Recipe: Braised Asparagus

[ellyssian]

• 1 bunch fresh aspparagus, trimmed
• 1 bunch fresh white asparagus, trimmed
• 4 tb olive oil
• tarragon, finely chopped
• fresh ground pepper
• sea salt
• Béarnaise sauce

As you might be able to see in the above picture ~ if you can take your eyes off the steak and bacon ~ the asparagus bunches are deep in their cups. Like all heavy drinkers, they do best with some liquid, and in this case, that liquid is water. If your local market keeps their freshly, locally beheaded asparagus shoots in fresh water, you should go up to the produce manager and shake their hand and congratulate them on being at least somewhat reasonably educated in managing produce. The white asparagus was happily sipping, interrupted only during the brief commute from market to kitchen. The green asparagus, on the other hand, was starved and dry, wrapped and packaged (locally) on a shelf. I had to chop off the feet of the greens so that they'd be able to sip at their water until I was ready for them.

Speaking of local and asparagus, although the green was packaged locally, neither white nor green was grown locally: the former hitchhiked up from Peru, where they had been living under a rock*, and the green asparagus eluded border patrols and came up from Mexico for a visit. It's a bit early for local asparagus ~ in a few months, the markets should be loaded with it. Asparagus is one of those foods that really should be a seasonal treat, because anything else isn't really natural. I probably should have practiced what I preach a bit more, but it was hard to avoid because asparagus was the perfect side for the meal. Although it's more often associated with Hollandaise sauce in less sophisticated venues**, the Béarnaise sauce is the perfect compliment; indeed this recipe also repeats the primary herbal notes of the sauce by relying on tarragon for flavoring.

Enough back story and miscellanea, on to the food...

If you're using fresh tarragon (which you should; I really must get some growing...), strip the leaves from 2 or 3 tarragon sprigs and chop them fine. Keep a couple of remaining sprigs whole.

Rinse the asparagus.

Take one of the asparagus spears with two hands, and with one hand below the tip end and the other holding the bottom, bend the spear until it breaks.

Use that break as a marker for the rest of the spears. Just line up the asparagus by their tips and cut the entire bunch at that spot.

For the record, since I had to resuscitate the greens by chopping off their dried out feet, I didn't do the break-and-measure routine. The whites were fresh enough that the break test was meaningless, and I only had to trim the bottom bit on a couple of them.

I found another source that advised removing the little triangles (and chiding that no one does that) and peeling to get rid of the stringiness. I started with the greens, peeled some, and had Rachel peel a few others. End result was that a lot of them broke in half and presentation was much less pretty. Also, once you get through that tough outer bit you want to peel off, it's very easy to shed far too much of the soft inner goodness. So, after processing a little less than half of the greens, I gave up on peeling.

Even with that, I left the leaves at the top: it adds texture, and one of the things I always liked about asparagus. If you're peeling, that process takes care of those triangles everyone else forgets, so those are a small deal, and I also don't mind them. Now, it is a lot easier to eat the asparagus that gets peeled ~ it's the only way Deb would eat it (she's not a big fan of asparagus) and, I think, Rachel as well. I could make a comment about dainty female mouths and dainty female eaters, but I'd get daintily smacked upside the head, and I'd like to avoid that. I will say that the three of us guys didn't mind toughing it out ~ especially when a steak knife was on hand for the steak anywho. For the record, only Mr. B and myself are truly fans of the asparagus.

Here was the results after prep-work:



Add the asparagus, tarragon, and olive oil to the saute pan.

Add enough water to barely cover the asparagus, and sprinkle them lightly with salt and pepper. This step ~ the adding of water ~ is a wee bit more difficult than it might seem. As I added water, I noticed I could not, no matter how I tried, cover the asparagus. They float. You need to use some judgement with this, because you're either going to run out of pan or you're going to use up the world's supply of fresh water, and you still won't have the buggers covered.



Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer.

Cook until the asparagus are bright green and tender but not limp, about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the asparagus). The white asparagus, of course, will not get bright green, so you might need a taste test on them, especially if you're not doing a mix of white and green like I did.

Serve, and drizzle with Béarnaise sauce.



Add salt, pepper and fresh chopped tarragon to taste.

~ ~ ~

* Nearly literally: white asparagus is created by mounding earth over the young asparagus shoots, keeping them out of the sunlight, and away from any thoughts whatsoever of photosynthesis.

** Okay, okay. Hollandaise is more popular. I like my Béarnaise, and I feel it often gets relegated to the role of second-fiddle or distant cousin, so I'm spiteful. Deal. =)

Comments

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

sounds delicious. I usually only roast my asparagus in OO, garlic,S/P...sauces scare me

btw, i didnt notice the asparagus in the first picture until i read there was asparagus in that one...the bacon and steak had me mesmerized

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

the bacon and steak had me mesmerized

Ha! I knew that would happen! Speaking of bacon and mesmerizing and cheese, Deeper n' Ever tonight! Maybe I'll risk taking pictures... =)

sauces scare me

Me too, which is why I first tasted Béarnaise sauce in 1990-2 and first tried making one in 2009. Now I feel stupid, and wish I had done more than read the recipe every few years, state I'm going to try to make it, and then promptly give up...

In fact, today's Deeper n' Ever is going to get an enhancement in the form of the wine/herb/vinegar reduction instead of a direct shot of the herbs and vinegar...

Because I have all kinds of confidence and stuff. Or something.

The only "trouble" with the sauce is that you have to stir it constantly while it's cooking and you have to make it last so you serve it hot and fresh. I suppose the problems only arise when you try to skip or otherwise circumvent those steps. Or, maybe, if you allow things to get too hot and it curdles.