When we asked about asparagus season, the bustling woman with farmers' hands working the Zuckerman's stand gave us a quick answer, "We're three weeks in with 12 to go." The thin, long wands are still just at one or two stalls in the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, but we're sure they'll be everywhere soon enough. That's fine with us; we love the distinctive green stalks with their grassy taste, and we're happy to pretend that spring's come a little early by cooking this vernal icon. Chop them up, blanch them, and serve them in an omelette, or leave them whole and take advantage of the visual flair they add to any dish. We'll happily eat them, no matter what the ramifications.
Asparagus takes to a variety of quick preparations: blanch and stir-fry it, steam it, boil it, roast it, or grill it. Classicists can finish with a hollandaise sauce while flush gourmets might choose a pricey drizzle of heavenly aceto balsamico tradizionale. California cuisine enthusiasts can opt for the blood orange vinaigrette that reader Carl Paganelli suggested—"blood orange juice, a little zest, a suspicion of red wine vinegar to bring up the acidity, finely diced shallot, olive oil, salt and pepper." More adventuresome souls might finish with local chocolate goddess Alice Medrich's suggestion of warm butter and cacao nibs. These broken husks of roasted cacao beans add a rich, earthy note that defies an easy description.
SFist Derrick, contributing. Photos by Melissa Schneider.
It's no surprise that asparagus pairs well with other traditional spring foods like fresh goat cheese, but its chemical make-up causes problems for many wines. Most wine aficionados suggest coupling this difficult vegetable with the vibrant acidity and green smells of a Sauvignon Blanc. We like the lime-zest aromas in Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand's Marlborough region, but we also love the mineral tang of Sancerres and Pouilly-Fumés—France's best known renditions of this grape. We find many California examples to be flabby and uninteresting, but we recently met and had dinner with John Williams, owner of Frog's Leap winery, (no, not that John Williams) and we had to admit that his company's Sauvignon Blanc is pretty damn good.
Recipe: Grouper, asparagus and gold chard with a verjus vinaigrette.
Verjus, or verjuice, is the tart juice of unfermented wine grapes. Many chefs consider it more wine-friendly than a harsh vinegar, but we still suggest just a splash in the vinaigrette.
Vinaigrette
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 Tb verjus
3-4 Tb good extra-virgin olive oil
good-quality salt to taste
Grouper
2 small pieces of grouper (our fishmonger had cut them into individual portions for us)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Chard
1 bunch golden chard
chicken/vegetable stock
freshly grated nutmeg
Preheat your oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle salt over both sides of grouper, let sit. Wash and thoroughly dry chard. Cut the leaves of chard crosswise so you end up with strips of leaf divided by the chard stem. Prepare a pot with a steamer basket for the asparagus. Break off the woody asparagus stems.
Pour the verjus into a small bowl and add garlic. Begin whisking, and slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking the whole time, until the vinaigrette is thick and creamy. Season to taste.
Bring water under steamer to a boil. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat, and add chard. Stir well until the leaves begin to wilt mere seconds later. Add stock, reduce heat to low, cover and braise for about 5 minutes. Place asparagus in pot with steamer basket, cover, and steam until tender, just 5 minutes or so. Place grouper on baking sheet and place in oven until cooked; check after 5 or 6 minutes. When the chard has braised, remove the lid to the pan and let the stock evaporate. Season with salt and grated nutmeg.
Lay steamed asparagus stalks on a plate, and put grouper on top. Spoon vinaigrette over fish and drizzle some on the plate. Put a small serving of chard on top of the fish. Serve with a chilled Sauvignon Blanc.
Asparagus can be tricky to pair with wine because of that telltale taste. Austrian Gruner Veltliner is one option, but lately we've been enjoying it with Sauvignon Blanc. We're fond of the ones from New Zealand's Marlborough region as well as the Sancerres and Pouilly-Fumés that are France's rendition of this grape, though we suggest being cautious with the 2003's from those regions: that heat wave in Europe flattened the normally uber-tart wines. We also became enamored of the Frog's Leap Sauvignon Blanc after we had dinner with owner and wine maker John Williams (no, not that one), who seems to bring a lot of passion and integrity and organic farming practices to his wines.
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My fave is drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and the grilled hot and fast until just soft. I could eat that all. day. long.
Ooh, and there is also a walk and eat fried asparagus stand right near the Zuckerman's asparagus produce stand. It's $5 for a serving of delicious batter coated fried stalks.
Att he Farmers Market on Sat I picked up a bunch of thin white asparagus which is for tonight's dinner. I've never seen thin white before, only fat white.
I was reading my FREE copy of 7x7 mag that flatteringly mentions none other than our very own Derrick and it has a recipe for asparagus that they claim is the best way to cook it,ever (as i recall somehow sealed in the oven, and cooked slowly for a long time). If I can find the article tonight I'll try it out and report back on how it went.
Asparagus is one of my top 5 veggies of all time. It's maybe even no 1. it definitely beats everything else green in colour.
Asparagus is one of the only vegetables I can gladly eat unnadorned, and I prefer it just BARELY cooked.
Loves it. Despite the....uh...pee thing.
Ah, Jackson and Rain are purists. No fancy treatment, just the barest of flavorings. It's a hard stance to argue with. I tend to like mine a bit more tender, but every now and then I'll leave it nice and crunchy.
