In the Kitchen

Is there any vegetable more redolent of spring than Asparagus? This week’s harvest started about two weeks later than it does most springs on our south-facing slope, and we got caught in the rain during Wednesday’s picking, but all four of us enjoyed nibbling on the stalks while we picked.

CSA member and foodie Jeanneane Jansen writes about asparagus:

Did you know that sommeliers identify asparagus and artichokes as two of the most difficult ingredients to pair with wine? It’s because they both have an unusual combination of flavor notes. (We like Rieslings with these two, or Viognier. Or beer. If you haven’t yet tried Surly Brewery’s lineup, then you are in for a treat. Surly Brewery is in Brooklyn Center, MN; thankfully some of its beers are available in MN and WI in cans. But we digress...) The following recipes play on asparagus’s contrasting bitter and sweet notes.

Basic Asparagus, with Flair
from Jeanneane Jansen

Snap off the stiff ends or peel them with a vegetable peeler. Prepare a finishing item (below). Steam the asparagus. Or toss it in a bowl with olive or vegetable oil and a little salt, and then roast it on a baking sheet at 400 degrees --- shaking the pan every few minutes --- until bright green with little carmelized sections. Or grill it until bright green with grill marks. (If you’re in doubt about whether the asparagus is done, err on the side of undercooking it. Remember that it will continue to cook as it sits on the plate. Pick up a spear by the fat end. It will go a little limp when ready. Too limp and it is overdone.)

Finishes:

A little pat of butter, salt, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a few grates of lemon zest. This is a sort of quick hollandaise sauce. Pastureland Dairy’s cultured butter is extraordinary.

A dollop of butter blended with herbs such as chives, or tarragon.

A drizzle of olive oil and chopped garlic. Warm the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant (just a few seconds), or leave it uncooked for extra punch.

A drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan.

A drizzle of olive oil and small bits of chopped cooked bacon (Grass Run Farm has fabulous bacon), thinly sliced ham, or Proscuitto, the crisper the better.

A drizzle of olive oil and truffle salt.

A drizzle of truffle oil and salt.

Finely grated ginger and garlic, warmed briefly in butter or sesame oil.

Because we have it in abundance, and as I noted previously our spring has been a little tricky so we don’t have the kind of diversity I normally count on to keep myself and my CSA members jazzed, we are packing a fair amount of spinach into the boxes. My idea: use one bag for cooking, and one bag for salads. Spinach makes a great addition to soups and stews, in addition to a

Wilted Spinach Salad
Great as a starter, or a standalone midnight snack.

1 lb Young Spinach Leaves
4 slices Bacon, diced
1 Tbsp Sugar
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
Dash of Salt
Handful Dried Raisins or Dried Cranberries
Parmesan Cheese
Fresh Ground Pepper

Place the spinach in a serving bowl, tearing large leaves into bite-sized pieces. In a skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and remove, then sprinkle over spinach. Whisk together the hot drippings (use about ¼ cup if there’s a lot left over), sugar, balsamic vinegar, and salt, and pour over the spinach to wilt just slightly. Toss with dried fruit, and serve with a generous topping of Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper.

Chives do amazing things in the spring. Two weeks ago, we had to harvest twenty clumps of chives to get the equivalent of twenty bunches; this week, we harvested twenty clumps to get sixty bunches. Hurray for stored solar energy!

Lemon-Chive Rice

4 cups cooked White Rice (or, the results of cooking two cups of rice)
1 bunch Chives
¼ cup Lemon Juice

While the rice is cooking, thinly slice the chives (this is one of those jobs that will tell you if your knife is sharp – chives almost jump away from a truly sharp chef’s knife [my favorite is the Wusthof 8-inch Wide Blade Chef’s Knife]). Toss hot rice with sliced chives and lemon juice, and serve immediately.

Lovage looks a lot like parsley, and a lot like underdeveloped celery. I think of it as parsley on steroids, both for its aggressive growth habit and it over-the-top flavor. If you want an herb to “kick it up,” lovage is the herb for you. Use in soups or stews, or chopped finely and added to salads, as a flavor booster, akin to parsley, but don’t get carried away. Also, the fibrous stalks should be used for flavoring but discarded before serving. Lovage makes a nice addition to vinaigrette, or, finely chopped, just tossed in with a spinach salad. The bright flavor makes it a nice pairing with asparagus, especially mellowed in a little melted butter before drizzling over.

As another approach, blanch the stalks with your asparagus; the cooking mellows the flavor, and infuses the asparagus quite nicely.

Carrots, of course, are still held over from last fall’s harvest. I am using these often in cooked dishes these days, but they still taste great raw, as well.