IT’S BEEN A GOOD YEAR FOR THE ASPARAGUS

 

April showers bring May asparagus. Although there’s no asparagus in my garden, I’m buying  locally-grown asparagus by double bunches.

According to the growers’ association, Spain is estimated to produce about 60 million kilos (roughly 66,000 tons) of green asparagus this season, more than half of it in the province of Granada (Andalusia). Add in the pricey white asparagus, grown in Navarra and the Valle de Tietar (Extremadura), and it’s shaping up to be a good year for asparagus. (Much of the fresh white asparagus gets shipped to Germany for the spargelfest; the remainder is canned and is considered a delicacy in Spain.)

I confess to buying asparagus all year round, when it’s imported mainly from Peru at unbelievably low prices. But while it lasts, I am enjoying the Spanish crop. Usually I simply cook asparagus until just tender (lift a spear on a fork; if it bends slightly over the fork, it’s done). I serve it with mayonnaise, preferably homemade with extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of sour orange juice. My next favorite way is in a revuelto, scrambled with eggs and mushrooms. Here are more ways to cook asparagus.

Rustic Asparagus Soup with Cheese Toasts (Sopa de Esparragos). This soup from La Mancha, made with either wild or cultivated asparagus, might have a pinch of saffron and cheesy toast on top. Poach an egg in the broth to add substance. The recipe is here.

White Asparagus Bisque with Saffron (Crema de Esparragos Blancos con Azafrán). From rustic (above) to posh. This soup is fit for a special occasion. Enriched with cream, the bisque can be made with fresh or canned white asparagus. See the recipe here.

Asparagus Frittata (Tortilla de Esparragos). This started out to be a revuelto or tortilla with asparagus and eggs. Because the oven was on, I set the pan in the oven to finish cooking. Sauté the chopped asparagus in olive oil with sliced garlic and (optional) chopped chard, zucchini, mushrooms, and bacon until asparagus is crisp-tender. Beat 4 eggs with 1/4 cup milk, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour over the vegetables, stirring until eggs begin to set. Place in medium-hot (375ºF) oven until eggs are set and just beginning to brown on top (about 8 minutes). Serve with grated cheese if you like. 

Eggs Scrambled with Asparagus and Shrimp (Revuelto de Esparragos con Gambas). My favorite lunchtime dish--revuelto, eggs scrambled with whatever vegetable is at hand. This version with shrimp might be served as a brunch dish for a crowd or heaped on toasts as an hors d'oeuvre. The recipe for the pictured revuelto is here . A recipe for a sauté of asparagus, shrimp, and morels (no eggs) is here. 

Asparagus with Two Sauces (Esparragos con Dos Salsas). This cold dish, which makes an excellent starter, is often prepared with canned white asparagus. But it's especially delicious with fresh green asparagus. One sauce is a variation on mayonnaise. The other is a vinaigrette with chopped scallions and red and green peppers. The recipes are here.

Wild Asparagus in Cazuela with Spring Vegetables (Cazuela de Esparragos Esparragados). Early spring brings wild asparagus to meadows and hillsides. Foragers have developed many ways to cook the thin, slightly bitter spears. This is an old traditional recipe--it's name means "asparagussed" asparagus. The vegetables cook in a sauce thickened with bread and flavored with pimentón and cumin. The cazuela usually is finished with eggs poached on top. The recipe is here. 

Sheet Pan Broiled Asparagus and Onions with Romesco Sauce (Calçotada al Grill con Esparragos y Romesco). Broiling is a great way to cook asparagus and romesco sauce is the perfect accompaniment. This is a sheet-pan adaptation of traditional Catalan feast of wood-fire grilled onions with other foods. See how to prepare calçotada and romesco sauce here. You can also grill asparagus on a plancha grill. How-to and more sauce recipes at Grilling on a Plancha.

Flamenco Baked Eggs with Asparagus and Chorizo (Huevos a la Flamenca). I call this the "Spanish shakshuka," eggs baked in a tomato sauce with sliced chorizo and asparagus spears. It's a satisfying lunch or supper dish. Recipe here.

"Garden Crayfish" (Fried Asparagus Spears) (Cigalas de la Huerta). Vegetables masquerading as fish is an old device to make simple foods appetizing. Green beans, crisply fried, sort of resemble fried fresh anchovies and pairs of asparagus spears sort of look like the claws on cigalas, sea crayfish. Directions for preparing the asparagus and other "fake" fish are here.

