the lower end up to the point where a knife would cut them with little to no pressure. This is actually also a way to test for woodiness and to help deciding what needs to be used for the fond.

Lastly, if you are not keen on adding cream – which would make this a vegan dish if there is no dairy stuff in the veggie stock and you’ve substituted the butter with a relatively neutral vegetable oil, e.g. corn or rape seed oil – simply reduce the fond a bit further instead of adding the cream.