Asparagus - The Dutchess' Way
Labels: one dish meals, she cooks, vegetables/salads
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Although the asparagus season is long over, I managed to lay my hands on a pack yesterday. For a small price, of course.
The popular way of eating asparagus here is with fried bacon bits, chopped boiled eggs and a good dollop of butter sauce. Can you already feel your arteries clogging?
Here's my healthier and glammed up version: Asparagus layered with smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce and boiled eggs. Notice I said healthier, not healthy, on account of the hollandaise sauce. The salmon and sauce makes all the difference. Here, I've used gourmet salmon smoked in apple and beukenhout (sorry, I don't have the English translation for it.) Served with bread, it makes a light but satisfying one-disher.
Cooking asparagus, for me at least, is tricky business. If you over boil them, they become this limpid mess. Under done, you have to chew on them till kingdom come. Prepping them up for boiling takes some practice too. You just want to remove the right amount of skin so that it is soft and not too fibrous when cooked. All in all, a tasty vegetable if you have the patience.
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 3:37 am
