Friday 6 May 2011

LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

I've told you before how much I love asparagus. How much I have always loved asparagus.

I usually drop the spears into boiling water for just a few minutes and eat them with melted butter. I have roasted it and grilled it but I would always find myself going back. But then, this week, we ate asparagus twice in two days, twice in two days after waiting until the first week of May to finally buy some, and both times I followed Nigel Slater's suggestion in Tender to preheat the oven to about 180°C, place a large piece of foil in a baking dish, put the asparagus onto the foil, drizzle over olive oil, some lemon juice, a sprinkle of sea salt, close the foil to make a loose parcel and bake, for about 15 - 20 minutes. And, while it baked, I focused on two new recipes, both from Super Natural Every Day, both keepers. On Wednesday we ate asparagus alongside white beans and cabbage, yesterday with a quinoa cake and fried eggs. If I wasn't going out for dinner tonight I would probably eat it again.

4 comments:

Anna's kitchen table said...

My best way with asparagus is to wrap it with Parma ham and roast it. Yummy!

Jillian said...

I'm looking forward to trying Nigel's method! I just spent the past week reading Tender from cover to cover.

Last summer, I discovered the miracle of the Zuni cafe sauce gribiche with asparagus. Molly posted the recipe: http://orangette.blogspot.com/2009/05/something-called-sauce-gribiche.html

Alicia Foodycat said...

I love asparagus season! Last night we had it in a watercress salad with a fish pie, the night before chucked through some rice and topped with eggs and chilli vinegar. Bliss.

Gemma said...

Anna - that does sound good. I've been roasting it and adding it to salads but will have to try the parma ham soon.

Jillian - thanks for the suggestion. I've never had sauce gribiche but this might be the time to try!

Foodycat - bliss indeed. I am so sad when asparagus season ends each year and this Summer, with the weather most of the country has had I feel like all of the lovely Summer fruit and vegetables will disappear earlier than usual. I hope I'm wrong.

gx