Once upon a time, asparagus had a cachet

its seasonality gave it appeal. It's no longer seasonal. My
friend Bonnie, who is of a certain age, reminisces about the
days before refrigerated trucks, trains, and airplanes and says
that she used to buy a crate of asparagus and serve it twice a
day for a couple weeks, with everyone (as she claims)
cherishing every bite, knowing that there wouldn't be any more
for 11 months.

Part of the appeal was that, along with chives, fiddleheads and
ramps, it was one of the very first green vegetables of spring.
After a long winter of canned and pickled goods and too many
cabbages from the root cellar it was a very welcome treat.

We gorged on it the same way when I was a kid. Also rhubarb. The
next round of fresh produce which was also quite special was
strawberries and peas.

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com ...
filtered through a Facebook friend

The footnote confessing that it is a satire site is not very
noticeable. Neekha's mother is guilty of sharing those articles on
Facebook too. Sadly, we get the impression she thinks it's real
news.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Scrambled Eggs with Morels and Asparagus
Categories: Eggs, Mushrooms
Yield: 6 Servings

3/4 oz Dried morels
12 Eggs
1 lb Asparagus
1/4 c Butter, in 3 or 4 parts
1 tb Minced chives
Salt and pepper

The combination of morels and asparagus is quintessentially
spring-like. It's especially nice that they taste so good
together.

Cover morels with 1/2 cup hot water and set aside until softened,
about 10 minutes. Trim tips and woody bases from asparagus.
Reserve tips and discard ends. Slice remainder of asparagus very
thin. When morels are softened, drain thoroughly, slice caps
lengthwise and squeeze out any excess moisture. (It's important to
squeeze all of the excess moisture out of the morels after soaking
or the eggs may turn a very unappetizing shade of brown.)

Stir together eggs, morels, sliced asparagus and tips and butter
in large mixing bowl. Add eggs to large skillet and place over
medium heat. Cook, stirring continuously, until butter melts. When
butter has melted, reduce heat to medium-low. (If eggs start to
set up on bottom before butter melts, reduce heat immediately.)

Continue cooking, stirring constantly and scraping set egg from
bottom of pan. Cook until eggs have formed wet, shiny, fairly
loose curds and you can see pan bottom. Remove from heat, add
chives and season to taste with salt and pepper. Continue stirring
off heat until eggs are set. Caution: Eggs will go from too wet to
too dry extremely quickly. It is important that they remain creamy
but still firmly set. Serve immediately.

Recipe By: Russ parsons, LA Times Staff Writer
Column: In the kitchen: "The Dignified Egg"
Posted by: Pat Hanneman

MMMMM

Cheers

Jim


... It's the freakin' pinnacle of all flavor combinations!

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Quoting Michael Loo to All <=-

I ate all the asparagus, which thankfully had been
cooked long enough so as to have lost its smelliness.

What! Cooked a long time? No! I hate overcooked asparagus. To me
it is best blanched 1-3 minutes tops, then shocked in ice water.
After that it can be served cold with a vinaigrette or reheated
briefly in a saute pan with garlic butter. Thick stalks can be nice
blanched, shocked and then quickly grilled.

Also don't discard the tough woody bottom stem ends as most recipes
suggest. Boil them gently for 30-40 minutes in just enough water to
cover, puree everything in a blender, return everything to the pot and
cook another 10 minutes, Then sieve the results and break up as much
woody fibre as you can pressing down on the sieve with a rubber
spatula. Discard only the mess that stays behind after you've
pressed out all the liquid you can. Make soup from the sieved broth.



Cheers

Jim


... Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?

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JIM WELLER wrote to MICHAEL LOO <=-

I ate all the asparagus, which thankfully had been
cooked long enough so as to have lost its smelliness.

What! Cooked a long time? No! I hate overcooked asparagus. To me
it is best blanched 1-3 minutes tops, then shocked in ice water.
After that it can be served cold with a vinaigrette or reheated
briefly in a saute pan with garlic butter. Thick stalks can be nice blanched, shocked and then quickly grilled.

