The author's comments about wild asparagus remind me of the warning by Anderson et al. in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol.48, pages 39-42, January, 2015, regarding the visual similarity of the popular garden plant, Baptisia australis, to asparagus. For a short period in spring, Baptisia looks very similar to asparagus. However, it is poisonous. The authors describe the symptoms of two people who mistakenly ingested Baptisia and comment "Baptisia, a native prairie plant commonly found in restored prairie habitats and public spaces, has striking “look-alike” characteristics, in its immature state, to asparagus. As future exposures by foraging citizens will be likely, awareness of this relationship and the toxic manifestations of cytisine will be useful."
Should read "Buerre noir"
The correct spelling in French is "beurre noir".
I am addicted to white asparagus. It is a culinary challenge but when it is prepared correctly it is a subtle tongue and palate pleaser. I have mastered la sauce hoolandaise and la sauce bearnaise solely to satisfy my cravings for white asparagus. Unlike the green you want the fattest stems. You must carefully peel them and immediately boil them in a water in which the peelings, a small smashed clove of garlic and a we bit of lemon zest have been boiled.i adore them Kong Oskar, as a creamy soup or just lightly sautéed with Nort Sea shrimp and Bierce noir with Fresca baguette slices and real European butter - maybe a few drops of lemon or lime.
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These are not the white asparagus that I am familiar with. Those are grown without exposure to light and have no chlorophyll at all.
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Make it really shine by not having wine with it!
So many great ideas and variety - good news for the abundance on its way to zone 8. One more: cover cooked asparagus with a runny, poached egg and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. mmmm...
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Mine just started coming up last week. They indeed can grow a foot a day.
White Asparagus is just asparagus that is continually buried as it grows so as to inhibit the formation of chlorophyll which would turn it green. I imagine there is quite a difference in nutritive value.
I like Silver Palate's asparagus with warm boiled eggs and capers, in a balsamic vinaigrette - served RT. Delicious!!!
Sauce on asparagus? Why on earth?
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I agree ii butter is best -- but hollandaise isn't all bad.
Never had it till I got married, now I can't get enough of it. We grill it, love it.
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Asparagus cut into 2-inch pieces and sautéed with julienned onion (or 2-inch pieces of scallions) and julienned red bell pepper with butter, salt, and pepper.
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I admit to being a late-comer to the asparagus world, growing up with other standby's in our short (ND) growing season. But, once discovered, asparagus has taken center stage for my veggie taste; I admit to preferring a dusting of salt and pepper on charred asparagus, sometimes with olive oil. Am definitely going to try the Chimichurri flavor, also am going to char with capers for the salty taste.
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This article has been written a million times. Fine for a food blog, maybe, but NYTimes you gotta give us something more.
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David, when I get the first bunches from a nearby farm, which should be this week, your last paragraph is the way I go.
After recently moving to Manhattan from the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, the only thing I'm going to miss is early spring's "hadley grass". The best asparagus from the fertile soil along the Connecticut River.
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I have recently discovered sous vide. A handful a of asparagus, a dollop of butter and a bit of salt in a bag, into the water. Really good.
I could never stand boiled asparagus - it was usually overcooked. My favorite and almost only way to cook it is sauteed in olive oil in an iron skillet until just tender and browning, sprinkled with salt and a healthy dose of fresh ground pepper. Simple, fast, delicious. I've never grown it, but this might be the year I start.
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Plant it now because it takes several years to really get going.
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Steam or boil asparagus?!? Never! Saute in almost anything, from olive oil to bacon grease, or toss with oil, garlic, and salt, and roast in a hot oven 5-10 minutes. Add to almost anything or eat straight, no chaser.
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Some lovely sauce recipes but I strongly disagree with the call for pencil thin asparagus for charring. You need thickish spears for the optimum char AND bite...note how some of the more yellowed spears in the photograph even look floppy (i.e., overcooked). My favorite way of using thin asparagus is to add it, chopped large, along with petit pois for the last couple of minutes of cooking time of a mix of onion, garlic, baby carrots, & button mushrooms stewed in veg. stock and seasoned with a dash of soy sauce. I then fold in lots of chopped mint and parsley & serve.
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After breaking off the woody lower stems, I lay the washed spears loosely in a microwave safe baking dish. I add 1/2 cup water and cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap, poked with some vent holes. Nuke for 3.5 minutes and bob's your uncle.
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Save the woody ends for your next batch of homemade stock.
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I adore asparagus. The less you do to it the better; it does not need spices and herbs to let its delicious flavor come through.
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While in season, we eat asparagus 2-3 times a week. White Asparagus should be peeled, and then cooked the same amount of time as the green.
Last night we has cream of asparagus soup.
Last night we has cream of asparagus soup.
