I recently (in the last 2 years or so) discovered that I LOVE asparagus. And now that I live thousands of miles away from home and have to wait till asparagus goes on sale, I find out that it grows WILD on the farm at home. Dang it. I did recently find out that it can grow very well in AZ, so we'll have to get busy on that. Anyway, I have two favorite ways to make asparagus. Actually, I usually just cook the asparagus in a little bit of oil, salt and pepper. More specifically, I have 2 favorite sauces I like to make with asparagus. (Both come from my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com.) One is a traditional hollandaise sauce and the other is a super easy balsamic vinegar dressing. It goes a little something like this:
Balsamic Vinegar Sauce
2 T. butter
1 T. soy sauce
1 t. balsamic vinegar
Brown butter in a small saucepan. (Melt butter in a pan over medium-high heat about 5 minutes, or until you start to see brown bits stick to the bottom of the pan. Don't burn it though.) Remove from heat and add soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. After mixing, drizzle over cooked asparagus and serve.
Note: the picture above came from one of my favorite cookbooks, Simply in Season. If you're interested in simple, produce-based cooking, this is the place.
I LOVE asparagus too!! And only learned it recently. I love finding new vegetables that I seriously dig. I usually satuee it in olive oil and whatever spices I come up with--Adobe seasoning is actually really great.
ReplyDeletebut how do I cook the asparagus?? But sometimes I under or over cook. Do you have a fail proof method?
I saute in olive oil, salt and pepper. I know it's done when it is my preferred level of softness (usually meaning, it's not crunchy any more, but not quite a total wet noodle). Or in technical terms, taste it.
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