Quick: I say “Spring vegetable,” you say, “Asparagus!” I’m almost sure you do. It is a timeless classic, a favorite of the season. It says to many: spring has truly arrived!
Rineer Family Farms has been selling their asparagus at the market for at least as long as I’ve been shopping at the market. And every year, as if it were a surprise, I become giddy when I first see those spears.
In our house, all we ever do is lightly roast asparagus with coarse salt. I would play around with different recipes, many are so appealing. But asparagus isn’t around for long, and all of us here really like it roasted. So why mess with success?
I used to say that roasted asparagus was like french fries, for people who haven’t had french fries in a long time. But I don’t say that anymore. Anything in the, loosely speaking, “french fry family” (such as roasted rutabaga) would be happy with ketchup on it, and I’d shriek if somebody tried putting ketchup on my asparagus. So, no. Roasted asparagus is not like anything else. In fact, it is peerless.
We’re not the only ones who appreciate the simple approach with this exquisite vegetable. In both The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis, and A Painter’s Kitchen: Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O’Keeffe, the asparagus recipes call for them to be steamed or sautéed, with butter, salt, and pepper. That’s it. Lewis insists that “skillet-cooked asparagus have more flavor than steamed.” (p. 10) Whereas the O’Keeffe recipe gives a choice between the two cooking methods. Something that stood out to me is that both recipes specify “wild” asparagus, though the O’Keeffe recipe mentions “cultivated” as an option. Confession: I hadn’t realized that asparagus was something that grew wild, but there you go.
Wild asparagus grows in several treasured spots beside irrigation ditches in northern New Mexico villages. It can be picked in early June. Local friends would sometimes bring Miss O’Keeffe a gift of wild asparagus, knowing how much she enjoyed this vegetable.—P. 34 A Painter’s Kitchen by Margaret Wood.
Fun Fact: If you’ve ever watched Henry Louis Gates’ Finding Your Roots, then you’ve seen how, in some episodes, he reveals to a guest that they are a DNA cousin to another guest who’s previously been on the show. Such revelations are met with astonishment, smiles, and sometimes laughter.
So, drum roll please...
Asparagus is a cousin to none other than…
garlic.
At least, so says the FoodPrint site. I don’t see the resemblance, but who am I to argue with botany?
Why Hello There, Sunflower Shoots!
I had forgotten about these guys. Maybe it has been more than a year since Taproot Farm had them. I’m not sure. In any case, seeing them was like spring cleaning my closet and uncovering a once-favorite item that had drifted from my consciousness.
For those unfamiliar, sunflower shoots are similar to pea shoots but bigger and, needless to say, without the pea flavor.
Commonly used raw, in sandwiches, salads, and wraps, what I do with them is, perhaps, heresy. I cook them down in butter until the water content has mostly evaporated.
Think what you will, but this is the noodles-and-butter experience of my childhood. Comfort food.
If you choose to make this, be sure to go through and remove any seed casings that might be present. Usually there are a few of them and, while they may somehow work in other applications for sunflower shoots, encountering them in the above dish will ruin the noodles-and-butter mood, which could cause a person to pout.
Though most of the recipes I found for sunflower shoots use them raw, this stir fry recipe also cooks them, creating what looks to me like that “noodle” effect.
Winner of the Most Surprising Recipe for Sunflower Shoots:
This reminds me of my Valentine’s Day post when I was seeking chocolate-arugula recipes. (I’m not certain that “shoots” and “microgreens” are the same thing, but they seem similar enough.) Chocolate Covered Sunflower Microgreens. Why not?
Gems from the Farms
Kara Jo Skin Care & Bee Farm: Hot honey, regular honey.
Primordia Mushroom Farm: Creminis, trumpets.
Rineer Family Farms: Asparagus, leeks.
Taproot Farm: Swiss chard, curly kale, flowering curly kale, flowering lacinato kale, flowering collards, regular collards, red radishes, dandelion greens, sunflower shoots, parsley, onions, scallions, green garlic, tomato puree.
Seen Around Town: Mycology Swag
Some of us root for Team Mushroom.
Food Activism
(I support including red cabbage in with this stance.)
Couldn't agree more about plain roasted asparagus. Yum! Weird side note - our cats like it. Not that we are giving them asparagus, mind you.
Lightly roasted asparagus with coarse salt? I'm definitely in.