Mixed Spring Vegetables (Menestra de Verduras). With asparagus, peas, fava beans, and artichokes, this vegetable stew is celebration of spring vegetables. Leave out the optional sausage and it makes a splendid vegetarian main dish. The recipe is here.

White Asparagus with Clams and Shrimp, Basque Style (Esparragos a la Vasca). Make this dish with fresh white asparagus if available. If not, open a tin of silky Navarra asparagus in conserve. The recipe is here.

Asparagus Andalusian Style (Esparragos a la Andaluza). This is another version of the Cazuela de Esparragos Esparragados pictured above with wild asparagus. This one is made with cultivated green asparagus. The recipe is here. 

REVUELTO: BREAKFAST, LUNCH, TAPA OR SUPPER

What’s for breakfast? Lunch or dinner? Tapas for a drinks party? Eggs! Eggs are the answer to any meal-planning dilemma. And Spain has you covered when it comes to really good ways to serve eggs. Think tortilla, the famous potato “omelet,” or fried egg atop a mound of vegetable pisto with zucchini and eggplant.

But of all the egg dishes, the one I go back to over and over is revuelto, eggs scrambled with vegetables, seafood or ham. It’s quick to prepare, much easier than the tricky tortilla. It can be scaled up or down—from a single serving to a family-sized brunch. It can be very homey or quite luxurious, depending on which ingredients you choose to incorporate.

All scrambled up--eggs with asparagus, shrimp, mushrooms and garlic shoots.

Fresh vegetables or leftovers, wild mushrooms or cultivated ones, a revuelto incorporates them all.

Last week’s revuelto was leftover cooked broccoli with strips of serrano ham. My revuelto this week is inspired by asparagus in the market and green garlic shoots in my garden. With the addition of mushrooms and small shrimp, it is a fairly substantial meal.

Eggs Scrambled with Asparagus and Shrimp
Revuelto de Espárragos con Gambas

Use any type of mushroom, wild or cultivated. Morels are divine; oyster mushrooms are fine. If green garlic shoots are not available, use 1 small clove of garlic with chopped green scallions. 

To serve revuelto as a tapa, spread it on toasts. 

Revuelto with five eggs makes three, four or five servings.

2 bunches green asparagus (1 ½ pounds)
6 ounces mushrooms
3 green garlic shoots (½ cup, chopped)
¼ cup olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes (optional)
5 ounces small peeled shrimp
5 eggs
Pimentón (paprika), preferably smoked
Toast or fried bread to serve (optional)

Slice asparagus into small pieces; leave tips whole.

Chop bulb, stem and leaves of green garlic shoots.

Snap off and discard ends of asparagus. Slice the spears into ½ -inch pieces, leaving the tips whole. Clean and slice the mushrooms, discarding any hard stems. Chop the garlic shoots, including the greens.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Sauté the sliced asparagus on moderate heat 5 minutes. Add the asparagus tips, mushrooms and chopped garlic shoots. Sauté on moderate heat 5 minutes more, stirring frequently. Do not allow the ingredients to brown. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, if desired.

Taste the asparagus. If it is done to your liking (crisp-tender), proceed to the next step. If you prefer the asparagus well-cooked, continue sautéing it another 4-5 minutes.

The scramble! Break eggs into the sautéed vegetables and stir them around until set.

Push the vegetables to the sides of the skillet. Lower the heat. Break the eggs, one by one, into the pan. Use a wooden paddle to scramble the eggs with the vegetables. Continue stirring until the eggs are set to your liking.

Place the scrambled eggs and vegetables in a serving bowl or onto individual plates. Sprinkle with pimentón. Serve hot accompanied by toast or fried bread, if desired.

Here’s a nice coincidence—as I was writing up my recipe for revuelto, television chef, Enrique Sánchez on CanalSur, was making a similar revuelto, with asparagus, mushrooms and shrimp. His proportions were different—less asparagus and more eggs. And, he beat the eggs in a bowl before incorporating them with the asparagus. You can watch the 30-minute program (in Spanish) here. 

More recipes for revuelto:

Eggs Scrambled with Mushrooms and Shrimp.

Eggs Scrambled with Wild Thistles (Tagarninas).

More recipes with asparagus:

Andalusian Style Asparagus.

White Asparagus, Basque Style.

Sauté of Asparagus and Fava Beans.

ASPARAGUS--WILD, TAME AND CIVILIZED

Cultivated green asparagus.

In Spain, asparagus comes in three sorts, the wild, the cultivated and the processed.

Wild asparagus, known as esparragos trigueros, “wheat-field” asparagus, because it often grows on the verges of fields, sends up spindly shoots after early spring rains. It’s part of traditional country cooking in Andalusia (southern Spain) and La Mancha (central Spain). Kids still go out hunting wild asparagus after the rainy season.

