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SaligoBay
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How do YOU cook asparagus?

Observations in another thread about overcooked haricots has led me to wonder....... is asparagus meant to be cooked till it's all floppy?    It's the only way I've seen it here, so is that the French way, or is it the only way (and no, the two are not necessarily the same thing! ) ?

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I've never tried cooking asparagus, but I don't think it should be floppy - probably it's best to do it to how you prefer. I just thought I'd mention a very nice dish I had cooked by a German friend many years ago, but apart from soup, I've not otherwise come across asparagus. She wrapped the spears in ham and poured cheese sauce over. Good for a starter, I suppose, but that was a light lunch.
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Green asparagus

You take the spears and hold them towards the bottom and bend them - they snap where the edible tissue meets the hard inedible tissue. Dump the hard ends. Boil water and use either an asparagus pan (15 inches or so high and 6 inches wide) or an ordinary pan but if the latter the tops will be over done. I tend to use an electric steamer and lay them in that. Cook/steam until the middle of the spear lets a knife into it easily - a bit longer if you want it soft and floppy - yes it should be floppy. Ours is in its second year so we can have the odd spear or two from each plant. Next year we should get 12 or so from each plant.

White asparagus

Pay for them at the market or supermarket. Put on the kettle. Open the bin and drop these horrible white things in. Make a cup of tea and remember never to buy them again.

The French of course totally disagree with the above and are happy to peel, cook and eat the hard white things. They don't like the green ones very much - so all the MORE FOR ME

Asparagus has a side effect - and for many an aphrodisiac it is not. It can make your pee smell from a few minutes after you eat the stuff and continues for about 12 hours. Latest research has shown that those who do not have this sensitivity to the chemical may be the ones that actually cannot smell the chemical in urine - it may well be that we all excrete it but only some can smell it. I can and it does not put me off eating it.

Ramble over and I hope the above helps

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Hi,

You asked

> How do YOU cook asparagus?

In an asparagus kettle. Di is obviously as besotted with asparagus as we are. We also share a delight in proper asparagus (after having had our beds 14 years, we dug them out and replanted them this year!) which means green asparagus. For those of you who have a Grand'Frais nearby, they have some magnificent green spears at the moment - a hell of a price, but worth every penny as they're the best I've ever had other than my own.

How do we cook them then? As Di said, break off the hard part - this only works with asparagus that is reasonably fresh - but then you wouldn't buy any others, would you? We then peel off the stalk end quite thickly, tapering the cut outwards towards the tip. Then, leaving one out, we tie them into a bundle and stand them up in the basket of the kettle, in strongly salted boiling water about 2/3 up the stalks. This means that the bottoms boil and the tops steam. Drop in the loose spear too, and cook until you can pierce the stalk end of the loose one reasonably easily. I prefer NOT to have my asparagus so well cooked that the tops drop off, though they should be tender. For really good fresh spears, cooking times will be as little as 8 minutes, for harder, dryer longer picked spears, it can be up to 1/2 hour.

The idea of the loose spear, is that eating one is the only really certain way of testing - cook's perks.

Lift out the bundle in its basket. Let drain a moment, then remove, untie bundle and arrange on a cloth to continue to drain. Finally serve with melted butter - must be demi sel - poured liberally over the tips. Eaten with the fingers, dabbling the spears in the pool of butter. There is no food better in the world, not even fresh raspberries and good thick sweet cream.

Yum. (We had ours today for lunch). And yes our pee smelt of asparagus, and who the hell cares?
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Thank you everyone.

I've only ever been served green asparagus, I'd always assumed that the white stuff was the de luxe version, but obviously not.

I've got an asparagus steamer!!  My dad brought it over, he got it free with something and says he won't use it, so now it can gather dust in my kitchen once the season's over.    Unless I can use it for something else?

Interesting side effect, didn't know about that! 

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Ian Hoares way is our way, but I add fresh black pepper after the melted butter, eldest child dips hers in Mayo, but shes a heathen and would have it on spag bolls if she could get away with it.

SB you must go to your local market and buy some........have you not noticed all your neighbours ,young and old alike , coming back from a casual walk in the lanes with their wild asparagus carried like a bunch of flowers, even the kids round here go out asparagus hunting! Mrs O

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As for the green asparagus I have nothing to add, but when it comes to white or blue asparagus you lot are a bunch of heathens! The difference between the green and the white is that the white is picked whilst it is still completely in the ground. It is also called 'blue' because of the bluish coloured tips.

The white asparagus has to be peeled, as the outer skin is very hard. Then you break off the ends, like you do with the green asparagus, but the cooking is slightly different. You heat a large pan of water to boiling point, put in one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of sugar. Then you lay in the asparagus for 15 - 20 mins, depending on the thickness of the stalks, but be careful not to let the water boil again!

It is best served with either melted butter or a Hollandaise Sauce. My entire family, that includes the kids of 3, 5 and 7, is very keen on grilled sole with white asparagus and Sauce Hollandaise.

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I agree with the cooking method above. Here we dip the spears in a boiled egg. Then can also be boiled for about 5 minutes and then grilled on one of those rideged grill things, or BBQ'd.

If anyone doesn't want any, I'll happily eat your share!

 

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A great way to cook green asparagus is on the BBQ or a griddle. It shrinks and concentrates all the sweetness. It also makes a superb risotto (OK not exactly French) where you make stock using all the bits that would otherwise be thrown away after the "snapping" operation.

A quality nice and peppery olive oil would also be more appropriate for SB - the Herault is not exactly dairy country.