The deep-fried asparagus is pretty good (what deep-fried thing isn't?). I've even made it once. Their thinner batter clings better than my simple flour-buttermilk-flour method. Probably a beer batter of some form.
Sam, you _have_ to report back on the secret 7x7 technique (copies haven't shown up at my local magazine stand, but I'm sure they will in the next couple days).
Yes, it's a beer batter—you can see all the cans of Milwaukee's Best lined up at the back of the Zuckerman's frying booth. I woke up this Saturday with a deep-fried asparagus craving, and scarfed down a half-dozen spears in a couple minutes. They weren't as sweet and delectable as last year, but still mighty satisfying.
M.C.
Paying attention to the booth is cheating. Yeah...that's it. Actually, Melissa noticed the stand as we were wandering but I didn't (or else I would have bought some!) Thanks for the tip.
Derrick. the 7x7 recipe was a disaster, but I am wondering if it is because I used white instead of green asparagus. I even peeled them, damn it and they were thinner than pencils. the idea was to peel, pack in a parchment paper parcel with a dribble of live oil and salt and sugar then leave in the oven for 2 hours at 175 degrees. No mean feat on a school night I can tell you to have a 3hr cooking window. After 2 hours the asparagus was still hard, chewy and bitter ugh! I slammed the oven up to 500 to make my sausages and potatoes cook faster (it was 9.30pm and i was getting hungry by this time) which caused the asparagi to blacken. They tasted better although they looked pretty bad. SOme of the ends were still too woody to eat.
I will not completely dismiss this recipe until I have tried it on the green ones. i am sure it will work better. Maybe I'll increase temp to 200 F as well.
I'll let you know...
Sam,
Ah, so slow-roasting is their super-secret technique. Interesting. I imagine Rain wouldn't like the mega-tender result, but it certainly sounds like it's worth a try, though I'm with you about spending that much time cooking on a school night. And to no avail! I hope green serves you better.
Indeed, few things make me sadder than the sight of a limp asparagus stalk. But if the flavor is all that and more, then I'd be willing to give it a try.
Moki Sushi has a great asparagus dish -- I don't know how they prepare it (probably roasted), but they drizzle it with a great cream sauce with some definite kick.
Not to harsh on 7x7 (okay, I'm totally harshing on 7x7) but do you think for a minute they might have just borrowed/made up that recipe? I mean, SFist has our own troubles making sure there's enough content every day. I wouldn't be surprised if an editor got a little loose with the facts to fill some column inches on that one!
oh they did borrow it Jackson - they admit it - and they publish the source too. For some reason, I can't imagine why, I don't actually carry my 7x7 with me wherever I go, and I can't remember the name of the recipe book it was from. I'll try remember to llok it up tonight.
scandale!
There's actually a "well-known" problem that many cooking magazines (and even books) don't test their recipes very well. I can't imagine 7x7 has a fully-equipped test kitchen with an extensive budget for checking recipes.
So I wonder if you've got an untested copy of an untested recipe.
It was apparently from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert.
Good job us food bloggers are around to do the recipe testing, eh???!
Geez guys,
You all being writers, I'd think you'd at least notice my byline in 7x7...that would be "me" (Bruce), not "they".
The slow cooked asparagus recipe works brilliantly every time when you use thick spears of green asparagus - not white - ahem (although I can't imagine it making any difference, white asparagus are simply blanched during growth, similar to the technique used when growing endive), you might want to check the calibration of your oven, and make sure that you tightly seal the parchment edges before putting the pan in the oven. Obviously a 2 hour recipe isn't meant for those times when getting dinner on the table quickly is a priority. I don't recall writing that it's "the best asparagus recipe ever" either. It's merely an interesting alternative to the more popular techniques of steaming and parboiling. It's meant to make you think differently about cooking an ingredient, and the resulting texture and flavor is entirely unique. And yes, the recipe clearly states (in bold print) that it's adapted from Paula Wolfert's most recent cookbook, it's not a 7x7 Magazine recipe...(and props to 7x7 Magazine, by the way, for being the only SF Bay Area print publication to consistently mention food bloggers, way before the the Chronicle article last week).
Just for the record, 7x7 ran one of my recipes a few issues back, and the editors did indeed test my recipe - came back with a couple questions, added a suggestion or two, they were really thorough about it.
I've had this experience with other publications so far as well - where they test the recipes either in house or assign them out to a freelancer.
-h
I'll say publicly what I wrote to Bruce privately. I'm glad to know they put the effort into testing the recipes. 7x7 gets props not just for covering food blogs, but also for testing recipes.
Hey bruce - I really am certain the asparagus itself was at fault on this occasion.
I did do everything exaclty as instructed. I did have 2 hours free to cook them but after 2 hours they were nowhere near done and that's when I started getting hungry. it could well be my oven is calibrated badly. I just moved and it's an old electric oven in my new rented place. However - i have to say it has served me excellently in my baking endeavours so far.
I am anxious to try the recipe again, when I have time, with the green asparagus. And maybe at 200F
thanks for getting back to us all with the details!
PS - props maybe for 7x7s coverage of foodbloggers, but when they mentioned me in an article a while back they didn't even publish my URL or make any attempt to contact me. The Chron were much more thorough in that resepct.