The spears of wild asparagus are somewhat bitter and fibrous. Usually they are cooked in boiling water first, then sauteed in olive oil and incorporated in a tortilla.

Cultivated asparagus, both green and white, is grown in Andalusia (in particular, Granada province, where the green-purple asparagus from Huétor-Tajar has PGI—Protected Geographic Indication), Navarra (white asparagus with PGI), Aranjuez (near Madrid), and Extremadura.

Some years ago, on assignment for Spain Gourmetour magazine, I visited an asparagus plantation in Extremadura. Here is my report.

Spring comes very early to the Valle de Tiétar, a region west of Madrid in Extremadura. By mid-February, the cherry trees are already in flower and the storks are busy tidying up their nests atop roofs and towers. After several days of rain, the Tiétar River, lined with trees, fairly gushes along its banks. The backdrop of the Sierra de Gredos is still frosted with snow.

On the asparagus farm, bordered by the river, puddles remain in troughs between mounds of earth. But the soil, covered with plastic to trap the sun's heat, is warm to the touch. It takes a sharp eye to spot the slight crack in the soil's surface, indicating a stem pushing its way up through the mounded soil. If missed today, by tomorrow it will have poked through to the light, and its white tip turned to violet, decreasing its market value by nearly half.

The freshly-picked asparagus is quickly put through a cold-water shower. Chilling keeps the asparagus from becoming fibrous. It’s ready for shipping fresh—a luxury product in northern-European markets—or for canning.

Canned white asparagus.

White asparagus in cans or jars is highly prized in Spain. Perhaps it is the silky, non-fibrous texture that makes canned asparagus so esteemed. (There is a Spanish saying, disparaging of woody asparagus: Quien nísperos come, esparragos chupa, bebe cerveza y besa a una vieja, ni come, ni chupa, ni bebe, ni besa. He who eats loquats, sucks asparagus, drinks beer and kisses an old woman, neither eats, nor sucks, nor drinks, nor kisses.) And another: Esparragos—los de abril para mi, los de mayo para el amo, y los de junio para ninguno. April’s asparagus (the best), for me; asparagus in May (less good), for the master, and that of June, for no one.

Asparagus in the Kitchen
Long ago, following proper French technique, I used to peel asparagus. It was a time-consuming, but oddly rewarding task. I also used to “steam” it upright in a narrow pan, so the tips were never submerged. I neither peel nor steam anymore.

I cook asparagus in a wide, flat skillet, just deep enough to hold the asparagus in a single layer. How long to cook? To keep the spears a little crisp, 5 minutes in boiling water is long enough. A stalk should just barely bend across a fork. Another way is to put the asparagus into boiling water, bring to a rolling boil again then cover and turn off the heat and leave for 30 minutes. I serve asparagus, room temperature, with extra virgin olive oil and lemon. Maybe a dollop of mayonnaise for the kids.

If I’m making a revuelto, chopped asparagus scrambled with eggs and green garlic shoots, I don’t cook the asparagus in water at all. I sauté it in olive oil until crisp-tender.

Canned asparagus is a classic garnish for Spanish mixed salad (recipe). It’s also served with dos salsas—homemade mayonnaise and a vinaigrette with chopped egg, onion, red and green pepper. Asparagus is especially good with salty foods such as ham, smoked salmon, cheese. It's a lovely foil for rich sauces. It's a natural with seafood such as sole, hake, salmon, shrimp.

Asparagus Andalusian style, with eggs.

Esparragos a la Andaluza
Asparagus, Andalusian Style

This is such a classic preparation for wild asparagus that when other vegetables are cooked in the same manner, they are called “esparragado,” as in, espinacas esparragadas, or “asparagussed” spinach. The asparagus is chopped and blanched, then cooked in a sauce seasoned with garlic and pimentón and thickened with bread. Other foraged greens, such as tagarninas, the stems of wild thistles, are prepared in a similar manner. (More about tagarninas here.) This recipe is for cultivated green asparagus. If desired, use part ordinary sweet pimentón and part smoked pimentón.

Serves 4.

1 ½ pounds green asparagus
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 slice bread, crusts removed
1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon wine vinegar
1 cup water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped serrano ham (optional)
1 egg per person

Snap off and discard butt ends of asparagus. Cut the spears crosswise into 1 ½-inch pieces. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in cold water.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or skillet. Fry the garlic and bread until golden on both sides. Remove. In a blender or with a mortar and pestle grind the garlic, bread, pimentón, cumin and vinegar to a paste, adding ½ cup water.

