thepassionatecook

Purple/Pink asparagus with butter & parmesan

One of the best things about spring for me is white asparagus - probably because it's so elusive... here one minute, gone the next! It's the things that have a very limited season that I await with the most anticipation and if you've ever been to a market when the first bunches of white asparagus appear on the stalls and saw an otherwise inconspicuous woman jump up and down for joy, that would be me!
I have never understood people who don't like white asparagus, I have even heard certain (very well-regarded) food bloggers call them bland... which couldn't be further from the truth, if you are in the possession of any tastebuds whatsoever! Although I have to say, I have tasted white asparagus in France once and didn't think it was as good as what I know from back home, and you must never, ever, eat asparagus preserves, as their sliminess is hard to swallow and its subtle taste is completely drowned in the brine/vinegar or whatever is used to preserve them.
Fresh white asparagus grown in Central Europe is a different breed, though, call it the Ferrari of asparagus, if you must: it has the most fantastic subtle taste and so many different flavour nuances that are hard to describe. Its high water content makes for a very light texture, the taste is sweet and lightly nutty and can, especially towards the end of the season, show some signs of bitterness, but very delicately so, even less than chicoree -  and you can minimise even that by adding a piece of (white) bread to the boiling water.
The variety I bought at the Borough Market the other day was not actually pure white asparagus, but pink/purple asparagus (asparagi rosa di Mezzago) from Northern Italy - it is essentially white, but sports the cutest purplish-pink tips... and tastes just the same, if a bit more bitter, than my beloved pure-bred white. Contrary to green asparagus, which pretty much grows rampant in Europe, its white cousin is scarce here and is difficult to grow. The stalks stay white because they are not kissed by any sunlight, being sheltered by meticulously topping the soil up with compost or, in some regions, protective casing, to completely wrap the spears in darkness. It is one of the most sought-after vegetables, because of its delicate flavour and limited season, but maybe also due its dietetic merits: it is very low in calories (only 20 in 100 grams) and extremely rich in minerals and folic acid as well as vitamins (500 g contain your RDA of Vitamin C, for example). It also has great diuretic qualities, making it popular with anyone on a weight-loss mission.
I sometimes think of it as a truffle. Being so seasonal and labour-intensive to grow and harvest makes it difficult to get and thus quite expensive: Class I Super, as per EU regulations, must be between 12 and 26 mm thick, grown straight with a neat, closed tip, and average 22 cm in length. In Austria, we add another category, the "Solospargel+", which needs to be 25 - 30 mm thick and back in my student days went for an unhealthy 250 Schillings per kilo (the equivalent of £12 or $25, and let me just tell you that this was one eigth of my monthly allowance!) - but the extortionate prices didn't keep me from queuing for it at the break of dawn to get my hands on a bunch! You see, there's even a dedicated shop in Vienna (1060 Wien Linke Wienzeile 72, now open Wed. to Fri 9am - 6pm, Sat. from 8 am - 1pm), close to the best market in town, the Naschmarkt - it's only open during asparagus season, roughly from mid April to mid June, and sells just white asparagus. They supply exclusively the best restaurants in Austria and any surplus is sold off to gourmands willing and able to form an orderly queue for it in the wee hours of the morning... It's a cooperative of farmers coming in from the Marchfeld, the prime asparagus region, and they cut the stalks at the break of dawn to sell it within a few hours every Saturday. The top category goes very fast, so by mid-morning, you're only left with the thinner or broken stalks, classified as "soup asparagus". If you want the top of the crop, you have to be there bright and early, but believe me, it is sooo worth it!
Which brings me to the most important thing: how to enjoy it. The most popular ways to eat it, of course, are not necessarily the most health-conscious, off-setting any dietary benefits described above: sauce hollandaise is probably the most popular accompaniment, although I like mine best when it's smothered in melted butter and sprinkled with parmesan... try it wrapped in parma ham or in a basic white sauce with truffle shavings, or (a favourite with my parents) with buttered breadcrumbs, sometimes with just a hint of anchovy. Also a perennial favourite up and down the menus is asparagus velouté, closely followed by asparagus soufflé, and a variety of terrines.
Served with a simple hollandaise, asparagus is also one of the few things that table etiquette (at least where I come from) allows you to eat with your fingers - and therefore falls in the same category as other sensual food like lobster and mussels (and French fries ;-))... plus, it is often said to be an aphrodisiac as well. But before you run out to the shops in the hope to get some, bear in mind that it tends to cause flatulence and some very smelly winds at that!

