Tag: asparagus
After many weekends of Brussels sprouts, potatoes, carrots and kale, I finally saw asparagus at the farmer’s market. I love kale but it’s nice to finally have something new. Luckily, I had some stuff in the fridge to fix myself a quick lunch. Check out my recipe for an asparagus, shrimp pasta with miso paste.
Continue reading “Asparagus And Shrimp Pasta With Miso Paste”
Because of the asparagus allergy I developed a few years ago, all I can do is stare wistfully at asparagus when it appears every spring at the farmer’s market. This time of year is especially hard — you can find all different sizes of asparagus; pencil thin or thick and crunchy. This would be a good time of year for Donny’s proposed 11-course asparagus dinner.
It took me about a year to finally get myself back to Mile End for a meal. Last time I had breakfast and this time it was a proper dinner with beer and lamb tongue. It’s amazing how close I live to this place and I rarely stop here for food. After Anh and I cleaned off most of the plates, I can tell you that the meal was great! Sit at the counter if you can and see the chefs cook your meal and have them hand you the dishes like at sushi bars.
Maxwell Farms had stinging nettles this AM, something I’ve never seen at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket before. On any other day that might make it a shoo-in for this year’s inaugural Market Watch, but today also marked the debut of asparagus. The weather has been see-sawing back and forth between hot and cold, and for a while it seemed that spring would never arrive. Every year I look for the arrival of asparagus to herald the true beginning of spring. Perhaps that’s too much responsibility to bestow upon a vegetable, but the sense of relief I got when I saw that asparagus was here can’t be denied.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen purple asparagus before today. My extensive internet research says that it’s sweeter than traditional green asparagus, and higher in cancer-fighting “phyto-chemicals” (whatever those are). I can’t wait to cook with it.
Springtime brings some interesting things to the market; things like fiddlehead ferns. I’ve cooked with fiddleheads before, but I wanted something quick, easy and light. I ended up blanching the fiddleheads in salted boiling water (a necessary step to properly clean them), and then sauteing them with sliced asparagus in olive oil with salt and pepper until they were just tender. I added some fresh lemon juice, and then when that cooked down I poured in the liquid from a can of tomatoes. I cooked this down for just a few minutes, re-seasoned, and then tossed with some gemelli pasta. It was a great expression of early spring, and it was delicious.
Wondering what to do with that asparagus from the Farmer’s Market? For a super easy meal heat up some olive oil in a pan and quickly saute some thin asparagus with salt, pepper, and a splash of sherry vinegar. Fry up an egg (also from the market) and serve it on a nice piece of crusty bread (that too) alongside the asparagus, with some cheese grated over everything. Not the prettiest plate I ever put together, but a tasty one.
