Currabinny Cooks: Three recipes for versatile yet delicate asparagus
Asparagus Gratin: "Any opportunity to bake something in cream and cheese will be unapologetically taken."
Asparagus epitomises the point of seasonal eating. The beautiful green spears emerge in the middle to late spring at which point you should take the opportunity to grab a few bunches because they have a short enough season. Asparagus outside of its season tends to be woody, floppy, sad and imported from the southern hemisphere. It is one of those things that really has to be eaten at its absolute best.
The flavour of asparagus is so delicate, so elusive and yet so unique and instantly identifiable. There are so many ways of cooking asparagus and infinite things to pair it with or methods to dress it up, but it has to be said, keeping it as simple as possible is usually the best way.
One of our favourite spring-time lunches is a simple plate of grilled asparagus sprinkled with sea salt and accompanied by a nice homemade aioli.
In the kitchen, asparagus needs a relatively gentle hand. You don’t want to risk losing the beautiful spear heads by being too rough with them. Prepping them is fairly simple, we always snap each spear with our hands rather than with a knife. Someone told one of us long ago that the spears would snap at exactly the point where they start to turn woody. This makes perfect sense to us and we haven’t bothered investigating if it is another one of those kitchen myths because we love the ceremony of it.
Gathering a bunch of brilliantly verdant spears together, inspecting each one, gently taking one in both hands and breaking the end off at its natural snapping point. This method tends to give you an array of different sized spears so if uniformity is your bag then by all means use a knife.
There tends to be two different offerings of asparagus these days. Big bunches of thick spears, turning pale and purple at the woody ends and then much thinner younger looking spears without any toughness. The thin ones are delicious raw, you can shave them or slice them thinly over a salad of dressed leaves. If you do blanch them, only do it for a few seconds and if the end goal is to grill or bake them then skip the blanching process altogether.
The thicker ones usually need a quick blanch for a minute or two as a first step before you decide what else to do with them. Be very mindful of their colour as too long in the boiling water will dull them. Refresh immediately after blanching in an ice bath as this will instantly stop them from cooking any further.
The recipes this week depart a little from our usual very simplistic approach to asparagus but still very much champions their subtle, unique flavour.
We are obsessed with vegetable gratins. Any opportunity to bake something in cream and cheese will be unapologetically taken. In this recipe, we kept it very simple with a quick bechamel. We chose not to use any nutmeg as we felt this would have complicated the flavours too much. Asparagus sings when paired with salty things, so we used a mix of strong cheddar and hard sheep’s cheese along with a crumbly breadcrumb mixed up with almost burned pancetta bits, delicious.
- 450g of asparagus
- 50g butter
- 30g plain flour
- 250ml whole milk
- 100ml single cream
- 80g strong farmhouse cheddar (such as Derg or Coolatin)
- 80g hard sheep’s cheese (such as ‘cais na tire’)
- A sprig of thyme (leaves only)
- Zest of ½ lemon
- 60g Good quality breadcrumbs or torn pieces of bread
- 120g pancetta, cut into small cubes
- Sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Prepare the spears by cutting or snapping off the woody ends. Blanch them in boiling salted water for just 1 minute and then immediately refresh in a bowl of ice water. Skip this step if your asparagus spears are very thin.
Make the breadcrumbs by frying the pancetta until very well done and crispy. Remove to a kitchen paper lined plate and once dry blitz together with the breadcrumbs.
Pat the spears dry and arrange in a baking dish.
Make the bechamel by melting the butter in a small saucepan and adding the flour. Stir this combination around the pan for a minute or two until it is starting to smell just a little biscuity. Pour in the milk and whisk over a medium low heat until thickened. Then pour in the cream and grated cheeses. Pour this over your asparagus spears.
Sprinkle over the lemon zest and thyme leaves and pop in the oven for around 25 to 30 minutes so that everything is bubbling nicely and turning golden brown in places. Sprinkle generously with the breadcrumb mixture and eat immediately.
We ended up re-using the same pancetta breadcrumb mix from the previous recipe which worked just as well in this salad for some added crunch and saltiness. Try get some fresh horseradish, which will give you an earthier kick than creamed horseradish from a jar. Just like in the previous recipe, if your asparagus are young and thin, skip the blanching and go straight to frying them on the griddle.
- 450g asparagus
- 4 organic eggs
- 2 tablespoons of fresh grated horseradish
- 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard
- 2 teaspoons of runny honey
- Good bunch of chives, chopped
- Breadcrumb and pancetta
- Olive oil
- Sea salt and Black pepper
Blanch the asparagus in salty boiling water for a minute or so. Refresh in a bowl of ice and water.
Make the dressing by whisking together the grated horseradish, mustard chopped chives and honey along with 120ml of olive oil and a little sea salt.
Boil the eggs for around 6 minutes and then also refresh in a bowl of ice and water. Once cool enough, peel and cut in half.
Heat a little olive oil on a grill pan over medium high heat. Add the asparagus and cook for around 5 minutes until lightly charred.
Arrange the asparagus and jammy eggs on a serving plate and generously drizzle over the dressing.
Lastly sprinkle over a good amount of the pancetta breadcrumbs.
This is an extremely elegant and light spring-time meal which can be whipped up fairly quickly. If you haven’t tried John Dory before, it is absolutely beautiful. Meaty, gentle and clean tasting white fish, john dory pairs wonderfully with asparagus, which in this dish is baked with the fish and also served raw in the salad. Good alternatives for John Dory would be turbot or halibut. Serve this with some boiled baby potatoes smothered in butter and a little sea salt.
- 4 medium fillets of john dory, skinned
- 450g asparagus
- 1 bunch of spring onions/scallions
- 100g butter
- 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
- Olive oil
- Juice of 3 lemons plus one more lemon, cut into slices
- Handful of tarragon leaves, chopped
- Handful of lovage (or parsley) chopped
- 10 good quality green olives, pitted and roughly sliced
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Dill to serve
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Take three or four asparagus spears from the bunch and slice thinly, set aside. The remaining asparagus, slice in half lengthways. Trim the scallions and slice in half lengthways. Season the fish all over with sea salt and black pepper and place in a medium sized baking tray. Scatter the asparagus halves and scallions in and around the fish.
Melt the butter in a small pan and mix in the chilli flakes, leave cool a little and then pour over the fish and vegetables making sure everything is coated in butter. Place in the preheated oven for 20-15 minutes until the fish is just cooked.
In a mixing bowl, combine the sliced asparagus, herbs, olives, lemon juice along with 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt. Leave to marinate, stirring the ingredients around every so often while the fish cooks.
When the fish is cooked, arrange on a serving platter with all the vegetables and the raw asparagus and olive salad scattered around. Garnish with slices of lemon and a little dill. Best served with baby potatoes.
