Just The Tip?: Spilled Milk Recipe #21

My favorite ways to prepare asparagus

In the 50s, my father took my mother to Henri Soule’s Le Pavillon for dinner. He couldn’t really afford it, but he was trying to impress.

She ordered the cold poached asparagus special, the most expensive first course on the menu. When it arrived, she drew her knife across the tops, eating only the tips. My father lived off that story for the rest of his life. Needless to say I love the vegetable and utilize the whole spear.

A sign that warm weather is here to stay, the first glimpse of fresh spring, asparagus is a celebratory event. It’s one of my favorite foods and a versatile ingredient. I’m always looking for new ways to prepare it when it’s in abundance at peak flavor.

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This super easy recipe for Chinese-style wok-tossed asparagus in black bean sauce is salty, sweet, earthy and loaded with umami. It’s a perfect weeknight side dish that cooks in a flash. Sometimes I just eat this over a bowl of rice and call it a meal. It’s that good. If you want to check out some other recipes with asparagus in them, check out my website.

Also, you don’t need a wok to make this (though I love this one), all you need is a large sautee pan (like this), preferably carbon steel that transfers heat well.

Speaking of woks…I got J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s newest book, The Wok about a month ago and I am beyond impressed. Kenji is one of the best humans in the food world, a superb writer, a great cook, a thorough and obsessive recipe creator in the best sense of the words and his presentations of tricky material is ideally suited for home cooks. If you want to learn all about woks and wok cooking get the book here.

How to Buy & Store Asparagus

• Look for tight tips and small leaves on the side of the stalk that cling to its body.

• The cut end should be moist, not frayed, browned or dry.

• Spears should be smooth, not wrinkled.

• Storing asparagus is simple: keep them standing in a few inches of water in the refrigerator, tented with a zip-loc bag. Cold temperatures between 30 and 40 degrees in a moist environment will limit respiration and water loss.

• I like to peel the skin off larger asparagus to increase the tenderness of the stalk.

How to Steam, Roast & Sauté

• Snap the spears to find the natural break point; use the stem end pieces for soups or sauces and steam the upper portions of the stalks in salted water.

• Steaming makes for tastier tips. The asparagus tips are done cooking when the cut end of the spear is softened.

• Roasting or wok sautéing are my favorite techniques for dealing with asparagus. The very nature of dry-heat cooking makes for a greater natural flavor concentration and higher vitamin retention. The caramelizing that takes place in either technique yields a heightened level of contrast with the sweet moist interiors of the spears.

Wok-Tossed Asparagus in Black Bean Sauce

Servings: 4

Total: 20 minutes