Asparagus with Morels and an XL Digression, blah-di-blah blah.

Instead of beginning with the topic, and veering off sideways, I begin this post, up front, with the digression. I feel it coming on, and I'm pretty sure it is both TOO BIG and unavoidable. The digression topic for today is unipurpose equipment in general, and asparagus peelers in particular. If you can't bear it, that is more than understandable, and you can skip this part and head on down to the recipe, which is adapted from Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France.

Believe it or not,I actually have a position in principle on this issue (pompous enough?) which is: It is most practical, aesthetically pleasing, and soundest practice to have as little kitchen equipment as possible, of the best possible quality. In addition to leaving you with more money to spend on such useful items as actual food, it leaves you more room to cook, and a prettier kitchen.

I am so far from living this ideal that I am totally unable to publicly face up to the state of things, in this respect, in my own kitchen. We'll skip that. Still, I have sometimes managed to avoid the purchase of completely unipurpose items. I would argue that even my dopey chinois and copper jam pot have multiple functions and see a lot of use.

A recent visit to the Traveler's Lunchbox revealed how resistence to the purchase of expensive specialty cookware, combined with a creative imagination, can lead to clever innovations. Check it out. It is probably not a coincidence that the adapted recipe in Melissa's post is a Paula Wolfert item. I just love to read PW's stuff, as you may have noticed. She is such an intensive researcher, and her committment to authenticity allows us to sample very foreign, otherwise inaccessible dishes in what is in most cases, probably as close to exact reproduction as imaginable.

And therein lies the conflicting force. As a home cook, I don't have a personal committment to serving exact reproductions of the foods of other cultures, per se. But I want to know about them, and I want to try the real thing, and know what its supposed to taste and look and smell and feel like, before I mess with it for my own purposes. It's just so much fun, and PW is a principal aider-and-abeter. Fact is, sometimes, to get it right, you do need some special equipment. Too bad I don't have access to a well-funded test kitchen, or the funds to travel on whim, but that's life. I do realize that I am lucky to have a medium sized, semi-acceptible apartment kitchen, and, indeed, a roof over my head . Ack, am I entirely unable to shut up? Well, yes.

In any event, Ms. Wolfert has addressed the asparagus peeler issue, in another section of TCOSWF, persuasively arguing in favor of peeling asparagus, rather than wasting some, as happens when we just snap off several inches of the tougher bottom bits. She includes a recipe using the peelings (!)- Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce. To top it off, she even provides instructions on how to make your own asparagus peeler from a thin bladed knife and a 15" length of 16 gauge wire- in case you don't want to spend for a commercial one. Whew. As we used to say in days gone by, she blows my mind.

The thing is, as I understand it , that a regular vegetable peeler (to date my solution), is non-ideal, because due to the tapering of the asparagus spears, you need to remove more from the bottom than the top. Lucky for me, I have a bureau drawer full of saved ribbon and pretty papers and advance purchase gifts. From it I unearthed an as-new box with a present from long ago, saved in case of an unlikely re-gifting opportunity. That would be my asparagus peeler, which I thought was a silly space waster when I got it. It's in the kitchen now...and I think I was maybe wrong. Especially since it was, you know, free. I'm still not sure I'd buy one.

Finally, in what can only be described as a digression from a digression, I feel compelled to mention that there is a multi-purpose, high quality item, within reach theoretically, that I cannot bring myself to buy, though I am convinced of its usefulness and value. That would be a heavy copper saute pan. I've craved one for years, but can't convince myself that it would be okay. Just too much money for a pan. Sigh.

I do believe that Paula Wolfert was right in suggesting that this dish be served as a separate course, so that the intense flavor can be fully appreciated. I think she had a starter in mind, but personally, I was quite happy to make a supper of an indecently large portion, with some toasted homemade bread alongside. I'm drinking some really nice Belgian beer here-to me, wine tastes kind of weird with asparagus.

Obviously, this is not local (February in Pennsylvania) asparagus, but it was on sale, and looked very fresh and pretty. It called my name, and jumped into the shopping cart. I couldn't resist . I have just paid my deposit for next summer's CSA farmbox, so I consider this a celebration of the season to come. Or kind of a little magical ceremony to help the temperature rise, and melt the ice a bit.

So this is a very early, early spring item, made easier by the fact that dried, rather than fresh morels are preferred, the dried being even more intensely flavored. Yeah, they are expensive, but you don't need that many. They are certainly cheaper than the tinned truffles I tried this past weekend, and a damn sight more flavorful. You need, to serve 4 with something else or 2 for supper:

1 oz dried black morels
1 cup lukewarm water mixed with 1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1-2 tsps lemon juice
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup unsalted chic broth
32 medium asparagus
1-2 tsps port
sea salt
pepper

Soak the morels in the milky water for about 30 min.-until soft. saving the liquid, remove and rinse the morels. Pour the liquid through a coffee filter , and recombine with the morels. Simmer in a small pan until liquid is absorbed. Add butter, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, salt and pepper and simmer aout 5 more minutes, until the liquid is almost all absorbed, and the morels are tender. Add half the cream and the stock, return to simmer, and remove from heat. Set aside. Best to wait at least a half hour here, as much of the sauce will be reabsorbed, to good effect.

Wash, trim and peel the asparagus. Cook in a skillet of boiling salted water, flat out, until just tender. Drain, and blot dry with paper towels. Put in serving dish, covered. Add the rest of the cream and the port to the morels, reheat to just simmer, correct seasoning, pour over asparagus, and serve. It's gorgeous. Please disregard the fact that the port makes it a funny color. It just doesn't matter. It is even yummy if you make it with no salt whatsoever for someone with a special diet. Just use a bit more lemon juice and pepper.

