Food Green Asparagus Tart

M

Martin Zwick

Location
Germany
By coincidence I came across several cook videos by Julius Roberts via Social Media. A former cook who left the city to establish a farm on the countryside. His book is called „Farm Table“.

What a cute&charming guy and soo much enthusiasm and positive aura. Always a smile on the face. We need more men like this, isn’t it. Anyway he reminded me a little bit on the young Jamie Oliver decades ago. OMG……I am really getting old, haha.

Lucky me, I had puff pastry, creamy goat cheese and chives in the fridge. AND my organic shop had fresh green asparagus in huge quantities as a special offer.

A lovely dish for Spring. Don`t forget to open a bottle of Champagne!


Ingredients

1 puff pastry ready-made
500g green asparagus
250g Ricotta
50g fresh creamy goat cheese (1 Piccandou)
2-3 tbsp Créme fraiche
chives
handful mint leaves
lemonpeel organic
1 egg
olive oil


Preparation

1. Combine Ricotta with goat cheese incl. chopped chives, chopped mint leaves and lemonpeel. Add salt&pepper. Also add a little bit Créme fraiche. Optional add a dash lemon juice.

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2. Chopp the end of the green asparagus. Optional peel a little bit the asparagus.

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3. Roll out the puff pastry on a baking tray and make a border with the knive

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4. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C or 400 F. I recommend fan. Add the ricotta mix within the border you made with the knive

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5. Add the greeen asparagus. Brush the edges of the puff pastry with egg-yolk.Put into the oven for 20-30min, rather 30min. After 15min add salt&pepper and a bit olive oil on top of the asparagus.

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5. Remove from the oven and enjoy with a glass of Champagne. Spring is here!

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I once communicated with Nigel Slater on the subject. His reply to me was something along the lines of 'nobody who understands anything about food would even consider peeling asparagus' but I still feel that it's wasteful not to-one usually doesn't need to discard anything at the bottom of the stalk if one tapers it slightly with the peeler, and above all it means that the tip and the stalk take the same amount of time to cook.
In Vincent Price's 'Treasury Of Great Recipes' he says 'let boil for 18-22 minutes. Asparagus should be tender but not overcooked.' We like them less well done nowadays but I often find myself wondering whether vegetables were much harder in times past. Asparagus really shouldn't be crunchy and should indeed be tender but 2 or 3 minutes in abundant vigorously boiling water is usually enough-one can tell when it is done by the change in smell. I don't love it steamed and like it even less grilled or baked, though that's a reasonable thing to do with the imported asparagus we get most of the year,
 
I think you're right for most asparagus Tom, but I still peel it very rarely I will admit. I do have a lovely memory of a nonna in a restaurant in the Friuli sitting in a corner peeling a prodigious pile of white asparagus in advance of an Easter lunch the following day while we enjoyed our evening meal. Not long before my annual trip to Goring for some PYO.
 
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Richard Zambuni said:
I think you're right for most asparagus Tom, but I still peel it very rarely I will admit. I do have a lovely memory of a nonna in a restaurant in the Friuli sitting in a corner peeling a prodigious pile of white asparagus in advance of an Easter lunch the following day while we enjoyed our evening meal. Not long before my annual trip to Goring for some PYO.
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When picking one's own one can snap off the stalk at the point at which it becomes tender and there's no need to peel, also because one will have the advantage of extreme freshness.
As I understand it white asparagus is always peeled but my experience is quite limited. Does anyone grow it in the UK?
 
Thom Blach said:
When picking one's own one can snap off the stalk at the point at which it becomes tender and there's no need to peel, also because one will have the advantage of extreme freshness.
As I understand it white asparagus is always peeled but my experience is quite limited. Does anyone grow it in the UK?
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Some puny little spears were grown by the ubiquitous Chinns and supplied to M&S a couple of years back but they were a bit pathetic and very expensive. I imagine they gave up.

On a random day in May most years it is White Asparagus Day at Lewisham Market when New Covent Garden must be ridding themselves of surplus stock. A crate is usually about £5.
 
Martin Ellory said:
Some puny little spears were grown by the ubiquitous Chinns and supplied to M&S a couple of years back but they were a bit pathetic and very expensive. I imagine they gave up.

On a random day in May most years it is White Asparagus Day at Lewisham Market when New Covent Garden must be ridding themselves of surplus stock. A crate is usually about £5.
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The Leclerc in Chinon were charging 6 euros for a bunch. :oops:
 
If you were to make this without the mint, would you just leave it out, or swap it for something else (oregano, dill or tarragon)? I can imagine this being a nice simple lunch with side salad, but my wife's allergies would disagree.
 
Martin:
Going with Green asparagus!!?!!
My Grand grand father only grew white asparagus... and he was not even German but from Lothringen...(Lorraine in French)
 
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We’re on the full roll with this recipe.

Sorry about the pastry - my first experiment with gluten-free. I egg washed it and obviously shouldn’t have. Mine with tarragon and chives and a little grating of parmesan in place of the goat’s cheese. I didn’t have any of the latter to hand, so used what I did.
 
I was delighted to read earlier that Pellegrino Artusi recommended the addition of a few drops of turpentine to the post-asparagus chamber pot, which apparently transforms the mercaptan aroma into the sweet smell of violets. I do not normally use a chamber pot but nevertheless can't wait to find out whether this is true.
This information comes from The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley, very possibly the most idiosyncratic reference book ever written; obviously highly recommended.
 
Thom Blach said:
I was delighted to read earlier that Pellegrino Artusi recommended the addition of a few drops of turpentine to the post-asparagus chamber pot, which apparently transforms the mercaptan aroma into the sweet smell of violets. I do not normally use a chamber pot but nevertheless can't wait to find out whether this is true.
This information comes from The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley, very possibly the most idiosyncratic reference book ever written; obviously highly recommended.
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I see that Artusi recommends scraping the white part of the stem with a knife and cutting off the end. Since he later talks about keeping them green I assume that he is talking about green asparagus.
 
Thom Blach said:
I was delighted to read earlier that Pellegrino Artusi recommended the addition of a few drops of turpentine to the post-asparagus chamber pot, which apparently transforms the mercaptan aroma into the sweet smell of violets. I do not normally use a chamber pot but nevertheless can't wait to find out whether this is true.
This information comes from The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley, very possibly the most idiosyncratic reference book ever written; obviously highly recommended.
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How on earth did he discover that? Caught short in a painter's studio?
 
Surely the question of peeling green asparagus is somewhat dependent on how thick it is? I personally find the thicker the asparagus the better.

There’s a memorable moment in the Combray section of Proust’s Recherche where the protagonist’s great aunt Léonie talks about seeing someone walking past carrying asparagus that are “grosses comme le bras”. However, I imagine these Proustian asperges are white.
 
We just made this, and it came out very well. Drank a pleasant but forgettable Pabiot Pouilly Fuisse Eurythme 2018 with it, and served with some poached salmon.

I did shave the ends of the asparagus, and glad I did!
 
John Thomson said:
I've never peeled green asparagus, but have always had a self imposed rule that you only buy it in season and grown locally. Then you eat it fresh...
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I follow that rule too, as far as possible in London(and it looks like it's almost finished), but I still peel it, it's just better in every way and only takes a few minutes with the trusty Rex peeler. The principle advantage is that the whole stalk takes the same amount of time to cook, though that only applies if one simply boils it in very abundant slightly salted water rather than uses some of the stranger methods, I've had plenty of proudly presented steamed unpeeled asparagus this season which is soggy and grey. There is also a lot less waste as it is rarely necessary to discard the base.
 
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