1
On very hot days we love a good-sized platter full of very cold steamed asparagus (I admit to using the microwave) with a sauce of mustard and mayo. A handful of strawberries and life is not just good, but excellent.
2
Simmer in water? Here in Calif, where asparagus is grown, we'd consider that an abomination, cooking away the flavor and vitamins into water you throw away. While grilling's good, too, the standard preparation is to steam them until just tender using an insert steamer in a big pot. Fresh asparagus is so delicious that it needs nothing added to it, but sometimes there's a spritz of lemon, a bit of butter or a grind of fresh pepper and salt.
1
Oooooo. Asparagus! Put the stalks under chicken breast with some olive oil (only California oil). Season as you like and roast both at the same time. Or in an omelette topped with some Hollandaise sauce. Thanks! Now I have to run over to the store for some green stalky goodness.
Just has some grilled asparagus yesterday at 'Gage' in downtown Chicago. Wonderful! Use to pick them wild on the farm I grew up in Wisconsin.
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The problem with really fresh asparagus is not how to cook it, but how to find it.
I know that this style of preparation is no longer in fashion, but it brings back fond memories of my grandmother who very likely learned this method in her mother's kitchen.
Take a bunch of cleaned, trimmed asparagus and cut it in about 3 segments. Steam the asparagus until just tender. Remove the asparagus to a plate. Drain the asparagus water from the pan and save. Make a white sauce in the pan with butter, flour, and whole milk or half and half. Add about a 1/2 cup of the asparagus water to the mixture and cook until it has thickened. Add salt and pepper and serve the creamed asparagus over toast. It is a delicious brunch or light dinner dish. Very old fashioned and a sign of spring!
Take a bunch of cleaned, trimmed asparagus and cut it in about 3 segments. Steam the asparagus until just tender. Remove the asparagus to a plate. Drain the asparagus water from the pan and save. Make a white sauce in the pan with butter, flour, and whole milk or half and half. Add about a 1/2 cup of the asparagus water to the mixture and cook until it has thickened. Add salt and pepper and serve the creamed asparagus over toast. It is a delicious brunch or light dinner dish. Very old fashioned and a sign of spring!
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How about raw, y'all? Straight out of the garden.
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That's the best -- a clear indication that spring has arrived!
As children growing up in the countryside of northern Illinois my sister and I would be sent out early in the spring morning to pick asparagus to be used at dinner. It grew along the fence line on the north end of the farm; spears that were too short to pick one day would be tall and going to seed the next. Our mother urged us to work quickly before the 'town people' showed up, and we did. (The rival 'town people', if there actually were any, didn't show up until long after we finished; we never saw them.) The morning air was cool and still, sunlight was warm, the occasional red-winged blackbirds warned us away from nests. The road was gravel so there was only local traffic aside from the 'poachers'. And at the end of the day there was that delicious asparagus at dinner. AnnF, you would have been the enemy, but I hope you enjoyed your dinner half as much as we did.
Timely. Asparagus of the feral type coming up all along my fence now. We brush them with lemon garlic olive oil, sea salt and red pepper flakes and cook them in a grill basket on the outdoor barbecue. A meal on their own served with crusty baguette and shaved Parmesan. Try a nicely chilled Picpoul de Pinet white with these.
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I like it served at room temperature with freshly squeezed lime juice and freshly ground black pepper, and a little mayonnaise. I also use it raw in chunks in salads.
Obviously no one on this comments list ever had to eat canned asparagus as a child. I appreciated well prepared fresh asparagus now, but as a child in the 50's asparagus looked and tasted like slimy green worms with rancid mucous covering.
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Perfectly said. The first time I tried it, at 7, and it was from a can, I knew it was an abomination, but that the fresh stuff had to be worth finding.
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I have only learned to love asparagus as an adult (we always steam ours) but my father always loved it, in season only, of course, usually a gift from a farmer. He called it "sparrow grass".
I've been living in Germany since 1970. When I first came here green asparagus were practically unheard of. Asparagus here grew underground and were white. When I said that in the U.S. asparagus were green people here didn't believe me, thought I didn't know what I was talking about or that I was just pulling their leg. Oh, how I suffered in those early years of my stay here. In Germany when you say asparagus they are white. The asparagus season is very short running from about the middle of April to the end of June. The Germans are crazy about their asparagus and during the season it the most expensive vegetable on the market (partly because of the harvesting method by hand and partly because of the hype). Fortunately, green asparagus, although not as popular here as the white variety, have become widely available. Now when I tell people that when you say asparagus in the U.S. they are automatically green they believe me.
Personally, I don't care if I never eat another white asparagus but give me my green!
Personally, I don't care if I never eat another white asparagus but give me my green!
