I was so excited about asparagus and thus bought a bit too much one weekend. Uneaten asparagus was getting less tasty and thus I blanched them in boiling water and set them aside. When we were ready to fire up an oven, we made thin crusted pizza (dough recipe here) with asparagus and bacon. Some mixed cheeses found in our cheese drawer and paper thin sliced onions and lemon peels were scattered at the top. Dan wasn't sure about my lemon peel idea so I added just tiny bit - I think we should put more lemon peels next time.
In addition to grilling, roasting, adding to a pizza, throwing in my Korean ramen soup and eating with egg/cheese bagel, I also made asparagus tempura. They were very special spears, picked right from my garden minutes ago, dipped into ice-cold batter, and then fried up.
I asked Chris of Jubilee Organic Farm if we would have asparagus this Saturday. He said yes. There is still time to get fresh asparagus and make asparagus pizza, asparagus soup, grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, asparagus tempura and more. Seize the season.
Tempura batter
1 cup ice-cold water
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2-3 ice cubes
Mix ice-cold water with beaten egg. Add flour. Using chopsticks or a fork casually and briefly mix the flour in. Do not beat - the batter will be quite lumpy. Add ice cubes to keep the batter cold.
To check if the oil is hot, you can drop a batter to the oil. If the drop of batter sinks to the bottom and rise to the surface right away, you are ready to fry your asparagus dipped in the batter.
Yeon
Showing posts with label asparagus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asparagus. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Asparagus Bacon Pizza and more
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Three bunches of asparagus
Photo by Dan
Here is a photo of asparagus that I picked up from the farmer's market on Saturday (May 9). From left to right: thin tall asparagus from Rick (Summer Creek Farm), medium sized asparagus from Chris (Jubilee Organic Farm), and short and stout asparagus from Rich (Scenic View orchards). We grilled these three different asparagus for dinner that night. More photos to follow.Yeon
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Asparagus et al.: What I look forward to at the Farmer's Market
I don't remember when was the first time I had asparagus. I didn't grow up with it, but somehow I knew the vegetable. I guess my first encounter with asparagus was not as dramatic nor impressive as the one with bagels. The cooked spears tasted pretty bland. I didn't bother with them for a long time. Once my friend, who was in a graduate school then, invited some friends over for dinner. He fed us wonderful food, and his grilled asparagus was excellent. I learned that asparagus can be good, very good.
Now fast forward a couple of years. I am buying freshly picked asparagus from the farmer's market. The same day, I am cooking the asparagus, trying not to overcook and keep the bright green color. They are so sweet, fresh, and delicious! People have a myth about the thickness of asparagus and try to pick thin ones. I had great tasting asparagus that was as thick as four pencils. The point is not the thickness but the timing. Asparagus tastes best when they are just picked. You want to minimize the time between picking and eating. The best way is growing your own patch (join Shannon, Chelsea, and me in starting one) and the next best option is the farmer's market. I will be at the market extra early this Saturday morning to procure this seasonal delicacy.
So, who has asparagus? Chris and Ruth of Jubilee Organic Farm comes to my mind. Rick of Summer Creek Farm has an asparagus bed but I am not sure if he is bringing some this Saturday. Scenic View Orchard should have some. Glade-Link Farm is famous for their asparagus but sadly, they don't come to the market till the blueberry season starts.
Photo by Dan
Spring farmer's market won't be complete without lettuce, spinach and radish. Rick says he will have all of these. Nancy of Chesapeake's choice will have spinach. I expect Erland and Rieko of New Hope Farm and Jim of Tomatoes et al. will bring their specialty - gourmet green salad mix. Scenic View Orchards will probably bring the most diverse vegetables along with some apples they have kept in a cold storage. Jubilee Organic Farm will have the spring vegetables and cut herbs.My friend Sandra and her two friends are visiting this weekend. Dan and I are very excited to have house guests staying with us. We have not decided on our brunch menu for Sunday yet, but our friends will be pretty hungry after running a half marathon and thus we plan to cook a lot of food. Most of the dishes will be made from the produce we pick up on May 2 at the market. The timing is perfect.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The long, tall asparagus
Are you growing asparagus plants? You might want to check on them. After the last two hot days, one lone asparagus plant in my yard shot out of the ground. I swear it was not there yesterday. It's about two millimeters wide and a foot and a half tall. When they are this small, it's best to let them turn into an asaparagus fern. I need more asparagus plants. The lonely little asparagus is pretty funny, though.
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