Asparagus – Grow. Cook. Eat.

March 22, 2011

Spring Cleaning (Recipe: Asparagus with Sesame Dressing)

The first day of spring might as well be April Fool’s day here in New England. As if on cue, it snowed here yesterday, Mother Nature’s reminder that we won’t get spring-like weather for another few weeks.

That did not stop me from cleaning up the garden and getting ready for the spring crops. Though things did not go quite as planned (more on that in a minute), I should get the seeds in the ground by the end of the week.

You may recall, I started indoor composting in November. It takes the worms about 3 months to munch through my food scraps and turn what would ordinarily be trash into rich soil. If I was strategic about my composting, I would have plenty for the start of the spring gardening season. Everything was going really well for about three months. And then a few weeks ago, when a friend was visiting, he very gently commented, “Um, sweetie, your house, um, kinda smells like poop.”

As embarrassing as it was to admit, he was right. My house did smell bad. And maybe because the odor was a slow development, I hadn’t noticed how bad it was. I checked in on the compost bin, and only a few worms were left: mass genocide! I had not given the bin enough aeration and dry matter. The combination of the two meant too much water in the bin, not enough drainage, and really bad smells.

The bin moved quickly outdoors, and with a few hard frosts all the worms were completely dead. This final step was good as the red-wigglers, which are great for indoor vermiculture, wreack havoc in outdoor gardens. The food scraps were mostly composted, but not completely. I will let the pile continue its thing outside. In the meantime, I needed some compost, which I purchased at the local hardware store.

I spent the weekend in the garden, raking up the dead leaves and turning the soil with compost. Worms (of the outdoor variety) crawled around in the newly turned soil – a good sign that I had healthy soil.

I will wait until Friday to plant my seeds – lettuces, peas and radishes.

Asparagus screams spring to me and primes my palate for better (read: warmer) days to come.

Asapagus with Sesame Dressing
Recipe adapted from my new book, The Farmer’s Kitchen

8 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sake
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 pound asparagus, trimmed
1 teaspoon salt

1. Put sesame seeds in a small skillet. Toast seeds over medium heat, stirring continuously, until seeds turn lightly brown. Immediately remove seeds from pan.

2. Combine sesame seeds with remaining ingredients, except asparagus and salt, in a blender. Purée until smooth.

3. Put a large skillet on the stovetop with 1 cup of water and salt. Bring to a boil, add asparagus, and cook for 5 minutes, or until bright green.

4. Remove asparagus from heat and toss with sesame dressing

June 11, 2010

Down Time (Recipe: Roasted Asparagus)

I bumped into a neighbor at the farmers’ market this morning. She questioned why I was there shopping when just a few weeks ago I was unloading excess lettuce on her. Don’t I just grow everything I need in my little urban garden? I wish I could grow enough to keep me well fed from April to October!

Since my garden is so small, it’s a constant juggle – trying to maximize the space and time the crops so that I always have something to harvest. A few weeks ago, with the lettuce plants bolting, their production diminished. I pulled out about half the lettuce plants to make way for eggplants and tomatoes. Now, instead of picking a gallon of leaves every other day, I get the same yield over the course of a week. And it’s more labor intensive to pick since the lettuces have thick, unpalatable stalks which need to be trimmed.

I’m now in that lull period – after my spring crops have tapered off and before the summer kicks in. Note to self: plant less lettuce and something that will be ready to harvest in June. In the meantime, I may get a burst of beets or garlic scapes between now and when the tomatoes and cucumbers are ready, but nothing as productive as lettuce.

And even if I didn’t have this lull period, I would still supplement from the farmers’ market for the sake of variety. Though the garden is producing limited vegetable, I have an abundance of sage and other herbs.

Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan and Fried Sage

Most asparagus has a woody stem. If you snap the asparagus stalk it
will naturally break where the woody ends and the tender begins.

1 bunch asparagus
1 tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper
freshly grated parmesan cheese
fried sage

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and trim the asparagus of its woody stem. Let asparagus dry.

2. Toss asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. Lay asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake on the floor of the oven for 10 minutes.

4. Put asparagus on a serving platter, sprinkle with cheese and fried sage.

Fried Sage

1 bunch sage
1/4 cup plain oil
salt

Pick sage leaves from stems, and discard stems. Prepare a plate with paper towels to drain fried sage.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the sage leaves. Swoosh around a little to get the leaves well dispersed in the oil.

When the leaves look bright green and translucent, after about 3-4 minutes of cooking, scoop them out with a slotted spoon onto the paper towel to drain. Sprinkle with salt.