For buying tips and serving suggestions, please click below to read the continuation of this post...

Green asparagus recipes on thepassionatecook:
Venison fillet on apple & asparagus "lasagne" (February 2007)
Asparagus risotto (May 2005)
Smoked haddock & asparagus open lasagne (August 2004)
Spicy spaghetti with asparagus & pancetta (May 2006)
Asparagus with poached egg and pecorino shavings (September 2005)

This is a submission to Meeta's Monthly Mingle (a day late, sorry! I really tried).

 

Winter salad with fennel, pear, orange and pecan

We like our salad here, we do - there's hardly a meal that is not served with a big bowl of leaves on the side and in the warmer months, we often make a meal of it. For this purpose, I love to play around with various dressings and always have at least a dozen bottles of different oils and vinegars open, so that I can mix a suitable vinaigrette depending on the ingredients of the salad. A former nanny of ours explained upon her arrival that, looking at the pictures we sent, she was hesitant to sign up with us at the beginning, due to the fact that there were so many bottles of liquor and wine standing around on the worktops in the kitchen - she must have been really relieved to find they were no more than precious oils and vinegars from all over the world and we were not a bunch of hopeless alcoholics!
In the colder months, a bowl of salad is usually not comforting enough to withstand the weather oustside (or is it just hormones that make my appetite insatiable?), so a side salad is all we tend to have. Last night, though, I felt like serving a salad as a starter - and of course, I chose plenty of wintery flavours for it... fennel, pear, orange, pecan nuts and a generous helping of sweet and smooth cave-aged cheese! For the vinaigrette, I used olive oil infused with nuts and a raspberry baslamic vinegar, deliciously fruity and sweet - and the whole affair taught me that a salad can indeed be comforting enough for those dreadful winter months. I intend to play around more with other winter warmers like butternut squash, celeriac, parsnip, pomegranate and all those other flavours that are seasonal now, especially since I will need some quick and easy dishes in the upcoming few weeks when I'll have other things on my mind...

Roast tomato salad with anchovy dressing

Ripe tomatoes are really the only thing that's left of the summer on the market stalls now and I bet for not much longer - I mean, I have the heating going already! As a reminder of the good days, here's a recipe for a simple supper. I could eat tomatoes all day long, I love them sliced on a piece of rye bread spread with cream cheese, some chopped herbs on top, if possible, I'll happily snack on them while I do the cooking or prepare a salad, but I also adore them warm. Many people don't like them cooked, I even know people who won't even eat the on their pizza!
The heat just brings out the flavour even more and gives me a warm feeling inside - eating them is like being cuddled by someone you love! I often buy tomatoes on the vine (actually, that's all I buy, except for beefsteak and cocktail tomatoes) and love to roast them on the vine as well, until their skins pop. This is my preferred, if unusual, way of eating caprese - lay out some chunky mozzarella slices, slab the roast tomatoes on top, drizzle with good quality olive oil and just suck them off the vine as you go along... anything tastes better when a bit of finger-licking is involved!
A few weeks back, I found a beautiful recipe for what was presented as a "roast tomato salad" in Waitrose Seasons. I had been salivating over the picture for months - but reading the recipe I already realised that no way was my dish going to look like on the picture if I followed the recipe... the tomatoes would never keep their shape! Perfect example of food styling with a blow-torch, rather than actual cooking! Never mind, though, I knew that the flavour combinations of the tomatoes and red onion, carmelised by roasting them in the oven, the sweetness of the pine kernels and the saltiness of the anchovies would be a perfect marriage! And it was - a mess to look at, but a most indulging one at that! I was mopping up the juices with a fresh and crusty baguette, wishing it would never end...

Panzanella - more than bread salad

Another great summer dish - assembled for the "Summer Salad" Event over at My Life as a reluctant housewife and the monthly (virtual) gathering organised by Meeta. The theme this time round is "holiday cuisine" ... but sadly, my holidays this year, lovely as they were, couldn't get me to bring up any summery feelings. I left London in perfect sunshine and warmth to be greeted with rain at my arrival in Vienna, rain that shouldn't stop for a fortnight. Pretty depressive, no kidding.
But just before I left, in the true spirit of summer holidays, I made a dish I first encountered when travelling to Italy with my parents as a kid. Panzanella is often translated as "bread salad", which does anything but whet my appetite, but it's much better than it sounds... and if you believe the many food magazines available in this country, it is experiencing a bit of a revival lately. Unsurprisingly, as it is a great summer dish and so simple to throw together.
I often say it simply is gazpacho before the invention of the blender, as the ingredients are virtually the same - apart from the usual suspects of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and onion, I normally use day-old ciabatta bread and toast it in a pan, then toss in (home-made) pesto for that refreshing basil kick. With almost over-ripe tomatoes at the height of their season, this quick and healthy salad is the embodiment of summer...

