Posted by Lucy Baker, May 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Wine Bar Food, calls for—gasp!—jarred asparagus. While that may seem strange given the current abundance of fresh spring produce, hear me out: these aren't any old canned vegetables. Jarred white asparagus is a Spanish delicacy, valued for its sweet-tart taste and smooth texture. In this traditional salad from Barcelona, the spears are dressed in a chunky sherry vinaigrette brightened with fresh peppers, briny capers, and chopped hard-boiled egg.
The best jarred asparagus comes from the northern region of Navarra, which is also known for its rosé wines. This dish would pair perfectly with a glass of pink.
Win 'Wine Bar Food'
As is always the case with our cook the book selections, we're giving away five (5) copies away this week to lucky readers. Enter to win here»
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, May 11, 2008 at 12:00 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on asparagus. —Ed Levine
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 10, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Adapted from Italian Grill by Mario Batali.
- serves 6 -
Ingredients
2 pounds large asparagus (12 to 18 stalks per pound)
4 ounces thinly sliced pancetta
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme
Coarse sea salt
Procedure
1. Snap the tough bottom stalks off the asparagus. Unroll the slices of pancetta and lay them out on a work surface. Lay an asparagus spear on a slight diagonal across the bottom of one slice and roll it up, covering as much of the stalk as possible but leaving the tip visible. Place on a tray or small baking sheet and repeat with the remaining asparagus. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour (this rest will help the pancetta adhere to the asparagus).
2. Preheat a gas grill or prepare a fire in a charcoal grill.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange zest, juice, and mustard. Continuing to whisk, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until emulsified and smooth. Season the citronette with salt and pepper, and set aside.
4. Place the asparagus on the grill and cook, turning occasionally, until it is just tender and the pancetta is crisped, about 4 to 6 minutes. If the pancetta browns too much before the asparagus is cooked, move the spears to a cooler part of the grill.
5. Whisk the citronette again, and pour half of it onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with half of the chopped thyme and pile the asparagus on top. Drizzle with the remaining citronette and sprinkle with the remaining thyme. Serve with a small bowl of coarse sea salt for dipping.
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 19, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
It's finally starting to get up into the 70s in my neck of the woods, and this weekend looks like it'll be the first truly nice and warm one we've had this spring. It's the kind of weather that draws me out of the kitchen and out to the park or for a bike ride—basically anywhere but the kitchen.
But, a person's gotta eat, and this pasta is good in many ways for a Sunday when you don't want to spend much time at the stove. First, it takes advantage of asparagus, which is in season now; second, it's quick, so you can take advantage of the lengthening days; and third, it's moderately light, so you won't feel like a lead weight afterward.
Continue reading »
Posted by Blake Royer, April 17, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Considering the length of most recipes in Judy Roger's Zuni Cafe Cookbook, the eponymous cookbook of her San Francisco restaurant, finding a quick dinner recipe is something of a feat. Every page of her book is awash with meticulous detail about the cooking process, from advice about the shape of diced onion pieces to the flavor a fish stock ought to have when it's just finished (minutes too long on the stove and it can go muddy). Her roast chicken recipe, for example, runs four pages. Yet despite the laborious descriptions of technique (or perhaps because of it), everything I've made from that book has been outstanding: a monkfish stew, that roast chicken, and now, this soup. As she mentions in the recipe's introduction, it's a soup of delightful flavors and unexpected textures.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 14, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I’ve been listening to and enjoying KCRW’s Good Food for a while now. But I’ve really been enjoying their new segment on trying to teach producer Bob Carlson how to cook. Even though he works on a food show, he’s not much of a cook, so every week host Evan Kleiman gives him a dead-simple recipe and makes him go home and cook it. He reports back every week with the results.
I enjoy the segments so much because the recipes are incredibly simple and most sound genuinely delicious. That’s where I picked up this Asparagus with Fried Egg and Parmesan. There’s nothing really that revolutionary about the method or the combination of fried egg and roasted asparagus. But it is simple and completely rewarding. Once broken, the yolk drips over each stalk, creating a wonderful impromptu sauce. It’s a luscious dish perfect for the novice—or anyone excited about asparagus season.
Continue reading »
Posted by Gina DePalma, April 7, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Italians have an undeserved reputation for hammering vegetables to a fault, an accusation most often leveled at us by the" tender-crisp" camp. While I agree that cooking vegetables to the point of disintegration can be yucky, I think undercooked veggies are an insult to the vegetal world. Too many fine, deserving vegetables suffer an inconsequential position in a meal by being left in a slightly crisp state of unfulfilled flavor that no sauce can rescue.
Asparagus are the perfect example of a vegetable that needs a good long hammering (ahem) in a hot oven. Sorry, fans of tender-crisp, but I really dislike waterlogged, boiled asparagus, and steaming them renders them equally tasteless. If you don't believe me, bite into a "tender-crisp," steamed asparagus spear—no cheating with mayo, please—and tell me if any fireworks go off.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, April 6, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Here's a perfect spring Italian brunch dish from one of my often-used cookbooks, Cucina Simpatica, by George Germon and Joanne Killeen, chef-owners of Al Forno, a wonderful restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island. According to the headnote in the book, "this recipe is an adaptation of the asparagi Bismarck served at Bagutta, a wonderful old restaurant in Milan." I serve it with thick slices of toasted rustic bread brushed with olive oil.
Continue reading »
Posted by Blake Royer, April 3, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Spring vegetables are beginning to appear in the produce aisle—asparagus, sugar snap peas—so I wanted to take advantage. What I found is one of those absurdly simple recipes that you think just won't work. Or at least, that's what I was thinking. Really? I can just sauté some shallots and garlic, add stock and rice, simmer for awhile, then toss in crunchy delicious vegetables? And it will taste clean, healthy, filling, and delicious? Well, yes, that's the idea.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 21, 2007 at 3:30 PM
The second recipe from this week's Cook the Book—Patricia Wells's Vegetable Harvest
—calls for asparagus. Sure, it's just out of season, but if you can't resist this vegetable and insist on picking it up at all times of the year, like I often do, then this recipe, with its gruyère and smoked ham, is a nice way of augmenting the tasty spears.
Continue reading »
