Yes, dear friends, I admire the little stalks so much that I dream of them. But then again, I have been dreaming of foods for a long time. Sometimes they even serve a function. Once, I dreamt that baguettes were used as the barricade for my front door. What a waste of such delicious bread!
The asparagus in my dream last year was not used as a sword, dart, barrier or anything else. I simply found myself in a field and saw the little shoots begin to poke of out the ground.
Other people are equally, if not more, enthusiastic about asparagus and write all about it. In Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she recounts her families’ impatient wait for the first shoots of asparagus. Asparagus were among the first vegetables that her family ate as they began a life of growing their own fruits and vegetables.
In a Quintet of Cuisines from the nineteen seventies, Michael Field, tells of the big to-do around the first asparagus crops near the Alpines mountains of Switzerland. On one of his many visits he was taken by his Swiss hosts to eat loads of white and green asparagus drowned in butter.
Over the course of my time in culinary school, the most common preparation for asparagus involved an egg yolk, a little lemon juice and about a half pound of clarified butter for Hollandaise sauce. For as visually beautiful a sight as the bright yellow sauce over green stems was, I always longed to taste more of the asparagus.
Well before I thought about going to culinary school, I prepared a memorable meal of coconut creamed asparagus soup for one of my closest friends. At that meal, he loved the pale green soup so much that he expressed to me in Portuguese, “Meu bem, você precisa abrir um restaurante!” My dear, you must open a restaurant!
Five years later, I continue to love asparagus and have come to anxiously await its arrival. Years ago, I would buy it the moment I saw it in any grocery store regardless of whether it was organic or locally in season or not. Now that my awareness of how, where and when foods grow, I look for it from farms and farm-connected retailers at specific times of the year. When I am on the east coast of the US, for example, my encounters with asparagus are very special as they only take place between April and June.
So far this spring I’ve been in Philadelphia and have found outstanding asparagus from Maple Acres Farm and Steve Bowe’s Organic Farms! At my company’s Earth Day Celebration, oblique cut asparagus topped a spring salad of tender bok choy, spinach, romaine lettuce and purple cabbage.
For a fun and surprisingly filling informal dinner, delicate asparagus stems were added to a spring vegetable pita pocket with thinly sliced radishes, carrots, Russian red kale and tahini sauce.
My husband and I recently enjoyed a savory spring pasta involving small diced asparagus, sundried tomatoes and rosemary woven into spelt capellini for a little crunch with every bite. This was a perfect dish to enjoy with a glass of Pinot Noir!
I am in a hurry to sit down again with my dear lusophone friend who praised my creamed asparagus soup years ago. I usually try not repeat dishes that hold a special memory as the experience with those foods belongs to the moment that has since passed. But, I may have to open a can of coconut milk to make a new asparagus soup for my dear friend if we meet before this year's asparagus season ends.
His encouragement, and that of many other kind friends, propelled me into culinary school. Maybe sharing a new recipe for asparagus soup with him will send me on my way to really open a restaurant this time! Who knows?
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