What can you cook from Asparagus?

It has always been a mystery to me why it is so rare to develop such expensive and simple health products on our garden plots. Maybe I don’t understand something, but the information remains information. Asparagus is not an expensive product in Russian stores, but throughout Europe, it is not cheap.

At the same time, it grows “like a weed,” feels great in any frost, does not take offense in careless care. And beautiful! All joy.

Maybe it’s some kind of family economic element: it’s something to occupy a potato bed – and you’ll be full for a while. And here – some weird shoots. But it must be a luxurious shoot, and even in early spring, when the growing creatures were hungry for fresh vegetables and the long winter animals were frozen. How these shoots break-in still very cold land is the same song of nature. Even if they sow their own seeds – like me, once planted in a distant time of garden-like enthusiasm, Asparagus now indifferently chooses for some reason to shake Christmas trees throughout the garden. There is some understanding between them: a small future Christmas tree approaching a huge size, they say, maybe you and I don’t have the same blood, but in autumn I have to be preen and a little similar.

So our Asparagus is doing all the work for me, lazy, so I can’t consider myself an expert in cultivating it. But I can consider myself a simple and rare customer.

Its taste is special, but it is very sophisticated. Perhaps, the taste habits of delicious foods are simply not formed. Asparagus, however, is a weed and even quite “fleshy,” unlike herbs. Also, it is believed that it is extremely rich in vitamins and minerals (it is not uncommon for its name to be Asparagus of Fininalis), so Asparagus may also be a separate dish.

Asparagus is also an ingredient in many foods. Not mandatory – but a separate dish appears when you add it. Risotto, for example. You can make (don’t throw slippers!) Risotto with Asparagus and parmesan. Or risotto with Asparagus and raw langosteen. Or a paste with all these ingredient options. However, in the modern situation in Russia, almost everything is accessible. In addition to Asparagus.

Who says you can’t cook with affordable food? Asparagus, for example, goes well with lamb. Yes, in short, with any meat and any cheese. Even with fish and just caviar. Asparagus also does well with many sauces except spices and tomatoes, in my opinion. But milk or butter-egg-wine sauces are good (when the yolks are foamed with white wine, butter and lemon juice are added to the melt). Asparagus is combined with many spices, although, again, in my opinion, it is better not to do without them when it is a rare occurrence for me.

They also eat Asparagus as a separate dish: they are steamed, boiled, fried, baked. It is prepared quickly and easily, and it is important to cut off the hard part of the shoots and clean a bit (not all of them later). I just like the Asparagus in the simplest version – just with no sauce.

There is also a quick and easy option for eating meat. The prepared bunch of stems is wrapped in thin slices of bacon – and baked in the oven for about 15 minutes. You can still sprinkle with cheese. And at a distance, not even a fully furnished summer cottage, to provide a restaurant quite delicious to everyone’s delight. Even better.

However, what Koreans sell as “asparagus” is by no means asparagus but soy milk foam. Although similar – and see, and even a little taste. But I think you can make great pickles from “real” Asparagus. Somehow I will try and subscribe. And I promise to be aspiring to Asparagus more firmly and responsibly any summer.