Late March/early April is right around the time asparagus begins its short season, so if you happen to find yourself with some in the near future, here’s a recipe for you: 4-9: Asparagus with Italian Butter Sauce. I served this as a side dish along with 8-20: Juicy Steak with Garlic Topping.
There’s such a short window of time when asparagus is in season–you start seeing it around March-April, and it’s done around early summer, in June-July. We’ve recently signed back up for our CSA box after a break, and asparagus was waiting for us in the first one.
No notes on this one, which is surprising–asparagus was one vegetable that everyone in the family was willing to eat. They suggest you can use frozen asparagus, but that sounds somewhat disappointing.
Ingredients. You’d probably want to use a drier white wine like a Chardonnay for something like this, but what you see is what I had.
Trimming the ends off the asparagus stalks–I hate the woody parts.
Melting the butter to start the sauce.
Onions are chopped, vegetable base is turned to broth.
Sautéeing the onions.
While I was working on the sauce, I was steaming my asparagus using my collapsible vegetable steamer. This thing works great if you want to steam vegetables on the stove and not in the microwave (put them in a glass container, add about an inch of water to the bottom, run for 3.5 minutes).
Another good thing about the steamer: it lifts the vegetables right out of the water & pan–no colander required.
Making the roux from the butter & onions.
Added the broth and wine.
Egg yolks & cream added as well. This is still a bit too bubbly–any harder of a cook and it’ll curdle.
Whisking in the butter after bringing down the heat–the butter helps with that as well.
Final plate, along with 8-20: Juicy Steak with Garlic Topping. Here’s a pretty nice dinner option if you want to be decadent, yet reasonable. Sauce was pretty good, but butter/wine/cream sauces usually are.
Grade: A-
