Try pan frying green asparagus in olive oil with garlick and onion, salt, pepper and add a dash of sugar for a glaze.
You can experiment with turkey breast strips, or your thunfish. Perhaps a twist of curry, add lettuce or better rucola and wallnut bits. Bang an egg in and stir, just dont fry too hot or it will get bitter.
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I learned today from the guys picking it that white asparagus is just green asparagus grown in the dark. It’s the first year they’ve covered over half the field with black tarpaulin and I asked them why.
It changes the flavour.
It also changes the nutritional profile. Less vitamins like C and E. Around the big spargel-growing areas, you can see huge fields covered with black plastic to keep the light out.
If they keep the lights out with all the tarp, does it still grow green above the ground? is it ‘white’ above ground?
The spears that poke out above ground are white under the tarps. The had tons of them this morning.
@tom8050, see post #469–the spears are white above ground and those pictured are around 25-30cm long. All but about 10cm should be under a mound of soil until harvest. When they pick, the knife goes in deep under the ground to catch the other 15-20cm.
A classical…‘revuelto de ajetes, gambas y trigueros’ > sautée of fresh garlic, crevettes and green asparagus - using olive oil, of course; you add the eggs at the end. The green asparagus, as thin as possible, so they can be quickly ‘stir fry’.
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I have the impression that thinner asparagus are easier to cook and more flavorful. But, big ones are prevalent in the supermarket.
When the asparagus crown is young or stressed (overcrowding, insufficient food), it will produce thin spears. Also, some varieties are naturally thin. Thin spears are in fact less flavourful than thicker spears, and they tend to have a grassy taste. When mature and properly fed, the fatter spears have more rounded flavour. It just depends on what you like. I used to have a big asparagus field, and that’s just what I experienced. YMMV.
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You know when your asparagus is good when your pee smells like grass the next morning.
Which is precisely why I avoid it. And more like fermentating, rotting grasses.
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An hour after eating it !
I like the small spears, boiled for one minute and then quickly cooled in ice water and draind. Then tossed with olive oil, pepper, sea salt flakes and a bit of grated parmesan cheese and then either grilled in the oven or thrown on a BBQ for a couple of minutes or so.
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Why, oh why, does Swiss insist on serving asparagus on long haul flights?
I dread flying during ‘Spargelzeit’.
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…I see that @Tom1234 is either Italian, Chilean, or an undercover Swiss. Why, why, why masking the delicate taste of asparagus with cheese…?
When I invite my Swiss friends and offer a choice of menus, my question to them is “…what do you want your cheese with?”
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It’s just a little parmesan - not any old cheese. The umami taste of the parmesan, together with the salt really works.
I wouldn’t do it with the big asparagus spears - those are best boiled and served with melting butter.
You barbarian, boiling asparagus, at least steam it.
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Technically, he’s blanching the little ones, so it’s OK. Boiling for 5-8 minutes removes a lot of nutrients, so I agree that steaming is better if you intend to cook longer than 2 minutes. OTOH, boiling also lowers the levels of asparagine, which is what causes the stink.
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Variation on Walliser toast
Bread soaked in white wine, covered with leftover cauliflower and raclette cheese, add garlic, paprika and black pepper, bake in oven
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White and green asparagus salad.
Cut off the stems as necessary, peel both the white and green ones, the white ones maybe up to maybe 5-6cm off the top.
Cut both of them into about 1cm slices but leave the top 5-7cm. Fry the slices in olive oil with pepper and salt, just shy of letting them brown. Cut the top tips vertically into alumettes, fry them as well, add some butter to let all the pieces brown slightly. At the end, add Aceto Balsamico to taste. Additional salt and pepper as needed.
If you have lots of asparagus, fry the two different cuts in two different pans to make sure you can fry both cuts well enough.
Arrange onto a plate ideally with the plain cuts surrounded by the long cuts.
Inspired by Georges Blanc, according to him additionally season with black truffle as necessary.
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Was browsing for ideas given there are some serious cooks here and my eyes caught this.
I imagine it’s commercial garum, right?
Crazy me, back when I had more appetite for experimentation, tried to make garum at home, but in the end my wife objected to us using it and it went in the trash in a sealed container.
Was about half a kilo of raw herrings, cut up, guts and all, layered with coarse salt in a bucket for olives and left in Greek summer sun.
Weirdly whenever I opened it to look it never had a bad smell, or even fishy smell. It smelled like chocolate believe it or not.
Interesting little bit of history, Liutprand of Cremona, in his second mission to Constantinople, described being invited to a feast by Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, and offered food from the Emperor’s own dish. He describes “a young goat, overfilled with leek and garlic, and drenched in that disgusting fish sauce the Greeks love”. Bear in mind “Greek” was an insult at the time, both to western Europeans as well as Byzantines (who called themselves “Roman”), as it meant “pagan”.
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