Wurstsalat or: the Austrian way to do picnics

Austrians are not what you would call a nation of picnickers. Not sure why this is, but there are only three occasions that I can think of where you bring your food and consume it in full view of others: Firstly, although rapidly disappearing nowadays, you can still find certain "Heurigen" (establishments where local wine producers are licensed to sell only their own produce, sometimes restricted to just a couple of weeks every autumn) where you're allowed or expected to bring our own food while you consume the house wine on the premises, secondly, when you go hiking and bring dry-cured sausages, some cheese and bread (in the case of our family mostly in a battered tin box rather than tupperware) and thirdly, when you go to spend a day on the lake.
I guess there are two main reasons that prevent us Austrians to frolick and indulge on our picnic blankets... one is that, unlike London, you'd be hard-pressed to find a space in an urban park, as most green spaces are inaccessible to the public and apart from "don't step on the lawn" signs left, right and centre, you have park patrol keeping a vigilant eye on anyone attempting to break the rules. So you'd find yourself restricted to the few park benches scattered along the paths, which are usually occupied by the elderly taking a well-deserved break or some homeless wino sleeping his alcohol levels down to a reasonable level.
But apart from the difficulty of finding a suitable space, there is a common negative attitude towards eating in public. Despite there being many shops and kiosks where you can grab a quick bite, eating in public is frowned upon and you're really expected to either consume your purchase in the immediate perimeter of the locale or take it whereever the wind blows you next, be that your work place or your home. If you attempt to eat your hot dog in a tram or on a bus, you're most likely to lose your appetite altogether under the scornful eyes of some old ladies... and we all know such specimens, don't we?
So the rare occasions where we enjoyed our lunch al fresco was usually in summer, when we headed for some mountainous lake or even just a nature pond in the vicinity of my hometown to spend a day in the sun. On such days, my Mum would prepare a "Wurstsalat" (I will spare you the literal translation as it is bound to evoke the wrong pictures in your head and ruin your appetite). We use "Extrawurst" or "Knacker", a cold meat similar to some luncheon sausages you can get round here, the ingredients of which are not far from a Frankfurter or Wiener, a hard cheese (like Emmental or Gruyère), onions, tomatoes and sweet peppers, thinly slice all of it and dress it with a simple vinaigrette. Straight out of the coolbox and with a crusty baguette on the side, I cannot think of anything more refreshing on a hot summer's day...

Gordon's Caesar Salad

Caesar salad must be the most bastardised of salads on earth - which is probably why many people have strong (negative) feelings about it. Like my husband. He doesn't like anchovies for starters and his first encounter with a CS was when he bought a sachet of it at some supermarket, unaware of what was in the marinade. He must have spat like a llama. But what can you expect of mass-produced salad sauces? It makes much more commercial sense to buy tinned anchovies in oil, you know, the endlessly salty variety that is as far removed from a real fish as Cadbury/Hershies/etc is from chocolate! Except for a sodium kick, I don't know why people even buy that stuff! No, what you want is the real thing: smooth silky anchovies in brine, bought from your local delicatessen (or supermarket, if you're lucky)... they do taste like fish and are a real pleasure to eat - I get cravings for them every once in a while where I could devour a whole tub full of them with some toasted Poilane bread - snack heaven! And of course, real parmesan, not the pre-grated version which, again, bears no resemblance to the original.
I didn't follow much of Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Hell" TV series, but I do remember him re-inventing a Caesar's salad at one particular establishment. I bought his book "Kitchen Heaven" a while ago and this is the first recipe I've tried - but the book is full of quite quick and easy recipes, some of which are even managable after a long day at work... so I tried the Caesar's salad some time last week and it was very yummy. My better half couldn't get enough of it! The fresh anchovies make all the difference of course, and I also loved the way he grills the bacon, then brushes it with maple syrup - it gives the salad a really interesting twist!

