asparagus and feta risotto

There are some foods we only eat when they’re in season in the UK, and asparagus is one of them; thus we tend to rather gorge ourselves on it at this time of year.  Although we are back on a veg box, we couldn’t resist a big bunch of the glorious green stuff while we were mooching along Gloucester Road last weekend.

As my regular reader (waves to Giles!) will know, we like risotto - for two people, 5oz of risotto rice and 1 pint of liquid (and yes - I know I should go metric on this, but it’s easy to remember), and you’re away.

So - chopped up a red onion and sautéd it in some olive oil, while I chopped half the asparagus into manageable lengths, and cooked it for five minutes.  The liquid was the juice of half a lemon, about half a pint of apple juice, and topped up to the pint with water.  Usual process - add rice bit by bit, add stock till rice plump, rinse and repeat.  Before the last add, I hurled in the asparagus, and a dash of salt and pepper.

At the end, I stirred in half a block of feta cheese.  Fab.

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local food for local people

Last Friday, Pete and I skived off for the day in order to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and went down to deepest, darkest Somerset. En route to Porlock, we screeched to halt at a sign advertising “locally picked asparagus”, and bore home a bunch that was reassuringly expensive.

On Saturday, the local farm shop had Axbridge strawberries too.

So we roasted the asparagus in the oven with olive oil and sesame seeds, and ate it with angel hair pasta and feta. The pasta stuck together a bit - I should have added some oil when it was cooked - but it was sublime. And the strawberries were consumed with brownies and double cream.

Nom nom.

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asparagus egg-fried rice

We had friends over for Eurovision on Saturday - we cooked up an Indian feast: beef in coconut and black masala, split moong dhal, cucumber/carrot/red onion raita.  There was a stack of rice left over, and a bunch of asparagus to eat.

Trimmed the woody bits off the asparagus, cut the stalks into thirds, and blanched for five minutes or so.

Chopped garlic, spring onions, fresh ginger and a red chilli, and stir fried for a minute or so.  Added the asparagus and some soy sauce, and fried for a few more minutes.  Added the cooked rice and stirred it about, then added an egg beaten with a dollop of sesame oil, and stirred *that* around using a chopstick (to distribute the egg).

Absolutely gorgeous - really fresh and light.

Choice of rhubarb crumble and/or chocolate/walnut/coffee cake to follow.  Groan.

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stir fried asparagus

Now, you may thinks this an Abomination, but trust me - it’s gorgeous. We only eat English asparagus, as we feel the imported upstart has no flavour, so we tend to gorge on the stuff when it’s in season. This was the first bunch of 2009, and this is one of our favourite things to do with it.

2 tbsp groundnut oil
2 thin slices fresh ginger, peeled and lightly mashed
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly mashed
1 dried red chilli, coarsely crumbled
900g asparagus, peeled and cut into thirds
4 tbsp vegetable stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

heat the oil in a wok over high heat, then add ginger and garlic. Stir quickly, and add the red chilli. Stir once, and add asparagus. Stir fry until the asparagus turns deep green and is coated with oil. Add the stock, soy sauce, salt and sugar. Stir, bring to the boil, then cover, turn the heat to low, and cook for 3-4 minutes until asparagus is just tender.

uncover, and boil away most of the liquid. Add sesame oil, stir once and serve.

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what to do with the leftover asparagus

Make an omelette! Three eggs, some asparagus blanched for about 4 minutes, salt, pepper and some shavings of gruyere. Lovely.

Had it with home made soda bread - this is a useful recipe, as you can use pretty much any combination of bread flour, and it will work. And it has no yeast, so is very quick.

450g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb of soda
400ml buttermilk (use plain yogurt if you haven’t got buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 230C/450F/gas 8

Sift flour, salt and bicarb into a bowl.  Make a well, and add buttermilk.

Using one hand, slowly incoporate the flour into the milk to give soft, but not sticky dough. (Or cheat - use a mixer with a dough hook :).

Turn onto a floured board, and knead lightly for 1 minute until smooth.  Shape to a round about 4cm high. Cut a deep cross from one edge to the other.

Place on a floured baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 200C/400C/Gas 6, and bake for a further 30 minutes.  To test if the bread is cooked, tap the underside of the loaf - if it sounds hollow, it’s cooked.

Cool on a wire rack, eat with good butter.  Gorgeous.

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Sunday supper

As previously noted, we picked up the first local asparagus of the year on Saturday; with it, we cooked one of our favourites - asparagus stir-fried with ginger and red chilli. It sounds a terrible thing to do to fresh asparagus, I know, but trust me … it really is glorious.

We followed this with a rhubarb and ginger sponge pudding - bit piggy, really, but it is Sunday. I discovered the wondrous combination of rhubarb and fresh ginger a couple of years ago; I was following a recipe that called for stem ginger in syrup, and I thought it would be too sweet, so lobbed some finely minced fresh in instead. We’ve never looked back!

If you don’t have any ginger in the house (and you *should*, of course) remember that elderflower works wonderfully well with rhubarb too, so a splash of elderflower cordial would make a very good substitute, although I’d cut the sugar down a little in that case.

Rhubarb is a Very Fine Thing indeed.

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we love asparagus

it’s just glorious stuff, but the season is so short … we won’t buy it unless its local. Not for us the “flown in from Peru” stuff, as it has no taste.

There’s some nice asparagus recipes on Nibblous - and British Asparagus is a very handy resource.

Enjoy - the glorious green stuff won’t be around much longer.

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chocolate asparagus

I really can’t think of anything else to say.

Link here.

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