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We have referred, briefly, to asparagus before, but we haven’t really gone deep on it. You know that you should only be eating it when it’s in season in your area; that you should probably wait a little bit to get the big chonky stuff; that you roast it at 425º for 10 minutes after salting, peppering, and covering in olive oil. Throw some good balsamic on top and dust with parm, and you’ve got peak bite, one of the best things you’ll eat all year.
We haven’t gotten into why, and we haven’t made a whole meal out of it. Let’s do both.
Asparagus is broccoli
Or, rather, it’s in the same family as broccoli, a cruciferous brassica. In fact, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards, and mustard greens are all genetically related in a way that looks similar enough across the board.
Cruciferous brassica generally need ripping high heat to break down some bitter ingredients into something sweeter. It’s why you go to a restaurant and see broccoli roasted, lightly burned even, and it tastes so good. That comes from at minimum 450º heat, probably even higher.
425º is enough to do the same to asparagus without burning it to a crisp.
Asparagus doesn’t travel
While “asparagus is broccoli” gives you a good mental framework for how to handle asparagus once it gets in your fridge, there are some things unique to asparagus that mean you need to get it locally. Most of the compounds that make asparagus uniquely delicious don’t travel or keep well, and most out-of-season asparagus comes from a different hemisphere, because asparagus is a pain to grow. It needs to be planted in sandy, loamy soil; it takes a few years to start yielding; it is not as profitable of a crop as others in the same climate.
As a result, it’s not grown as much, and when you want it anytime, you’re going to compromise severely on its quality. If you live in the northern hemisphere and you’re eating asparagus outside of, say, May to June, you’re probably doing it wrong. Because you respect yourself, you should eat something else, instead.
The full meal
Asparagus on its own is missing two things: a grain and a protein.
The best possible grain you can pair with asparagus is sourdough. Throw a buratta or a poached egg on top, and you’ve got yourself a meal. Alternately, asparagus goes great with real wild rice, bulgur, or French lentils.
A brief aside on real wild rice
When I speak of real wild rice, I’m referring to the plant that grows in marshland, primarily in Minnesota, which is harvested by hitting stalks with a cane such that the grains fall into a canoe. It is highly labor intensive, usually involving brutally hot conditions. Most “wild rice” in the United States is a different plant, grown on paddies all over the country.
Real wild rice is a shade of dark yellow-brown, highly variegated, and a fairly long, thin grain. If your “wild rice” is a consistent color, short grain, or black, it was grown on a paddy. This is good rice. You can find really transcendent forms of paddy rice. But it is not the same as real wild rice. If you want a good place to start when sourcing real wild rice, here you go ). Commensurate with the labor involved to harvest real wild rice, it is not the cheapest grain in your pantry. But it is essential, and there is no realistic substitute.
Real wild rice is a stovetop thing; this prep would gunk up a rice cooker. Heat two quarts of chicken stock at medium-high, throw a cup of real wild rice in with some salt and half a bulb of garlic, and stir until the grains have burst open, about 50 minutes. Materially all of the liquid will be soaked up if you do it right, and you might have to add a little water towards the end to keep it from sticking.
We’ve discussed poached eggs before, but why not repeat it here
Poached eggs are easy, they just require some technique finesse. Get a deep pot of water boiling with a small glug of white vinegar in it, then crack the egg gently as close to the surface of the water as you can without burning yourself. Wait three minutes, Fish it out with a spider.
Meat
Meat-wise, asparagus works great with chicken and phenomenally with pork. Prosciutto de Parma or Iberico are the classic fancy option, but you can throw asparagus on salted ham, or even pair with a pork chop.