Add the blanched asparagus to the oil in the cazuela and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic paste and the remaining ½ cup of water. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the asparagus is desired degree of tender, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle chopped ham, if using, over the asparagus.

Break one egg per person into the asparagus. Cover the cazuela or skillet and cook on medium heat until the whites are set and yolks still runny, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve immediately.

White asparagus, Basque style, with shellfish.

Esparragos Blancos a la Vasca
White Asparagus in Basque Style

Canned white asparagus is calibrated—extra fat, very thick, thick and medium. If you’re using the extra thick spears, you’ll need only about three spears per person, or two cans of about 390 grams (14 ounces) each.

Serves 4 as a starter.

    12 to 16 spears of canned white asparagus, drained
    Water
    ½ pound clams (such as Manila)
    5 tablespoons olive oil
    3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
    1 tablespoon flour
    1/3 cup white wine
    4 ounces peeled shrimp
    2 tablespoons cooked peas
    Salt to taste
    2 tablespoons chopped parsley
    1 hard-cooked egg, sliced

Cut the asparagus spears into thirds and reserve. Add 1 cup of water to the clams in a small pan. Cover and steam them open.

In an earthenware cazuela heat the oil and add the chopped garlic. Fry for a minute, then add the pieces of asparagus. Turn them in the oil for a few minutes, then sprinkle them with the flour. Add the wine and the strained liquid from the clams. Tilt the cazuela back and forth to combine or stir gently with a wooden spoon. Cook until sauce is thickened.

Add the peeled shrimp and peas and salt to taste and cook until shrimp is pink, about 5 minutes, adding additional water if sauce seems too thick. Immediately before serving from the same cazuela, add the clams and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Garnish with sliced egg.

KITCHEN FAKERY

"Land fish"--fried eggplant masquerades as fish.

When is a fish not a fish, a noodle not really noodle? Masquerades in the kitchen are always fun, sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek, so to speak. For instance, I make “faux pho” with “noodles” of zucchini strips (why? just to cut down on carbs—the wonderful broth scented with star anise and ginger is still divine, without rice noodles) and fried “chicken” nuggets made of tofu (surprisingly, similar texture).

Spanish shops sell “ersatz elvers” in place of the real thing, which due to scarcity, cost as much as caviar or truffles. The fake fish is surimi (fish paste) extruded in the shape of baby eels to be sauteed in olive oil with garlic for a classic Basque dish, angulas.

"Field anchovies"--green beans.

Kitchen guile comes to the aid of the frugal cook, as well. So green beans stand in for fresh anchovies, asparagus for pricey crayfish, eggplant for fish sticks.

Then there is the case of the forbidden chanquetes. Chanquetes are tiny, transparent fish of the goby family. Deep fried and crisp, chanquetes are a Málaga culinary trademark. Unfortunately, these fish have nearly disappeared from local waters and their fishing is now prohibited in order to prevent the larvae of other species being captured and sold as chanquetes. So, counterfeit instead of contraband—grated zucchini, floured and fried, makes a credible stand-in.

You KNOW how you love anything fried. Well, fried golden-brown, the fakes are just about as delicious as the real thing. I fry everything in olive oil, but you can use other vegetable oil. The ingredients don’t need to be deep-fried. I use about 1 ½ inch of oil in a medium skillet and fry in several batches.

Chanquetes de Chacoteo
Chanquetes “Just Kidding”

This is the sort of food you can gobble by the handful. Surprisingly, it stays crisp even after cooling.

Pretend chanquetes.

Zucchini
Flour
Oil for frying
Salt

Prepare the zucchini immediately before frying. Coarsely grate zucchini directly into a bowl of flour. Toss lightly. Heat oil very hot. Place zucchini in a sieve and shake off excess flour. Fry in small batches until golden-brown. Skim out onto paper toweling and sprinkle with salt.

"Garden crayfish"--asparagus spears.

Boquerones del Campo
Cigalas de la Huerta
“Field Anchovies” (Green Beans)
“Garden Crayfish” (Asparagus)

Vegetables masquerading as fish. Green beans, crisply fried, sort of resemble fresh, fried anchovies (for the real thing, see this post http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/fresh-anchovies-small-fish-big-flavor.html). And pairs of asparagus spears sort of look like the claws on cigalas, sea crayfish. Rings of green pepper and onions become “field squid.”

Serve these right out of the frying pan. They don’t really need any sauce—just a squeeze of lemon. Should you have leftovers, cut them up and combine them with a tomato sauce and toss with cooked pasta.

