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April 06, 2005
Asparagus - Part I in a series of different recipies
The season for asparagus is here. There are plenty of green asparagus, small and large, thin and thick, white asparagus with white tips, with purple tips or with green tips and wild asparagus. Which are the best? If they are or high quality and fresh, preferably cut the same morning, all are great to use.
Green asparagus with whipped apple butter and spiced veal reduction
I was thinking of having a small series of suggestions for asparagus. Suggestions that are a little less common than what is found in most cookbooks. They may not always be to everyone’s tastes but they will hopefully provide inspiration not to miss the high season of a great produce.
This time I use smaller quite greenish asparagus from Italy.
For two people as a first course you need:
9 green asparagus
1 Granny Smith apple
Lemon juice
Fresh ginger
3-4 table spoons of butter
1 table spoon of veal fond
Make the apple butter first. Peal the apple and dice it in small cubes. Heat a little water in a pan and add the diced apple and cover. Let the apple simmer until it turns soft and you can separate the liquid by pressing the apple dice in a sieve. It should not be so soft that you easily press the apple through the sieve. Reduce the liquid somewhat and add 2-3 table spoons of butter. Add a little lemon. It needs to have some acidity present in the taste. Whisk until it emulsifies and let it cool, whisking regularly. You may have to cool the mixture for a few moments in the fridge. When the butter starts to set, whisk harder until the texture is somewhat like very firmly beaten egg whites but denser. A friend at university gave me the idea many many years ago to serve whipped butter like this. He used to eat Indian whipped butter with French fries and although that came around as somewhat greasy, it turned out to be great to blend some lemon and herbs with whipped butter and serve it with fish for example.
Heat a few table spoons of water with a tablespoon of butter in a pan. Cook 8 of the asparagus in this liquid with a paper cover and roll them around every now and then. The idea is that when they are ready the liquid is vaporized and the residual butter enables them to be seared a little during the last moments of the cooking. Discard most of the remaining fat but keep any juices left and glaze with a little veal fond and season with a hint of ginger. The taste of ginger must only be just barely felt in the jus. For the adventurous, other spices may be added.
Plate the dish, garnish with some very thin slices of one asparagus and place a spoon of the apple butter on top and serve immediately.
The tart taste of Granny Smith apples will work quite well with small very green asparagus that have a very “green” taste. It also works with white asparagus. Personally I dislike this green taste that often is transformed into a “cooked” or “canned” taste when cooking small green asparagus in boiling water.
/MJ
