Posted on 03/09/2017 4:37:45 PM PST by Jamestown1630
For ‘foodies’ – and a lot of vegetable gardeners - one of the most welcome harbingers of warm weather and the growing season is the Asparagus.
This recipe for ‘Asparagus Tart’ comes from the website of the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, and it's as easy as - (actually easier than) - pie!:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/3-ingredient-asparagus-tart/
But I think my favorite, is just Roasted Asparagus (which is also my favorite way with Brussels Sprouts, in a different season). My husband makes this often, with just olive oil, salt and pepper; but I like the addition of the Parmesan Cheese:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-roasted-asparagus-recipe
-JT
I remember when that cooking-your-fish-in-your-dishwasher craze went on for about a year. Crazy. In this pic, if you pile aspargus *under* the fish, and I've done this before on the grill. Then there was that whole en papillote craze, fish cooked in paper. And cedar-planked salmon! You were nobody if you weren't whispering your butcher over to the side to explain the concept to you.
Our experiences with salmon ‘en papillote’ were very good. We used parchment; it seems to steam the fish nicely, without drying it out.
(I’ve never tried the ‘dishwasher’ thing. I don’t think I’d want my machine stinking of fish ;-)
Pesto, too.
We just made a new raised bed, 4 x 4, that will be devoted exclusively to asparagus. I tried last year but the weeds took over and after a while I couldn’t find the stalks anymore. I think it’s pretty neat that it comes back year after year :-)
Great idea, thanks. I think I’ve wasted a lot of asparagus just snapping the ends off.
I keep looking hungrily at the asparagus in the stores, but they are conventionally grown in Mexico still. So I wait for local and organic. Then.... roasted, and all your ideas. Definitely.
In Switzerland I remember the first sunny weekend day in spring would always have all the hotels and restaurants putting up their outside chairs and tables for the first time that year. There would always be asparagus on the menu, and there, the fat white asparagus is prized. When you order it, it comes for the whole table in a giant warming platter with cover. There is a big gravy dish of hollandaise sauce as well. And crusty bread. This is a meal in itself. And eaten out in a warm sun for the first time.
And then the dessert ALWAYS involved the other spring delicacy: strawberries. Sometimes just strawberries and clotted cream. But sometimes it was an Erdbeeren Merengue Glacée. Piped, fat chunks of crispy merengue with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream over it, sliced fresh strawberries, and topped with fresh whipped cream.
That is springtime. (Something altogether new to me at the time, coming from Los Angeles, where it just gets somewhat warmer.)
Finally read the recipe and saw that its puff pastry and eeeeasy. I am so doing those tarts / pizzas.
Looks very nice!
They are like Pizza! You could put some cheezy sauce on...
So many of us miss him. His influence lives on.
Do you do potatoes? What if you baked a bunch of medium sized russets just shy of done, then halved them, pressed them down to make little patties with the peel still as the crust, then put the Fontina cheese and (already sliced shorter) asparagus on each potato patty?
Potatoes are good carbs for the gut bugs, especially cooked and cooled = resistant starch. Even good on low carb diets.
IIRC, he lived in the DFW area. He inspired me to learn about the care and maintenance of fine cutlery. He was indeed a treasure.
What beautiful flowers.
You can’t believe how lovely the SoCal hillsides are right now. Normally brown and dead with a few hardy scrub oaks, they are brilliant green with flowers popping up (huge swaths of orange poppies etc).
At some store I saw bags of cauliflower already grated finely for those purposes. Was it Trader Joe’s? Or Sprouts? Don’t remember.
Let’s hear it for *Potato Salad*!
Yeah, Johnny and I worked over Gov. Abbott when he was first elected to stop the ‘voluntary’ checkpoints that suddenly popped up in Johnny’s neighborhood. We told his peeps we were FReepers and we were gonna light up over it, and the next week our Gov shut down checkpoints.
Yeah, Johnny and I worked over Gov. Abbott when he was first elected to stop the ‘voluntary’ checkpoints that suddenly popped up in Johnny’s neighborhood. We told his peeps we were FReepers and we were gonna light up over it, and the next week our Gov shut down checkpoints.
His name sounds familiar but I probably wasn’t on the thread yet back then. RIP to a lost FReeper friend.
Potato salad is DEFINITELY cooked and cooled!!
You know I am still on my roasted vegetables craving craze. Nearly every morning a tray of cut up SOMETHING goes into the oven to roast. Sweet potatoes tomorrow. Yesterday it was a head of cabbage. Everything has been delicious except the one I did Monday, daikon radishes. They were so cheap, and the tiny red radishes are AMAZING roasted. However, the daikons are somewhat bitter. I don’t hate them so I will still eat them, but the least good of all I’ve roasted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.