The lunch bunch

Ok, it was brunch actually but anytime is a great time and there’s no time like the present to enjoy some English asparagus. It’s only here for a brief moment, from the end of April until the end of June if we’re lucky, so grab it while you can and indulge. Asparagus is such a treat and such a beautiful specimen, it’s no wonder it holds such high revere in some of the best restaurants, they make a real song and dance out of it, but we can just dunk a simply cooked spear in a boiled egg if the mood so takes us.

There are many ways to cook this nutritious vegetable that contains more folic acid than any other vegetable available, delivers a good dose of vitamin A & C as well as having antioxidant properties, so you don’t want to over do it. My favourite method is to drop the spears into boiling water for just about a minute, drain and scatter on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, a little sea salt and cook in the oven for 7 mins on 220 degrees. Serve with a squeeze of lemon, some more olive oil and maybe a shaving of Parmesan.

Today I had some lovely Bury black pudding in the fridge so I sliced it thinly and fried till crisp, cooked the Asparagus as above and served with a perfectly poached egg. Some roasted tomatoes wouldn’t have gone a miss either. A dribble of hollandaise might have been gilding the lily, but would have been delicious nevertheless.

Last Wednesday was Asparagus risotto with peas, mint and parsley. I only used the tips for this dish so the remaining stalks were shaved paper thin with a potato peeler and incorporated into a salad of similarly sliced courgette and celery with some lambs’ lettuce and a chilli, lemon & garlic dressing.

Equally, three or four spears wrapped in wafer thin rashers of pancetta with an anchovy stuffed in-between, drizzled with olive oil and roasted in the oven makes a great stand alone dish or an alternative accompaniment for fish of meat. 

Best eaten on day of picking, or purchase, it’s not necessarily true that the thinner, slender spears are the most tender. Fat ones are good too, so don’t pass them by, it’s all to do with the skin to volume ratio apparently, like so many things in life!