April 25, 2010

Spring Fever, Part I (Roasted Halibut with Aspargus and Morels)

My favorite produce market has begun stocking its aisles with little seedlings. I couldn't help myself, and loaded up my cart with the first of the summer/fall crops – leeks, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

But before I can get these plants into the garden, I have to prepare the vegetable beds. There's not much left from last summer, just a few haggard leeks that survived the cold winter.

I harvest those, and then with a garden shovel, I turn the soil. I break up clumps of matted down dirt and pull out tangles of old roots that may interfere with the new plants. Once the soil is aerated, I mix in compost.

I didn’t have enough leeks for a side dish, so I opted for a little “vichyssoise” sauce for roasted halibut. I prepared a basic vichyssoise with less chicken stock and some asparagus stems. I added spinach for a bright green pop of color, and sautéed morels to bring out the sweet earthiness of the fish.

Roasted Halibut with Asparagus and Morels

2 halibut fillets
1 tbs. butter
1/4 pound fresh morels
1 small shallot, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 cup red wine
1 tbs. canola oil
1/4 cup red wine

salt pepper and lemon juice to taste

Asparagus Sauce

1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbs. butter
2 small leeks, chopped
1/4 cup potatoes, diced
1/4 cup white wine
14 asparagus spears, trimmed, tips reserved
1/2 cup spinach
salt and pepper to taste

1. Make the sauce: Heat butter in a small pot. Sweat leeks and potatoes. Add asparagus (except reserved tips), white wine and chicken broth. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes or until asparagus and potatoes
are tender.

2. Put spinach in the bottom of a blender. Pour the sauce base into blender
and puree. Season to taste with salt and pepper (and a spot of cream too)

3. Season halibut with salt and pepper.

4. Heat a large skillet over medium high flame. Add 1 tbs. butter. When melted, add the morels, shallots, garlic and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes without stirring. Stir a little and then continue cooking for a few minutes more. Add the red wine, and continue cooking until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside in a warm place.

5. Heat a second large skillet over high heat. Add canola oil. Pat fish dry and gently press into the pan. Cook for 5 minutes on the first side or until golden brown. Turn over, turn heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove fish from pan.

6. Serve halibut with sauce, morels and steamed asparagus.

April 12, 2010

On the Bone (Recipe: Seared Halibut with Morels and Red Wine)

During the summer between my two years of business school, I had a summer internship in China and traveled with a few of my classmates. Their biggest complaint about the food was that there were too many bones. The Chinese tend to cut meat into chunks, on the bone, and cook it that way. They do this for two reasons. First, it stretches the meat farther. A single chicken, for example, can serve 6-8 people when butchered this way, rather than American 4. But more importantly, meat cooked on the bone tastes better: it has more flavor and is more juicy.

The same is true for fish. The challenge for fish, of course, is that the bones are smaller. They are harder to pick out, and have a greater chance of getting stuck in your throat. When I serve that has been cooked on the bone, I carefully remove the bones in the kitchen before serving. It makes the eating more pleasurable in that you don’t have to cautiously pick around the meat.

When I cooked halibut the other night, I topped it with morels and asparagus. The last thing on my mind were bones… I wanted to savor the earthy, meaty flavor of the spring-time treat. Since I removed the bones in the kitchen, I had nothing to worry about, and could eat with abandon.

Seared Halibut with Morels, Asparagus and Red Wine
2 halibut steaks
1 tbs. butter
1 pound fresh morels
1 large shallot, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 tbs. canola oil

1 cup red wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2-4 tbs. butter
1 tbs. fresh parsley

salt pepper and lemon juice to taste

1. Season halibut with salt and pepper.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium high flame. Add 1 tbs. butter. When melted, add the morels, 1/2 the shallots, garlic and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes wihtout stirring. Stir a little and then conintue cooking for a few minutes more. Add the sherry, and continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated. Set aside in a warm place.

3. Heat a second large skillet over high heat. Add canola oil. Pat fish dry and gently press into the pan. Cook for 5 minutes on the first side or until golden brown. Turn over, turn heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes more, covered. Remove fish from pan. Sprinkle parsley on top.

4. Add the remaining shallots and red wine to the halibut pan. Let wine reduce to 1/4 cup. Add the chicken stock and reduce to 1/4 cup. Remove pan from heat and swirl in butter, more or less to taste. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

5. Gently separate the halibut steak from the bone. Pull out the main bone in the center, and the small pin bones on the each side. Run your finger along the insdie of the filet to make sure all bones are removed. Put the filet back together.

6. Serve halibut with sauce, morels and steamed asparagus.