Fake shellfish claws.

1 egg
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1/3  cup water
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ pound beans, preferably flat romano beans
½ pound fresh asparagus spears
Olive oil for frying   
Lemon wedges, to serve

Beat the egg in a bowl with1/2 tablespoon of oil. Stir in the parsley, garlic, salt and water. Combine the flour and baking powder in another bowl. Stir the egg mixture into the flour until smooth. The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream. Allow the batter to stand for 1 hour at room temperature or, covered and refrigerated, up to 8 hours.

Top and tail the beans. Cook them in boiling, salted water until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes from the time the water returns to the boil. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well.

Break off butt ends of asparagus. Cook the spears in boiling, salted water until they are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes from the time the water returns to the boil. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well.

Heat oil in a deep skillet until shimmering. Dip beans into the batter, allow excess to drain off.  Fry the beans until lightly browned, turning once, about 2 minutes. Remove them with a skimmer to paper towels to drain.

Pick up asparagus spears two by two and dip them into the batter, pinching them together so the tips splay out.  Fry in hot oil, turning once, until golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Serve beans and asparagus hot or room temperature, accompanied by lemon.

Pez de Tierra
"Land Fish" (Fried Eggplant)

Cut in strips and fried, eggplant sort of resembles fried fish-fingers. Serve it accompanied by salmorejo, gazpacho cream sauce (that recipe is here) or red pepper mayonnaise. Fried eggplant is also delicious with a drizzle of molasses. It may sound odd, but a trickle of sweet sets off the salty, fried eggplant very nicely.

Makes 8 tapas or 4 starters.

1 medium eggplant, about 12 ounces
1/3 cup flour
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Olive oil for frying
Salt

Peel the eggplant and cut it in strips about 3 ½  inches long by  ¾ inch wide. Combine the flour, cumin and pepper in a bowl. Add the eggplant strips and toss to coat them with flour.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet. Fry the eggplant in two batches until golden-brown, about 2 minutes. Remove, drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Serve hot.

MENESTRA--A SPLENDID DISH OF SPRING VEGGIES

Last week I was at the top of the fava bean season (see the previous blog posting for a couple of recipes). This week it’s peas, sweet garden peas, and a few long-awaited artichokes. Along with just-pulled spring onions and some asparagus (from the market), the ingredients add up to one of the best vegetable dishes of the seasonal Spanish kitchen.

This is menestra, a mixture or melange of veggies. Besides favas, peas, artichokes and asparagus, the combination can include any other vegetables fresh from the garden (or farmers’ market)—wild mushrooms, chard stems, cardoons, baby carrots, green beans, new potatoes. If served as a side dish (wonderful with grilled lamb chops), a little chopped serrano ham flavors the menestra. For a main dish, I like to add sliced sausage, such as Catalan white butifarra.

The traditional way to prepare menestra is to cook each vegetable separately in boiling water, then to combine them in a sofrito. Sofrito is the flavor base, a fried mixture of olive oil, onions, garlic and tomato. You can use fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or, if tomatoes are not in season, a few spoonfuls of canned tomato sauce (not concentrate).

Menestra de Verduras
Mixed Spring Vegetables

I like to leave the (inedible) tips on the artichokes. To eat them, you pick them up by the tips and bite off the tender bottom. But, if you prefer, the artichokes can be trimmed down to the bottoms. (More about cooking artichokes  here.)

Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a main dish.

2 artichokes
12 asparagus spears
4 ounces shelled peas (about ½ cup)
4 ounces shelled fava beans (about ½ cup)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 or 2 spring onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 ounces sliced butifarra or other sausage (optional)
1 ounce chopped serrano ham (optional)
¼ cup canned tomato sauce
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup water
salt and pepper
strips of roasted red pepper to garnish (optional)

Trim away stems on the artichokes, snap off a few outer leaves and cut the artichokes lengthwise into quarters. With the tip of a knife, nip out the fuzzy choke. Drop the cut artichokes into boiling salted water and cook until a leaf pulls off easily, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain.

Snap off and discard butt ends of asparagus and cut spears into two or three pieces. Cook them in boiling salted water for 3 minutes from the time the water returns to a boil. Cook peas 1 minute; fava beans 4 minutes. Drain the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or skillet and sauté the onions and garlic 4 minutes. Add the sliced butifarra, if using, or chopped ham, if using, and sauté 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, wine, water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then stir in all the vegetables. Simmer 10 minutes. Serve the menestra hot garnished with strips of roasted red pepper, if desired.