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I had such dreams of asparagus recipes when I dug a trench jutting out into the middle of my backyard several years ago. In went three varieties of asparagus to give me all sorts of options. Years later, not a single stalk has entered my home. I see a stalk, I snap it off and eat. I can't resist. Asparagus is amazing fresh.
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The best time and place to eat white asparagus is to go to Germany in April or May. Once you have tried the real white tasty asparagus, you will will never buy again the white one from Peru. The taste varies from region to region, according to the soil.
It is easy to prepare: you peel the fresh asparagus and then you cook it for 20 to 25 minutes in water (you add salt, sugar, a knob of butter and a splash of lemon juice). We eat it with melted butter, small new potatoes and smoked ham.
It is easy to prepare: you peel the fresh asparagus and then you cook it for 20 to 25 minutes in water (you add salt, sugar, a knob of butter and a splash of lemon juice). We eat it with melted butter, small new potatoes and smoked ham.
5
The white asparagus is the best one and more widespread in north-east Italy. We eat it boiled and together with eggs. But my preferred way of cooking white asparagus is with rice ("risotto con asparagi").
In 5 years this vegetable won't exist
when we bought our home in 2003, the owners had left us six or seven established crowns of asparagus. They are still producing to this day..I broke off and munched raw the first stalk two days ago. Ours grow at an unpredictable pace and size variation. Tall and skinny, short and thick; impossible to predict. They can grow a foot in a day. I am a witness!
My husband and I have always wanted to plant an asparagus patch, but we've moved too often to ever get one started. We moved to our home in Wisconsin last May and finally made it back to the overgrown garden in July. We couldn't believe it when we discovered the well-established asparagus patch which we had completely missed out on. We have been harvesting this year for a week already and it's as amazing as we always hoped it would be.
While living in SF, the availability of great veggies is amazing. Met this young lady and asked her to come up for a weekend at my ski house. Really found some great veggies and the asparagus was outstanding - at the very peek. Had a dedicated asparagus steamer - my house mate sees the asparagus and immediately grabs a knife and cuts the perfect spears into pieces.
Never saw her again - thought was if she is that coarse - don't bother.
Never saw her again - thought was if she is that coarse - don't bother.
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Waiting patiently for local "Hadley grass." Tastes even better when it comes from the farm down the road!
Right now, you can buy dandelion greens at Integral Yoga grocery for $2.79. They're in season!! I make Dandeloin Soup (from France) just chicken stock, a little sautéed onions and then some cream or yogurt. Amazing!
I have an asparagus patch and I've been eating them every other day for a week. I like them stir fried, with a little sesame oil added at the end. I've also made a couple of asparagus quiches with Gruyere cheese and leeks.
Your "feral" asparagus is probably different from the wild asparagus found throughout the Mediterranean.
A number of commentators here seem to strongly disapprove of anything that goes beyond the most simple preparations and seasonings.
In Europe (e.g., parts of Italy and southern France), people seem to have less hang-ups regarding the use of wild asparagus in various preparations.
In his book "In Maremma", David Leavitt gives a charming description of hunting for and preparing wild asparagus.
"In spring, Ilvo walked up and down the dirt road on which our houses were located, looking for stalks of wild asparagus, pencil thin and so delicate they needed barely to be cooked. [...] Should Ilvo share some of the wild asparagus with us, we'd make a carbonara using eggs from Delia's chickens, grana padano, pancetta, and the wild asparagus."
A number of commentators here seem to strongly disapprove of anything that goes beyond the most simple preparations and seasonings.
In Europe (e.g., parts of Italy and southern France), people seem to have less hang-ups regarding the use of wild asparagus in various preparations.
In his book "In Maremma", David Leavitt gives a charming description of hunting for and preparing wild asparagus.
"In spring, Ilvo walked up and down the dirt road on which our houses were located, looking for stalks of wild asparagus, pencil thin and so delicate they needed barely to be cooked. [...] Should Ilvo share some of the wild asparagus with us, we'd make a carbonara using eggs from Delia's chickens, grana padano, pancetta, and the wild asparagus."
That sounds good to me. Bold flavors but still simple.
1
It wasn't until I came to California, where asparagus is served primarily grilled, that I truly began to appreciate this vegetable. Once grilled, asparagus takes on a wonderful crunchy browned exterior with a soft, sweet interior, and the intensity of the flavor is lessened.
5
When we were first married, my husband and I spent many pleasant hours in the spring "hunting the wild asparagus", as we referred to our pastime. We drove along county roads with our eyes locked on fencelines for traces of the tall ferny asparagus. Once spotted, we raced to the spot to find smaller, perfect stalks at the baseline of the larger specimen. After gathering enough stalks in our brown paper grocery bag, it was straight home and into the boiling water for our treasures. We had many wonderful feasts of asparagus topped with butter and salt.
