Asparagus Recipes Nigel Slater

The British asparagus that arrived in March felt like a Christmas card that arrives too early. I let it be, in much the same way I put premature greetings back in their envelopes. Yet there was still the chill of early spring when I bought the first bunch a few weeks later and roasted the thick spears, tossing them with a robust dressing made from short, fat jalapeño chillies, ground cumin and lime. The notes of smoke and spice worked surprisingly well with the juicy stems and their crisply roasted tips.

A week later, I picked up a more fragile bunch with finer stems and gave them an appropriately delicate treatment, offering them with a cream made of smoked salmon and the sort of sweet, mustardy seasonings we usually reserve for gravadlax. Both worked, but in very different ways.

There is a temptation to think of asparagus as the cotton-wool kid of the vegetable patch, but it responds just as well to a slightly tougher treatment. Those silky butter-kissed sauces are all fine, and I enjoy a nicely executed hollandaise as much as anyone, but sprightly flavours of ginger, chilli and mustard make asparagus smile, too (use them in a dressing with olive oil), especially when married to orange, lemon or lime. Such recipes lift the spears’ spirits rather than sending them to sleep under a comfort blanket of butter and egg.

Nigel Slater Tart Of Asparagus And Tarragon

There is a dish I like to bring out in spring, a mild-mannered sauté of early lamb and young shallots with asparagus tips and an aniseed-flavoured herb, such as tarragon or, if you can find it, chervil. You need a tender cut, meat from the leg or fillet, as the cooking time is relatively brief. Not the cheapest of dinners, but it feels, just as any asparagus supper seems to, like a true celebration of the new season and all that is yet to come.

Melt the butter in a deep casserole, add the lamb and leave it to colour lightly for a few minutes over a moderately high heat. Tossing it from time to time will help it colour evenly on all sides. Remove the browned meat to a plate.

Peel the shallots whole, halving any that are bigger than a walnut in its shell. Add them to the casserole and let them brown lightly, tossing them occasionally so that they colour evenly.

Griddled Asparagus With Lemon Mashed Potatoes

Return the lamb in its juices to the pan. Dust the flour over the meat and onions and cook for a minute or two, stirring from time to time. Turn up the heat and pour in the white wine. Leave to bubble away until the wine is reduced by half, scraping at the crusty bits on the base of the pan with a wooden spatula as you go.

Pour in the stock (it can be vegetable, lamb or even chicken) and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and leave to simmer, partly covered, for about 30 minutes, until the meat is tender but still has plenty of bite.

Slice the asparagus spears into 2 or 3 short lengths and add to the pan with salt and pepper. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, until the asparagus is tender. Stir in the crème fraîche and chervil leaves. Check the seasoning and serve.

Grilled Asparagus With Pine Nuts Recipe

Put the salmon into a food processor. Add the mustard, honey and the dill, and process briefly to a coarse paste. Scrape into a bowl and fold in the crème fraîche, a few twists of pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Refrigerate, covered, until you are ready to cook the asparagus.

Trim the asparagus. Bring 3cm depth of lightly salted water to the boil in a wide, shallow-sided pan. Lower in the asparagus, then let it simmer for 3-6 minutes until tender. Drain carefully then divide between plates and serve with a mound of the smoked salmon cream.

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Trim the asparagus, removing any tough ends. Peel the garlic. Place the spears in a roasting tin with the whole cloves of garlic then pour over the oil to lightly coat. Roast for 25 minutes.

Asparagus & Mash

After 20 minutes in the oven, transfer the garlic to a blender. Squeeze the limes into the blender and add the cumin. Halve and seed the chilli, then slice thinly and add to the blender with the oregano and a little salt and blend to a coarse dressing. Remove the asparagus from the oven, pour the dressing over the spears and toss gently together.My weekly train journey west allows me a glimpse of the allotments that border the tracks. A chance to marvel at the serried rows of young cabbage plants protected by nets; romantic sheds on the verge of collapse; cane teepees of young beans and furrowed earth sprouting tufts of potato leaves. A window seat permits a sneaky peep at broad beans in flower and regimented carrots, rambling brambles and strawberry beds whose crop is ahead of my own. The trip stokes envy, too, at those who had the foresight and patience to plant an asparagus bed. The emerging stalks are barely visible at speed, but the swaying fronds left behind certainly are, the sort of ferny leaves you might find in a buttonhole at a wedding.

Asparagus seems cheaper now, but still something to treat with respect. In the steamer, or lying in state in boiling water, asparagus needs a gentle hand if the long, pencil thin spears are not to break. I sometimes serve it raw, using a vegetable peeler to shave the crisp green and white stalks into long curls. They will soak up a dressing without becoming soft, perhaps a mixture of olive oil and lemon or cider vinegar and walnut oil. You could add a few drops of balsamic vinegar, too. My preference is for something a little acidic in a dressing for asparagus, so a sweet lemon, its zest grated and its flesh finely chopped, are as likely to appear in a recipe as tarragon vinegar.

Anything salty will make asparagus dance. A dusting of Parmesan in the melted butter. A soft cheese left to drool over the spears in the oven. This week I married some late, West Country sparrow grass with samphire. Tossed in a dressing with some long-legged summer carrots and a little walnut oil, the salad was good, but even better the second time when I left the asparagus raw. The seasons for both just collide. The interest lies as much in the textures – spiky, curly and crisp – as in the flavour.

Nigel Slater's Peas, Pasta, And Parmesan — The Butter Lab

The end of season sprue, as thin as wire, will make a flavoursome enough soup, but I like it as a pasta dish, too, when the lightly cooked tendrils of asparagus end up in a tangle with spaghettini, almost melted butter, nutmeg and grated Parmesan. A cheap supper with a smattering of luxury. The fine stuff is hopeless in a quiche, though, unless you chop it finely and toss it with fried bacon.

As with everything, the season is late this year. We may get a couple of weeks more of local spears. Maybe longer. It's a chance to experiment a little, to move on from the sublime classic of hollandaise sauce or the perfect asparagus tart. A chance to sharpen the edges, to take a punt and consider the alternatives.

A clean, crunchy summer salad. Use the long, thin spring carrots and shave them from the bottom with a vegetable peeler. Serves 2.

Dishes That Pair Perfectly With Asparagus

Peel the shallot and chop it finely, then put it into a mixing bowl with the white-wine vinegar. Wipe the carrots and remove their leaves. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the carrots into long, thin ribbons, letting them fall into the vinegar.

Shave the asparagus in the same way, toss with the carrots then set aside for half an hour. Wash the samphire and remove any of the stalks' tough ends. I prefer it raw, but if you wish, lightly steam for two or three minutes, drain and refresh in cold water. Add it to the asparagus and carrots.

Drain the vinegar into a separate bowl, then beat in an equal amount of rapeseed oil with a small whisk, adding salt and pepper, and fine tuning the salad until it is to your taste. Return to the bowl and toss the vegetables in it.

Spargel Tarte Mit Estragon Nigel Slater (4)

Slice the skin from the lemon then go over it carefully removing every little bit of the bitter white pith that lies underneath. I find this easiest with a small, sharp paring knife.

Remove the sections of flesh and cut into tiny pieces, discarding seeds as you go. Put them into a mixing bowl then pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half then add to the lemon. Finely snip the chives, shred the basil and chop the tarragon, then add to the lemon and tomato. Season gently, with a little black pepper and sea salt. A few chive flowers would be an appropriate, though far from essential, addition. Set aside in a cool place for the flavours to marry.

Trim the asparagus, removing any tough

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