Sometimes the best way to eat asparagus is to snap it off, pop it into
your trap and chew. Tender and delicious. If you snap it off at the
natural point, using your thumb and pointer finger there will be no
tough woody ends. Bv)=

Also don't discard the tough woody bottom stem ends as most recipes suggest. Boil them gently for 30-40 minutes in just enough water to
cover, puree everything in a blender, return everything to the pot and cook another 10 minutes, Then sieve the results and break up as much
woody fibre as you can pressing down on the sieve with a rubber
spatula. Discard only the mess that stays behind after you've
pressed out all the liquid you can. Make soup from the sieved broth.

That's a good suggestion for store-bought spare-gus.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Linguine w/Asparagus & Parma Ham
Categories: Vegetables, Pork, Pasta, Chilies
Yield: 6 Servings

20 Green asparagus spears
8 sl Parma ham, prosciutto or
- Serrano ham *
2 cl Garlic; fine chopped
1/2 Red chile; sliced in rings;
- or the whole chile
5 tb Olive oil
11 oz Linguine or spaghetti
Salt & pepper

* Prosciutto (pro-SHOO-toe) is the Italian word for ham,
used in English to refer to dry-cured ham (prosciutto
crudo). A regular cured ham-what Americans refer to as
"ham", in Italian is prosciutto cotto, cooked ham.

Parma ham is prosciutto produced in the Parma Protected
Designation of Origin area.

Serrano ham, or jamon serrano (serrano means sierra or
mountain) is a dry-cured Spanish ham, similar to
prosciutto: both are covered with salt and then hung
to dry.

Since prosciutto is cured for 2 years and serrano for
just 6 to 18 months, prosciutto is generally a drier
product.

DIRECTIONS: Peel the asparagus if necessary, then boil
gently in a large pot of salted water until al dente.
Don't overcook: The asparagus will continue to cook a
bit when removed from the water and will be heated
further in the last step, below.

Remove and slice diagonally.

Boil the pasta in salted water, but remove 2 minutes
before the end of the standard cooking time.

Place the garlic, chile and olive oil in a frying pan,
and heat gently over a low flame until the garlic has
browned. Add the ham and the sliced asparagus, and
heat gently.

Add about 3 tablespoons of the pasta boiling water to
the oil in the pan, stir in the cooked pasta and season
to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

NOTE & TIP: Adding the pasta boiling water at step 4
provides a mellow saltiness, increasing the flavor and
improving the texture of the pasta. It is a good idea
to add some cooking liquid to pasta dishes that do not
have much sauce: It prevents the dish from being too
dry.

Recipe courtesy of Umami Information Center, UmamiInfo.com.

Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives

MMMMM

... "Obviously, there is litle you can learn from doing nothing." Zig Ziglar --- MultiMail/Win32
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On 07-14-19 22:03, Jim Weller <=-
spoke to Michael Loo about asparagus <=-

I ate all the asparagus, which thankfully had been
cooked long enough so as to have lost its smelliness.

What! Cooked a long time? No! I hate overcooked asparagus. To me

I am in agreement with your point, but have different methods. Gail
snaps the end of the asparagus. The better stuff gets put into a long
glass dish with a little bit of water, covered with plastic wrap and
then microwaved for about three minutes. Still crisp, hot and good
tasting.

Also don't discard the tough woody bottom stem ends as most recipes

We don't go to quite those extremes, but the ends are chopped up and put
into a freezer bag along with other accumulated leftover vegetables that
have been previously frozen. Then when the urge hits us, the frozen
vegetables with some broth go into a pot to become what we call scrap
soup. Never the same, and always good.


MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: SOPA DE ALBONDIGAS (SOUP WITH MEAT BALLS)
Categories: _ethnic, Soups, Meats
Yield: 1 Servings

1/2 lb Ground Beef
1 tb Flour
1/2 c Ground Pork
1/2 ea Boiled rice, mashed
1 sm Onion, chopped
1 ea Egg
2 ea Tb Shortening
1/2 c Tomato pulp
Salt and pepper to
- taste
1 qt Beef stock

Directions: Mix meat
with rice and egg. Season and shape into little balls the size of
walnuts. Roll in flour and fry lightly in hot shortening. Remove and
in the same pan brown onion and add tomato. Add beef stock and simmer
five minutes. Add meat balls and simmer for one half hour or until
thoroughly heated.

MMMMM



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