Three-bean salad with spicy salsa verde

Meena of Hooked on Heat is a new kid on the blog, and that she should instigate a whole new series of blogging events is quite admirable. You would think that after giving numerous IMBBs and SHFs (not to mention Paper Chefs), a miss lately, I would again grace this foodblogging event with my absence.
Not so. To me, the words "spicy" and "beans" have an intriguing stickiness ever since I lived in Mexico. Although I never had kidney beans there...
When I thought about what to make for this day, chile con carne (my fingers still shy away from spelling the Spanish "chile" with a double "l" and an "i") sprang to mind. But I shy away from supermarket minced meat and have never tried a veggie alternative, so that wasn't an option.
Then I remembered a starter Jeanne of Cooksister! made when she invited us for a Braai last month. The perfect thing to adapt for the purpose! Salsa verde is normally made with green tomatoes and chile, but the salad dressing is green, so I figured I could get away with the name. Coriander, lime and chilli make for a very refreshing combination. Great, healthy starter or lunch, if you're not on an Atkins diet...
I also made some spicy bean nibbles to keep the family amused while I was cooking well after 9 in the evening: so here are my spiced bean tostaditas, whipped up in no more than 2 minutes, I swear - Chris liked them so much that he nibbled away while he was cleaning the partridges - I didn't get a single one! But in the end, what better compliment could I possibly get?

Rocket, caramelised fennel & hazelnut salad with "camempear" bruschetta

With a long day of work behind you, it is always difficult to resist the temptation to just eat crap food in the evening - at least that's what happens to me. With an hour's commute and work hours far beyond the nine-to-five, my inner self often cries out for a ready meal dished up while I read a book (or, indeed, post recipes for more engaging and mouth-watering food).
At the same time, I want to eat healthy and maybe shed a few superfluous pounds I have gained in my last pregnancy - and to satisfying these two desires is easily achieved. Not planning ahead is an added difficulty, since gone eight o'clock in the evening it is not easy to locate certain ingredients like prime-quality fish - or even count on finding any particular ingredients at all, because the reality is that the food you've set your mind on will not be available anymore.
Last night, I actually made the effort of playing through different meal scenarios on the train and came up with a satisfactory, though not particularly calory-conscious food plan - fortunately, all ingredients were waiting for me on the supermarket shelves and I whipped up a relatively quick and healthy salad... even my husband, who isn't too fond of fennel, was happily tucking in!

Boxing day salad of spinach, chicory, pomegranate and pecans

My friend Lyn recently consulted me in her search for a new idea for a salad she could bring along to their Christmas dinner. I found this salad a winner, with its pomegranate and pecan flavours intrinsically linked to the festive season. The spinach travels well and holds its shape better and longer than lettuce will, so it is a perfect bring-along alternative when you're bored out of your mind with potato, pasta or rice salads.
This salad is a great side for your Christmas roast, but it is also a clever idea for using up your left-over turkey or chicken on Boxing Day. I must admit that we did not box any of it up to put on our front porch for the poor to pick up (which, I am told, is where the word "Boxing Day" originates), but I very much doubt that anyone would go looking for food outside people's houses these days anyway...

Bacon, avocado and fennel salad - a post-mortem

This is a post-mortem analysis revealing the details of my very short relationship with the ... salad bowl.
I hate trips to IKEA, no, I loathe them. First of all, I resent them for the fact that my student days are long gone and we still have 10 of the very cheapest pine wood chairs in our garage, blocking the way to whatever you're looking for, pretty much. Second, shopping there is torture. Third, watching my husband assemble IKEA furniture even more so. But if it can't be avoided, I always have to make the experience less painful by taking advantage of some not-to-be-missed offer in the kitchenware department. Last time I went I picked up a salad bowl, but our relationship was doomed.
I should have known it the moment I picked it up. The last glass bowl on the shelf, larger-than-life woman with menacing grin on her face approaching from the left, trying to grab it, as I thrust myself forward ... not quite sure why, but the baby in my kangaroo pouch must have deterred her and it ended up being me who took the bowl home. I should not have been so greedy and have left it right there.
I prepared a lovely salad in it for lunch the next day, saw it standing there on the table in the sunshine, in all its glory, but the last thing it would experience was being washed in the dishwasher. Then its distracted owner tried to put it in the cupboard, smashing it against another bowl while giving a pathetic dance performance to a Gloria Estefan's "Mi tierra" album in front of a whingey baby... and that was the end of our very brief encounter. A very clean break.
Unfortunately, I have to go back for more on the weekend. Hopefully I'll be more lucky with my next compulsive buy.