For asparagus to reach its readiness for consumption, it takes only 5-10 minutes of boiling or steaming. After that, the vegetable can be eaten by dipping each shoot in a special sauce or butter. If desired, you can use boiled asparagus in the preparation of other dishes: soups, salads, pies, casseroles.
The asparagus season lasts only a month, starting at the end of April and ending in the first decade of June. Perhaps this is why it is the most expensive vegetable. Its value is determined not only in monetary terms. Asparagus is a nutritious and flavorful food, and therefore belongs to aristocratic vegetables. However, this does not mean that the recipes for its preparation are hidden behind seven seals. Even the most inexperienced housewife can cook asparagus.
Types of asparagus and their use in cooking
Few Russians were able to appreciate asparagus, because in order to feel this delicate taste, you need to cook it correctly. The most popular are green, white and purple. The most unpretentious is green - it can be harvested all year round. White, due to the short season and laborious cultivation in the absence of sunlight, is more expensive. And purple asparagus is one of the most exotic, although with the slightest heat treatment it becomes ordinary - green.
Asparagus is a young shoots of a bushy plant, so it should be cut in time before it is overgrown. The same property is characteristic of the bracken fern, which outwardly is very similar to young asparagus shoots, only slightly thinner. Asparagus should not be stored for a long time. If it is not possible to cook right away, then you need to cut off the base of the shoots (like a flower) and put in a container with water so that the ends are hidden a few centimeters in the water.
Before cooking, the asparagus is rinsed with cold water, and its base is cut off by 2-3 centimeters. This does not mean that this part is inedible, it just is rougher. Steaming for 5 minutes is enough for young green shoots to be ready to eat. You can cook asparagus in water, on the grill, in the oven, but the main condition is not to overcook it. So that the base of the shoots has time to cook, and the delicate ends are not overcooked, experts recommend using a narrow and high saucepan, where most of the shoot will be hidden under water, and the rest will be exposed to steam.
What products does boiled asparagus go with?
5 minutes is the optimal time to cook green asparagus, white asparagus is cooked for 10 minutes. Lovers of this vegetable absorb it immediately after cooking, only dipping it in olive or butter. Often times, a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar is added to a boiled dish. The same vinegar, mixed with mustard and olive oil, is used to dress asparagus and tomato salad. In general, the classic option for using boiled asparagus is its combination with hollandaise sauce, consisting of water, lemon juice, salt, hot pepper, butter and egg yolks.
Asparagus can be a worthy side dish for meat or fish, it is also good with boiled potatoes, omelet, as an ingredient in pie filling. There are many recipes for roasting shoots wrapped in strips of salmon or ham and doused with sauce or just beaten eggs. The shoot base cut off before boiling is not thrown away, but added to the soup. In Europe, mashed asparagus soups are widespread not on meat broth, but on the broth left after the preparation of young asparagus shoots. The soup uses onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and coarse asparagus trimmings, which you just need to boil and grind with a blender. Asparagus is a versatile vegetable that you can experiment with as you create new dishes in your kitchen.
