Last update - 00:00 02/11/2006
My Private Chef / Super spears
By Miri Hanoch and Eyal Shani
When I opened the refrigerator in the evening, I got quite a shock. What, until the day before, had been a normal collection of vegetables had suddenly been overtaken by the chef's bout of temporary insanity. He had apparently gone to the shuk and come back with a backpack crammed full of asparagus. He then proceeded to lay the spears out like jewels on the table in what is purported to be the living room, and then stood with his camera gazing at them as if upon some extraordinary dowry: green, long, slender, plump, some with heads bent and others with heads still proud and erect. All had their mug shots taken. Then he very gently and carefully wrapped small bunches of them in damp kitchen towels, as if swaddling newborns in a nursery.
"What's this?" the middle child and her friend asked me quizzically when I gave them each a piece of grilled asparagus, which had admittedly lost something of its perfect shape in return for acquiring a wonderful taste. My daughter took a little bite, and the look on her face reminded me of Alice in Wonderland asking herself what could possibly happen when she takes that fateful nibble of a cookie. Her friend, trying to be polite, could not bring himself to do anything more than pretend to take a bite.
It occurred to me that to wake someone up at night just because there's no electricity would be a bit extreme, but because of my weak eyesight (which is sure to improve very soon if I keep on eating asparagus), I couldn't make out which of the little switches had put its small black head down. I tucked in the middle and oldest girls in the same bed and covered them well. I left one turned-off flashlight next to them, along with a fragrant candle in a glass holder that gave off a little light and a strong scent of apricot, and I took another flashlight with me into the bedroom. I lay in bed in the dark listening to the thunder, and watching as the room was illuminated in bluish-white every few minutes by the lightning.
A good partner is one who wakes up when you can't sleep at night. At one particularly thunderous moment, the chef turned to me and asked, "What's wrong?"
"The electricity's out," I replied in a whisper, as unnerved as the old cat who lay pressed up against me, shedding fur and wailing desperately at the storm.
The next day all I ate the whole day was asparagus. But afterward I reminded myself that revolutions tend to turn establishment very quickly, so this thing about eating vegetables almost exclusively, asparagus especially, would soon fade from crisis mode and become something more matter of fact.
The thunderstorms and the asparagus craze would pass, leaving behind a wistfulness for strong-armed women who grow this green wonder themselves, aren't flustered by a strong rain, aren't afraid of the dark and know how to get the electricity back on without waking anyone up.
How to buy asparagus: You buy it in round bundles that are tied up with thick rubber bands; on the assumption that the weight of the bundles is uniform, you should buy those with the smallest number of asparagus.
Make sure that the spears are smooth and shiny, that the florets adhere to them firmly and that their ends are not dried up. Asparagus is supposed to give you the feeling of an image photographed in sharp focus and at high resolution: If it looks blurry, it's not fresh.
Preparation for cooking: The bottom third of the asparagus is woody in texture, suitable for quiches and soups. Cut off this third, and about 20 cm remain - 10 cm of naked stalk, and an additional 10 cm of a spear covered with florets.
Now remove the rubber bands and the bundle falls apart, the asparagus is free. The green peel that surrounds the first 5 cm from the base should be removed with a peeler, so now we have a floret that tapers into a shiny, green spear whose carved end reveals attractive white "meat."
The most wonderful cooking method of all - the one that releases the sweet flavors of the asparagus, the one that colors it a bright green and makes its texture both crunchy and yet soft - is steaming in boiling-hot water. The perfect pot for this purpose is a pasta pot with a removable strainer, which is about 35 cm high at least.
Combine the asparagus spears in a bundle once again, this time with loose rubber bands (tight ones will leave marks on the spears that will soften in the water). Cooking time for the floret is much shorter than that for the stalk; the idea is to bring the entire asparagus to a uniform level of cooking.
The bundles should thus be cooked upright, their base standing on the bottom of the pot. The height of the boiling water should reach only to the end of the exposed stalk; the florets are supposed to cook through their contact with the boiling-hot steam around them. Therefore, the height of the water in the pot should reach about 9 cm. from the top. Cooking time for the florets with steam = cooking time for the stalks in boiling water - 5-7 minutes at a medium boil, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. With a closed lid.
5-6 asparagus spears per person
some extra fine virgin olive oil
Atlantic sea salt
Cook as explained above for 5-7 minutes and remove the asparagus from the pot. Transfer immediately to ice water, cut the rubber bands. Leave for 1 minute in the water and transfer to a clean towel to dry.
Cover with a little olive oil, sprinkle a few grains of sea salt over and eat the asparagus cold, as though it were just picked wild.
5-6 asparagus spears per person
100 gr. cold butter, cut into cubes
juice of 1 small lemon
sea salt
Steam the asparagus as in the previous recipe. Because this dish is supposed to be served hot, don't stop the cooking with ice water. The asparagus that are removed from the water will continue to cook in the plate, therefore subtract 1 minute of cooking time.
Place a bundle on a plate, cut the rubber bands and the spears separate.
In a small gravy pot melt the butter together with the lemon juice until you get a thick emulsion. Spoon the butter over the asparagus, leaving the florets exposed; sprinkle some salt on top.
4 asparagus spears per person
1 soft-boiled egg per person, with liquid yolk
lemon butter
Cook for 5-7 minutes and transfer the asparagus for serving immediately to a vase.
With the back of the spoon break off the top of the egg and expose the hot yolk. Dip the asparagus spears into the egg. As you remove them the yellow yolk drips over the green florets. Place on a plate, pour over some of the lemon butter, sprinkle on salt.
When you put asparagus on a grill, the burning of the coals creates the perfect combination of flavors with the asparagus, treats its Mediterranean asceticism with monkish respect and leaves its texture as raw as it was.
5 asparagus spears for each person
olive oil
sea salt
a few cold cubes of butter
Brush the asparagus with olive oil, sprinkle over a few grains of salt, and place on the barbecue grill nicely arranged, touching one another, head to head. The sound of searing is heard and a wonderful smell will fill the air. Watch the point of contact of the asparagus with the grill - the bottom browns after 2-3 minutes; turn over with wide tongs, sprinkle some of the butter cubes over the scorched side, grill for another 2 minutes. White smoke rises, and the wonderful smell is now joined by the sweetness of the butter. Remove from the fire, transfer in piles to plates. If there is no barbecue, a plancha is fine. The result is identical.