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A bunch of asparagus |
Top asparagus tips for spring
This is the time of year to taste a little bit of heaven, says Clare Latimer – and if aspargus doesn’t suit your pocket, try sea samphire
MAY has to be one of the most exciting months of the year with the long evenings, the trees at their greenest, flowers opening all over the country and holidays in sight.
This is definitely asparagus time as they pop up in between their man made trenches and are snipped off just before opening their buds.
The thought of fresh asparagus very lightly cooked and then just dipped into melted butter or a rich bowl of warmed hollandaise is as near to heaven as I want to go!
What is often called poor man’s asparagus is the ever more popular sea samphire that is appearing mostly in fish mongers but also now in a few green grocers.
In Cornwall I am lucky enough to have a friend who has a carpet of the fabulous little stems covering her private shore line so we go down most days at low tide, slide around in the mud, and bring back a few handfuls and serve it with any fish or salad.
It has that wonderful flavour of the sea water with a crunch of succulent juicy sea grass.
Just be careful how much salt you add to the cooking as the sea water will act as a substitute.
Asparagus and prawn risotto
This is quite a mild and subtle risotto so I am omitting parmesan as it has a strong
flavour. Instead, I am adding crème fraîche to give it a creamy sauce to link the flavours of
the asparagus and prawns.
Serve with a ripe tomato salad with chives and olive oil.
Ingredients
Serves 4
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
50g unsalted butter
350g risotto rice
1 glass dry white wine
Up to 2 litres fish or vegetable stock
20 asparagus
200g cooked peeled prawns
2 tbsp crème fraîche
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 handful freshly chopped parsley
Method
Fry the onion in the butter for about three minutes or until soft but not browned. Add the rice and stir well. Add the wine, and then add half the stock and some salt and stir. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer with the lid off for as long as the rice takes to cook. Check the packet for times as they vary. Top up the stock if it dries out. This is the tricky bit: you have to time the rice being cooked and the stock being reduced to end up with a wet, creamy risotto texture.
While this is cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the asparagus. Keeping the heat high, cook for about two minutes then drain and rinse in cold water to prevent cooking further. Cut the stems into mouth-size pieces discarding the tough ends.
When the rice is cooked add the asparagus, prawns, crème fraîche, freshly ground black pepper and parsley and stir well over a low heat to warm through. Check the seasoning and add more stock if too thick. It should drop off the spoon with the same consistency as a white sauce. Serve immediately.
Cod parcels with samphire
By serving the samphire with the cod you can actually taste the sea water and therefore this is the perfect marriage. Just make sure all your ingredients are really fresh. Serve with purple sprouting broccoli and new potatoes.
Ingredients
Serves 4
4 Pacific cod steaks
1 bulb fennel, sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
25g butter
Juice half lime
Handful samphire, tough stalks removed and soaked in cold water for one hour.
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F/ gas 5.
Put each cod steak
into a generous square of foil and surround with some of the fennel, garlic, salt and pepper, half the butter and the lime juice.
Wrap up each parcel and place on a baking tray making sure they are airtight.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the steaks are just cooked.
Meanwhile melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan and gently cook the samphire for one minute mainly to warm it up.
When the cod steaks are cooked serve on a plate and garnish with the samphire.
Serve hot. |
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