This week: Asparagus!
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-JT
I have made that asparagus tart, delicious!
What can be substituted for the pastry?
I chunk asparagus up and sauté it in butter and dump some eggs in and scramble. Makes a great breakfast.
My spinach is coming up. I have dill started inside that will go out soon. My chives are nuts. We are getting “weather” this weekend. I have a couple packs of chicken parts I got from the butcher and I am putting them on the stove for a slow cook stock. Also working up my bread making skills this weekend.
My spinach is coming up. I have dill started inside that will go out soon. My chives are nuts. We are getting “weather” this weekend. I have a couple packs of chicken parts I got from the butcher and I am putting them on the stove for a slow cook stock. Also working up my bread making skills this weekend.
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.
Easy refrigerator pickled asparagus
Ingredients:
(Makes 2 (24-ounce) or 4 (12-ounce) jars)
3 pounds asparagus, washed and trimmed to fit your jars
1½ cups water
1½ cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons pickling spice (*To DIY, see recipe below.)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
Assemble:
Combine vinegar, water and salt in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Set aside.
Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus to the pot and cook for exactly 1 minute. Transfer asparagus to a colander and run under cold water until chilled.
Place 1 tablespoon of pickling spice and 1 garlic clove in the bottom of each jar (split the spice and garlic cloves if using 4 jars). Divide asparagus evenly between the jars. Pour pickling liquid over asparagus. Seal jars and let cool to room temperature, then store in the refrigerator.
Let the pickles rest in the fridge at least 24, and preferably 72, hours before eating. The pickles will keep for 2 weeks.
* Pickling Spice
(Makes 1 cup)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons allspice berries
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon ground mace
1 small cinnamon stick, crushed into a few pieces
12 large, or 18 medium, bay leaves, crumbled
1 tablespoon whole cloves
½ tablespoon ground ginger
Assemble:
Place a small pan over low heat and toast peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds until just fragrant. Remove pan from heat and gently pour spices onto a cutting board. Lightly crush spices using a heavy pan, the side of a knife or a very quick spin in a spice grinder.
Combine the cracked spices with the rest of the spices in a medium bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Store in an airtight container.
https://putneyfarm.com/tag/easy-refrigerator-pickled-asparagus/
One of my favorite asparagus bites..
Take a piece of prosciutto, lay it out flat and put a smear of cream cheese on it. Lay an asparagus spear on it and roll the spear up in the prosciutto. Lay on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes or so. Asparagus spears are all different sizes and lingths, so there is no one-size-fits-all baking time. I like the spear to be a little al dente so the bite has some texture and isn’t just mush.
I don’t like asparagus, but I might use that tart recipe for other things.
I stumbled upon this video and tried the recipe tonight and it was delicious. I used relatively inexpensive chuck steak bought on sale and it tasted like an expensive rib eye and was melt in your mouth tender.
Only problem was that it was too salty, but I think that was my fault for leaving it in the kosher salt too long.
It really works...but you will need to refine the process to get it perfect.
Here's the video...How to Turn an Average Cheap Steak into an Extraordinary Steak - Salted Top Round - Top Round Steak
BTW, I spoke about this method with my favorite butcher and he had never heard of it.
I love asparagus!
Celebrations
The green crop is significant enough in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region that the city of Stockton holds a festival every year to celebrate it, as does the city of Hart, Michigan, complete with a parade and asparagus queen. The Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire is the largest producer within Northern Europe, celebrating with the annual British Asparagus Festival involving auctions of the best crop, an “Asparagus Run” modelled on the Beaujolais Run and a weekend “Asparafest” music festival.[37]
Many German cities hold an annual Spargelfest (asparagus festival) celebrating the harvest of white asparagus. Schwetzingen claims to be the “Asparagus Capital of the World”, and during its festival, an Asparagus Queen is crowned. The Bavarian city of Nuremberg feasts a week long in April, with a competition to find the fastest asparagus peeler in the region. This usually involves generous amounts of the local wines and beers being consumed to aid the spectators’ appreciative support.[38]
Helmut Zipner holds the current world record in asparagus peeling.
Wikipedia
This is making me miss my 40’ row of Asparagus that I sold along with my farm, this past summer. :(
Of course, I took some with me to my NEW farm. We should have some this season (old, established roots) and lots more in the near future. Aiming for 30-40’ feet of it, again! :)