5/16/13

Spargelzeit! (My way)

Not to be a bad German or anything, but I just cannot get behind the sudden enthusiasm this country whips up for white asparagus this time of year. I guess its exciting because its a local vegetable, unlike the imported mealy tomatoes and sad waxy peppers of winter, but just because its ours doesn't mean its awesome.

No, true to my American roots, I like my asparagus green and skinny. As though it has been exposed to sunlight and gone through the process of photosynthesis. Something about covering white, stalky "Spargel" with white, creamy Hollaindaise sauce just does not scream "Spring" to me.

I think a real Spring dish exploits the first greens and pumps it up with some citrus and those wintry standbys, onions and garlic. Something like this simple, weeknight Lemon-Asparagus Risotto. Or an asapargus sautee with tons of lemon and red peppers and tofu. You get the picture. And as for Spargelzeit, I'll jump on the next German food bandwagon... lets say rhubarb-zeit or mirabellen zeit.


 ****************


Asparagus-Lemon Risotto

1 Quart of your favorite vegetable broth method
1 Tbsp. Olive oil + 1 tsp. vegan margarine
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 C. Arborio Rice
1 Glass decent white wine
A fistful of Asparagus, trimmed and cut into quarters
Salt, pepper, Thyme
Juice and zest from one lemon

1.) Heat several cups of your vegetable broth (or water + bouillon) and put on the backburner.
2.) In a large pot, heat olive oil and margarine over medium heat. When sizzling, add in onions. After 1-2 minutes, add in garlic. Stir and cook for about 4 minutes or until translucent.
3.) While this business is getting underway, heat another frying pan with a drizzle of oil on medium heat. When hot, add in your asparagus and a pinch of thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches your desired state of "done-ness". (I like them a bit undercooked and crunchy, but to each her own.) Finish off with a dash of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon and remove from heat.
4.) Once onion and garlic are ready add in your rice and stir so that it gets coated with oil and butter, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 minutes, and then add in your glass of wine. Stir slowly, until wine has been absorbed.
5.) Now comes the "spoon and stir" portion of risotto for which it is famous. Ladle a spoonful of warm broth into your pot. Stir slowly until it has been absorbed by rice. Repeat this until mixture has significantly increased in size and rice is cooked through. (If you run out of broth, you can use water, no one will know.)
6.) At the end, when rice is fully cooked, stir in your asparagus mixture, lemon zest, and squeeze the rest of the lemon juice on in. Turn off the heat and cover and let sit for five minutes, then taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Serve with crusty bread, baked tomatoes, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

*****

Song of the Day: David Bowie- Modern Love



11 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree, I like my asparagus skinny and green sautéed in a frying pan with some spices and olive oil. I tried white asparagus the other day, and it was dull, flavorless, and not very exciting to look at. But, the store was out of the green stuff! shucks!

Deadsoul said...

I love the blog. Great post. It is very true, people must learn how to learn before they can learn. lol i know it sounds funny but its very true. . .
Shuvo,
Clipping Path

smithlio said...

mcafee.com/activate can be reached in case you wish to provide your device the much-needed security with products like McAfee total protection and more.
mcafee.com/activate

smithlio said...

Download and Activate your mcafee product via mcafee.com/activate
. If facing any issue read the blog and help yourself with the procedure.

anauskelvin said...

Mcafee activate at mcafee.com/activate is simple through retailcard. In 3 steps you can get started with McAfee security. 1 >> Enter your code. 2 >> Log in and, 3 >> Get protected. When you go to a retail store or a retail site to buy a McAfee product these days, you are often offered retail cards. Such McAfee retail card allows you to download your security product from the Internet instead of installing it from a CD. The benefit of having a retail card is that you get the most recent version of your product.

smithlio said...


Eraser: As the name suggests this option will lets you erase whatever you want to erase from your document. This will only erase anything that you have drawn with the Draw tool. There is also a down arrow button that lets you choose from the different types of Erasers. It contains three erasers, A stroke Eraser, a Small and a Medium Eraser. A stroke eraser will let you delete the stroke at once and not the part of a stroke. Office.com/setup

smithlio said...

The manager can be used to control the information that needs much attention and security. Whenever you make any online transaction, you do not have to worry about your financial information going into the wrong hands. If you are using a password manager app on your device, then you don’t have to fill the website forms manually because it does these things on your behalf that too securely. Norton.com/setup


smithlio said...

McAfee antivirus provides excellent security to your system. But if you are using McAfee Live Console causes it may cause a problem for you to add your printer. It may also not showing your printer, even though you have added it to your personal network. There may be various reasons you may feel to turn off McAfee firewall. mcafee.com/activate

smithlio said...

Learn how to install Office 365, Office 2016, or Office 2013 on your PC or Mac. ... If this is the first time you're installing Office you may have some setup steps to ... Office.com/setup

smithlio said...

Norton automatically renews if you have enabled Auto Renewal of your Norton subscription. But many people like to do the renewal manually. So, they turn off the Auto Renewal option. Follow the steps listed below to cancel the Norton Auto-Renewal. Norton.com/setup

RoseSlot2020 said...

joker ฟรีเครดิต เล่นฟรี เล่นง่าย ได้จริง slot online
https://www.slotxd.com/jokergaming123