Ref. the smell in one's urine I thought one needed a gene to smell it, so some can and some can't .

Graham

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Chop asparagus and put in pan with melted butter, fry really gently with pan lid on so almost a steam until tender...this makes the flavour stronger...stir occasionally

 

peel 2 medium pototoes and chop up finely and add to the asparagus

 

add either chicken or veg stock and simmer for 15 mins...add salt and pepper to season

 

then liquidize and its done..serve with dollop of fresh cream and a few of the heads of the asparagus that  have been saved from the liquidizer

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"Finally serve with melted butter - must be demi sel - poured liberally over the tips. Eaten with the fingers, dabbling the spears in the pool of butter. There is no food better in the world, not even fresh raspberries and good thick sweet cream."

Oh Ian, I can't think of two more perfect dishes!!!  My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Graham, as for griddling asparagus, do you need to par boil it first or does it go sraight on?  And if so, for how long?

My sister-in-law has given us some one year old asparagus to plant up - any tips anyone?  Can't wait for it to be ready (I know we have a long, long wait) but the "green" season here is so short, and heathen or not, I've just never fancied the white stuff.

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Hi Sally,

Thanks for your agreement! To me, they epitomise their seasons. Asparagus SINGs of spring and Raspberries chant the summer. For me great cooking is always tied to the seasons, and I abhor and abominate bad iimported expensive ingredients imported out of season.

>My sister-in-law has given us some one year old asparagus to plant up - any tips anyone? Can't wait for it to be ready (I know we have a long, long wait) but the "green" season here is so short, and heathen or not, I've just never fancied the white stuff.

Best asked in the Gardening forum, however planting isn't too easy. The ground must be well prepared because the plants are enormous and demand a LOT of food, think about what happens, you cut off every growing tip for weeks! They need a heck of a good root structure to resist that kind of abuse. Deeply dig in loads of manure. Don't be too greedy too early, let the plants build up strength.

As for the rest. The world is divided into the sheep and the goats. The sheep, who will sit at the right hand of the lord, eat green asparagus, the goats eat anything, including the white. (;-)
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A quick postscript

Asparagus risotto is abolutely magic!!

Oh, and Grigson's Vegetable Book gives some good recipes. However for a true asparagus lover, the only way to eat it is as I described earlier. All the rest is "nascherei" - but effete continentals, who don't understand excellence in vegetables don't understand this either and will insist upon wrecking the flavour with eggs, hollandaise, mayonnaise, and other sour and vinegary things. Bleurgh.

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[quote]Any tried and tested recipes for asparagus soup?[/quote]

If you must.... This isn't bad.

@@@@@ Now You're Cooking! Export Format

Asparagus Soup

british, soups, starters, vegetables

20 medium asparagus spears

240 gm green peas or spinach

900 ml white stock

1 teaspoon sugar

30 gm butter

150 ml milk

150 ml double cream (heavy)

1 salt & pepper

Wash and prepare the asparagus, discarding all but the top 2-3" of the

stems as the lower part is apt to make the soup bitter. Reserve 1 cm

tips for garnish and cook them separately for 10 minutes. Cut the

remainder into 2 cm lengths and cook in the boiling stock with peas

or spinach, sugar and seasoning until tender.

Rube through a fine sieve without draining. Make a white roux with

the butter and flour, add the asparagus puree and bring to the boil,

stirring in the milk. To serve, stir in the cream, and add the

asparagus tips, a few to each bowl.

Recipe "The cookery of England" Elizabeth Ayrton ISBN 0-14-046819-6

Mmed IMH c/o Le MarYol BBS Fido 2:324/151.4

Yield: 6 servings

** Exported from Now You're Cooking! v5.66 **

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Coco - Planting asparagus

You need to plant asparagus 8 inches deep. To me this is too much like hard work so I got some sleepers and made a raised bed. I dug out a little and placed the crowns in the base - make sure that they do not touch - and you have to spread the roots out as wide as they will go - so 18 to 24 inches apart and about 24 to 36 inches between rows. Cover with good soil. You can build this up over the next two years so you need 4 inches at least to start - not too deep as they will not manage to get the spears to the surface and so die. Use soil, well rotted manure, any seaweed feed during the winter (we buy an organic feed made from sea shells and seaweed - asparagus was originally a seaside plant). We have also added the free compost we get from the dechetterie, mole soil, any used plant compost etc. This year (year 2) we will make up the surface to the top of the bed. The spears this year are huge but we will only pick a max of 2 spears from each plant if we even do that. You can build up your beds higher if you wish - the deeper the fertile soil the better but I am not going above 12 inches as I don't want it to come out white...

Next year we will cut from first showing till the second week in June - a huge harvest which we will enjoy.

I hope that this helps and you can wait as we have done for your first harvest.

A word of warning. In this area 'fools asparagus' abounds - it looks like asparagus but when left forms into a climbing plant that is very very poisonous. Take care.

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Thanks Ian and Di, guests leave in the morning and we're empty for a week before a busy patch, so husband can get out in the garden (between the showers) and get them in.  We have plenty of mole soil and compost from our free composter.
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Nobody has mentioned the microwave. We adore asparagus and glut on it when it is season.  I put 2 very large handfuls flat in a shallow dish, add a little boiling water and pop in the microwave for up to 10 minutes. This seems to work perfectly.

Asparagus should still have a little bite to it 'al dente' like pasta.  A drizzle of tasty olive oil and balsamic vinegar is another alternative to the melted butter dish.

Yes you can BBQ it - or roast it in the oven. Again drizzle over olive oil and roast till ready. YUM!

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