Comments

[Lynn D.]

This is the second time that you and I have been reading the same cookbooks and you notice and make something delicious that just doesn't register with me at all. (The first book was Please to the Table). Despite our many similar tastes, you are just a much better cook and cookbook reader than I am, which is why I enjoy your blog so much. We have been enjoying lots of lovely asparagus in Oregon, probably now from California but soon from Washington. It seems to be the only thing that didn't get hit by the big freeze.

[Heath]

I think there is some compound in asparagus that reacts badly with wine, but I can't be arsed to google what it is.

So....your palate is sound!

[Kitt]

Don't fret over the copper saucepan. I have one (inherited) and never use it because it is just too damn heavy. It's way heavier than my cast-iron frypan.

I thought I would finally get use out of it with its being the perfect size for no-knead bread but then the French manufacturer told me high heat would ruin the tin lining.
( http://kittbo.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-knead-bread-step-by-step.html )

Dang.

(My favorite one-use implement: the avocado slicer.)

Love your blog!

[Melissa]

I think I don't have anything against unipurpose kitchen equipment on principle, but I have to have unwavering certainty that I will use it frequently before I let myself buy it. Most of that comes from sheer necessity - I simply don't have the space to devote to semi-useless things. I'm sure I could find space for some cannele molds, however, if only they wouldn't eat such a hole in my paycheck...

[ann]

Isn't it just crazy how produce just hops into our shopping carts from time to time? I once had a smoked ham hock do that...

[Louise in Maryland]

We almost never buy asparagus, we pick each spear from the garden individually by letting it snap where it wants to, thus it needs no peeling. I have peeled purchased asparagus with a paring knife a few times. In theory i would have far fewer kitchen tools than I do, but this is not a theoretical world.

[Tanna]

I've always loved that a spoon off my table will peel ginger better than any gadget I've seen. I'm very happy with any gadget that does the job it says it will AND I need that job done. I've always been happy with putting the veggie peeler to my asparagus. So you think the real deal maybe worth the space but only maybe the money. I don't see a free one in my future.
Loved your digression!

[Kimberly]

As Lynn noted, it will be asparagus season in Washington before too long. Hooray! (My stomach growled just thinking about it.) And, oh, how I look forward to making this recipe (with the extra lemon juice and pepper, but no salt, so that Paul can share it with me).

[lindy]

Silly Lynn-I rummaged in this book many times before I noticed the recipe....and who was the person who got me all worked up about goat milk (Which, by the way, I still am)?
Lynn, Kimberly-lucky ones! A person only gets local asparagus here if they grow it themselves..as Louise does.
Louise in Maryland-I so envy you. I am an apartment dweller with no garden-it's California asparagus all the way. I'm not sure why my CSA farmer doesn't grow it...unless the soil in Zelionople is like our city (Pittsburgh) soil, so clay-e you could make crockery out of it
Tanna- great ginger peeling tip, I've a;ready tried it and it works a treat!
ann- and they say pigs can't fly!
Say Kitt, Ya wanna get rid of that burdensome, heavy pan? ;)
Melissa-so right. I'll bet if someone ran a contest with a set of those copper canele molds for a prize, bloggers would tumble over ourselves trying to win them. But maybe I'm projecting?
Heath-Must say, I've never been accused of having any sort of good palate for wine.I'm kind of a blunt instrument (tool?) where wine is concerned. I love my gulpables (and drink a lot of em), and swooned over the few tastes of really amazing stuff I've been offered- but as to the huge middle ground-I'm useless.

[anapestic]

I think that a standard vegetable peeler works just fine on asparagus. You just use a very light pressure where you're beginning to peel and heavier pressure as you move towards the woodier base of the stalk.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with cutting or snapping the bottom off, either. If you're worried about waste, you can make soup with the parts you discard. A food mill is very helpful here, obviously.

I have a very heavy, ten-inch (or so -- I'm sure it's metric) French copper saucepan that I got from some good friends as a wedding gift. Alas, it came without any care instructions, and I was so clueless that I'd destroyed the tin lining after a very few uses and washes. I spent almost $70 back in the early 90s getting it retinned, and ever since, I've been afraid to use it. It does conduct heat marvelously, and it's drop-dead gorgeous, but I would probably never buy one for myself. I can only imagine what one would cost these days.

[Rebecca]

I totally agree that asparagus should be peeled, but have always just used my Oxo peeler; are you saying that better peeling will mean not having to snap such a big piece off the bottom of the stalks? I've sometimes wondered about that, because it does seem like a lot gets wasted. And I do wish it were easier to find nice fat asparagus instead of all the skinny ones that are really only fit for slicing up and stir-frying or making into soup.

[farmgirl]

Another delightful read! Thanks for the smile. But now I am desperately craving asparagus (and I'm afraid Cary might have seriously damaged my bed of it last year. . .)

[jon]

Having grown up in Montana I was fortunate enough to go "hunting" for Morels after every spring rain. It has become big business these days. Do you ever get to cook with fresh Morels?

[lindy]

Alas no, jon. Every once in a while, they have them in the supermarket or at Whole Foods, but they cost the Whole Earth when they do! I've had fresh chanterelles, and the fresh trumpet mushrooms are affordable now. I know chanterelles grow around here, but I'd need some expert advice if I were to go looking!

[Amien]

Wow! Great info. I wish, I could have such a writing skills. I am going to try tommorrow.

[Alanna]

Just wanted to let you know that your post is featured on BlogHer today! ~ AK