Fresh Asparagus.
It’s springtime! Love is in the air, and the produce section at your local grocery store is probably overflowing with great fruits and vegetables. We’re a bit spoiled these days in that we can get almost any type of produce year-round, but it’s this time of year that a wonderful bounty of fresh, high-quality stuff hits the produce department. Those of you with CSA subscriptions will be enjoying your weekly deliveries soon enough, but if you’re looking for good vegetables, there’s plenty to be had, even at the local Giant, Harris Teeter, or Safeway.
Despite its (deserved) reputation for giving some people a distinctive aroma during a certain bodily process after eating it, I’m a big fan of asparagus. But not how it’s usually cooked – I’ve been the victim of boiled-to-death asparagus too many times to count. That product is not enjoyable at the dinner table – so tender it slides off the fork, with a nasty off-green color and a strong odor that overpowers the palate. Sure, it’s nutritious, but we shouldn’t be condemned to suffering through our vegetables! In a way it’s similar to broccoli – too many people have terrible memories of being forced to eat their broccoli by their parents, so they avoid it later on when they actually control their home menu.
Prepped and Snapped Asparagus.
But we have better ways of cooking vegetables! We don’t have to boil them into submission; we can apply better techniques and enjoy them quite a bit more. And before I lose you here – you don’t have to spend hours doing it, either. High-quality produce doesn’t need to be shepherded through difficult sauce-making or other rigorous techniques. While asparagus goes very nicely with Hollandaise sauce in classical French cuisine, those tricky emulsions still have me scared. And when I’m making dinner for my wife, I’d rather not worry about a sauce breaking – I want my dishes to be ready reliably. (The same holds true for any of you guys attempting to woo a lady with your cooking, which is a tactic I highly recommend. Date night recipes shouldn’t be too labor intensive, and should be fail-safe!) In any case, you have two big points to remember when getting high-quality vegetables into your kitchen:
Cooked and Seasoned Asparagus.
#1: Prep. This is probably the most important point for vegetable cookery, as you simply can’t bring veggies home from the store and toss them in the pot (most of the time, anyway). With asparagus, you’ll want to “snap” them – bend the stalks along the length until the woody base naturally snaps off. You wouldn’t want to eat that section anyway! You’ll be left with tender portions of the green stalks that won’t at all remind you of biting into a tree.
#2: Method. My favorite way to cook asparagus without absolutely killing it is high-heat roasting. Many restaurants recommend blanching veggies first, but they mostly do that in order to save time on the line. In the home setting, it’s easy enough to roast your asparagus all the way through without having to boil a pot of water. It’ll take a little longer, but since you’re not firing dishes out every five to ten minutes, you can afford to wait.
The beauty of asparagus is that it’s got a relatively strong natural flavor, meaning it will stand up to seasonings and spices pretty well. You can play around with the flavor elements in this recipe as you like – some sources I’ve seen recommend sprinkling the cooked asparagus with nutmeg or allspice as it comes out of the oven. I’ve also seen suggestions for using lemon zest, but I prefer the stronger flavor of fresh lemon juice. You don’t want to drown your poor veggies, but a solid squeeze over the plate after they come out of the oven, followed by seasoning and whatever spices you’d like to enjoy, will elevate the dish far beyond your dreaded memories of the family dinner table in your youth.
Roasted Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus stalks
Olive oil
1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Prep your asparagus stalks by snapping off the woody lower ends and washing thoroughly. Toss with a tablespoon or two of olive oil until well coated and lay out in a single layer on a roasting pan or oven-safe plate (such as Pyrex).
Roast for 5 minutes, then check the tray and turn any stalks that appear to be browning quickly. Roast for another 5-7 minutes (depending on how thick your stalks are), then remove from the oven.
Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the asparagus, then sprinkle generously with kosher salt and fresh black pepper. Optional: omit lemon juice and sprinkle with nutmeg or allspice. Basil chiffonade is another nice option if you’ve got fresh herbs available.
Enjoy!
-HML
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-JAY
