Asparagus Roundup V

Asparagus Roundup V



The asparagus season is pretty much over with here in Knoxville. Growers are letting the plants mature to store up energy for next year's crop. Once the mature spears start dying off the grower will cut them down and heavily mulch the beds to keep the crowns happy until next year.

Recipe submissions have also slacked off, I suspect as much because the participants are reaching the end of their creative cycle as the asparagus has. Neverthless, the fat lady ain't sung yet and so I do have more recipes to post.

Andrew, the delightfully British proprietor of several related blogs including spittoonextra, rolled out a bit of puff pastry and created a simple and classical tart using mascarpone, parmesan, and parma ham. As the Brits say, "Brilliant!"

One of the things I wanted to do here was encourage experimentation. Not only by trying other's recipes, but also in creating your own. Inevitably there were bound to be failures and it's not surprising that the most prolific contributor, Alanna of Veggie Ventures, had one. It was a good idea, well worth trying, but her Asparagus with Pimenton simply didn't work. The Spanish paprika was just too overpowering. Kudos to her for sending it in anyway -- now we all know not to try it.

Ulrike of Küchenlatein, another frequent contributor, offered something completely different -- Asparagus Ham Muffins. They'd probably be good for breakfast or lunch, but my first thought was they'd make a perfect afternoon snack. Substantial enough to tide you over until dinner time, but not so heavy as to make you lethargic. At any rate, I need to check my references to find the American equivalent of type 405 flour.

Pasta was the order of the day last week in Laura Rebecca's Kitchen. Laura, another newish blogger, combined fresh asparagus with farfalle to create Farfalle with Asparagus, Sugar Snap Peas, Prosciutto, and Parmesan. She had the good sense to avoid a heavy sauce with this light combination and dressed the pasta simply using olive oil.

Apparently I was on the same wavelength as Andrew last week because I also used puff pastry in an asparagus dish. In my case I chose frozen pastry shells (good old Pepperidge Farms) and created a cream sauce and added cooked crab and asparagus to it to produce Crab and Asparagus Puffs. It was good, not great, but satisfying and made a very handsome presentation -- or would have if I'd used claw meat.

If you have a recipe to contribute, it's not too late.

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