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When my husband and I were first dating (1989, we met in March) he soon realized that asparagus were going to be part of a meal for me as long as they were in season.
One day, my then secretary buzzed to say I had a flower delivery -- I came to the reception area and a box of long stemmed roses awaited me. When I opened it, replete with baby's breath -- what greeted me were 4 dozen fresh asparagus. I immediately found a vase and put them on my desk.
Alas, that sense of humor was most brilliant. I think he expected me to bring them home and cook them. Nope!
One day, my then secretary buzzed to say I had a flower delivery -- I came to the reception area and a box of long stemmed roses awaited me. When I opened it, replete with baby's breath -- what greeted me were 4 dozen fresh asparagus. I immediately found a vase and put them on my desk.
Alas, that sense of humor was most brilliant. I think he expected me to bring them home and cook them. Nope!
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You have the best husband in the world!
2
Picked fresh asparagus from the garden this evening. My little patch, now 4 years old, produces just enough over 2-3 days to serve the two of us. Asparagus is easy to grow but you must be patient. From root stock, expect to wait two years before the first servings.
We usually zap it briefly in the microwave, no salt, no oil, no additions. Wonderful flavor. But now will have to try some of these tempting recipes!
We usually zap it briefly in the microwave, no salt, no oil, no additions. Wonderful flavor. But now will have to try some of these tempting recipes!
7
I also have been obsessed with asparagus for decades.
After considerable experimentation, my method of choice is fat, unpeeled, green asparagus simmered in unsalted water until just tender -- 6-8 minutes for thick spears. Drain, wrap in a towel and serve with a good, fresh country bread, sliced thickly and slathered with unsalted butter. It's not necessary yo butter the asparagus. Anything else, such as garlic, pepper, or even salt is an insult to the king of vegetables.
BTW, the most flavorful part of the spear is just below the tip.
After considerable experimentation, my method of choice is fat, unpeeled, green asparagus simmered in unsalted water until just tender -- 6-8 minutes for thick spears. Drain, wrap in a towel and serve with a good, fresh country bread, sliced thickly and slathered with unsalted butter. It's not necessary yo butter the asparagus. Anything else, such as garlic, pepper, or even salt is an insult to the king of vegetables.
BTW, the most flavorful part of the spear is just below the tip.
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Not all of those 'wild' patches are from seed scattered by the wind. They are often an indication of there once having been a home nearby where the owners cultivated an asparagus bed. The house may be gone, but the asparagus continues to produce.
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You have reminded me of a trip last fall. We did an afternoon zodiac tour of Desolation Sound, off the coast of BC. Drop dead gorgeous. We had a stop on a small island, where we found a tree surrounded by fallen apples. The only remnant of a long gone homestead.
1
My grandchildren live with me. They always ask when I'm going to make "that green stuff" again. Even innocent children understand that asparagus are gems to be treasured and eaten with olive oil-garlic dressing.
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My family had an asparagus patch when I was growing up so I came to love it as a spring time staple. I planted a patch of it in my yard as soon as I had a space to put it.
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In the interest of full disclosure, I like only white asparagus, boiled and eaten either with mayonnaise or melted butter.
An upper-class way of eating asparagus is by holding it with the fingers. The lower-class way is to cut it in slices and lift each one on a fork. The cutting of some of the firmer asparagus requires a knife much sharper than the ordinary table knife.
I believe that there was a good solution to this problem in Victorian times: a scissors-like tool with two open half-cylinders at the working ends that would hold an asparagus stalk. With such a tool, one had neither to hold the moist vegetable in one's fingers, nor forget one's table manners.
A revival of such an asparagus-holder would be most useful. Also, the open half-cylinders at the tips could have their angle adjustable, so that one could easily hold asparagus vertically or horizontally or at other angle in between.
An upper-class way of eating asparagus is by holding it with the fingers. The lower-class way is to cut it in slices and lift each one on a fork. The cutting of some of the firmer asparagus requires a knife much sharper than the ordinary table knife.
I believe that there was a good solution to this problem in Victorian times: a scissors-like tool with two open half-cylinders at the working ends that would hold an asparagus stalk. With such a tool, one had neither to hold the moist vegetable in one's fingers, nor forget one's table manners.
A revival of such an asparagus-holder would be most useful. Also, the open half-cylinders at the tips could have their angle adjustable, so that one could easily hold asparagus vertically or horizontally or at other angle in between.
4
Do you know of a photo of this wonderful implement, or perhaps it's name! Fascinating!
I'm curious about that scissors/tool, tried a couple of google searches but came up empty...anyone have pic's?
Individual asparagus tongs. I collect silver pieces. I have a photo but can't see how to attach one here. They are fabulous.