Asparagus - Tip from PML

A few weeks ago, I went out to dinner at the Print Media Lounge in Heidelberg & had asparagus. I know, I've been into asparagus a lot recently, and my eagerness is starting to wane - a good thing, I suppose, as there are only 19 more days of fresh local asparagus for this year. Am I counting? Maybe....

What really amazed me about the asparagus at PML was the fantastic flavours in a simple traditional dish. Standard asparagus around here is: asparagus, boiled new potatoes, hollandaise sauce & cooked ham. At PML, I had olive oil & parmesan, and the potatoes were sauted & wrapped in what appeared to be wild garlic. I think. The asapargus itself had a mild citrus flavour, which I thought came from plunging the asparagus in lemon-ice water to stop the cooking.

This weekend, I was lucky enough to talk with one of the most knowledgeble people on staff about the food. He admits that he doesn't know what exactly they do, but that there is a fair bit of science involved. Sugar, salt, everything possible in the water, plunged in no idea in order to stop the cooking.

Armed with my rudimentary knowledge & skills, I opted to steam to asparagus in a salted/sugared water & do the lemon-ice plunge after. The results were very satisfactory.

Served with crepes, olive oil, jamon iberico and a bit of manchego cheese the asparagus was pretty good. 19 more days...

Out to Dinner - PML

I went out to dinner last night at the Print Media Lounge in Heidelberg & had some seriously good asparagus. Until June 24, the feast of St. John the Baptist, aspargus can and will be harvested in Germany. After this time, the plants rest before the next year when asparagus season (Spargelzeit) starts all over again.

Tonight, it was local asparagus, the kind that Obama was served at the last NATO summit in Strasbourg. The area I live in is well known for its asparagus - apparently the climate is good here.

Served with a light olive oil & parmasean on the side, the asparagus last night had a light lemony flavour. I think it was dipped in cold lemon water to stop the cooking. Ingenious! I'll be trying this strategy out before the 24th of June.For desert, it was a berry gratin with a vanilla buttermilk sorbet. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, even a few currants, covered in a custard & baked. Again, citrusy tones from dinner were repeated in the buttermilk sorbet.

I don't really feel like giving a verdict on dinner. I think it should suffice to say that I go to this place whenever I can.

Let Me Tell You About My Ham

It all started on the beach of Castelldefels, outside of Barcelona. I was in one of the restaurant/containers on the promenade & I wanted lunch. When in Spain, one does not eat sandwiches. One eats bocadillos - crispy baguette-like rolls with 1 - 2 fillings (ham or cheese). I saw the bocadillos with Serrano ham, as well as Jamon Iberico. I went for the Jamon Iberico, even though I didn't know what it was; "Iberian Ham" - when in Iberia... It was a 9€ sandwich, and completely worth it. Ever since then, I have scoffed at Jamon Serrano, even though it is much easier to find. Jamon Iberico, the more elusive ham, is a different variety of pig, it is feed a different diet, and is aged longer. In the last 6 months, I have bought 2 hams (one shoulder, one rear leg) and my life seems to revolve around it - making sure it doesn't melt in the morning sun, worrying about it while I'm on vacation - I'm into my ham.

Last night, I needed to cook the monster asparagus I bought from the farm. They were giant stalks, at least 1 1/2 " in diameter. I wasn't all that into making a soup or crepes or anything phenomenally out of the world. I just wanted to use the asparagus as long as it was still good. I opted for a variation of a German classic: boiled asparagus, boiled potatoes and cooked ham, all with Hollandaise sauce. Instead of a hollandaise, I used the wild leek pistou I have kicking around, and tossed the potatoes in that. And instead of cooked ham, I used my Jamon Iberico, which has been drying on my kitchen table for the last 3 weeks.

A little bit of lemon juice for the potatoes and the asparagus - Mucho yummy!

Green Golf, Green Asparagus

I must have come across this recipe 10 years ago. I'm not 100% certain, but I think it as in a green VW Golf on the way to Berlin, from some Canadian magazine, but I don't know which one.

My Canadian girlfriend had her parents come and visit and we all spent a holiday Thursday together. I gave the parents my tiny bachelorette apartment for the night and we were all to drive to Berlin the next day in the green VW Golf they had rented. A very simple plan. There was a parking lot next to my building; they would park the car there, we would all meet in the morning and away we would go on the Autobahn for 8 hours. The parents even brough Canadian magazines for us to read - Chatelaine, Flare, Canadian Living; it was a little colony on wheels and we were prepared. The minor glitch was that Friday is market day on that square, and all cars are towed. We all met on a public holiday, a day with such a Sunday feel that we didn't think that the car had to be gone the next day by 5am.

Our departure to Berlin was delayed and the parents discovered another part of my city: the car pound. A few hours and a couple hundred Deutsch Marks later, we were on our way. Thankfully the parents saw it as a fun story to tell when they got back home. And they still talk to me when I go over to visit.

As I've stated, I don't know exactly where this recipe comes from, but I know that this is not the original. The original calls for smoked salmon (to which I am allergic), as well as cream (to which my thighs respond negatively). Nonetheless, you can use salmon instead of shrimp and throw some cream in to make the sauce saucier. I also threw some frozen kale in last night. It made me feel like I was doing something good for myself by eating a big bowl of pasta.


Tangy Farfalle with Shrimp and Asparagus
200 g Farfalle
150g shrimp
1 Tbsp minced garlic
olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp capers
1 lemon
1 cup chicken broth
200 g green asparagus, cut into 2" pieces
1/4 cup chopped prepared kale
1/2 cup cream (optional)
parsely or cilantro to garnish (optional)

Cook pasta.

Sautee garlic, add shrimp. Grate zest of lemon into pan, add chicken broth and asparagus. Squeeze lemon juice into pan and add cream or kale if using.

Drain pasta, toss with sauce, garnish with parsley or cilantro.

Two-toned Asparagus

I stumbled upon this idea at my foodie friend's website Shizuoka Gourmet. Considering it is still "Spargelzeit", I can get fresh asparagus nearly anywhere in Germany. I opted for Aldi. Yes, there is Spargel at Aldi. Granted, it is 2nd Grade, but I don't really care.

There are many grades of asparagus in Germany, but I believe the most important thing to look for is size. Width matters (please keep any phallic comments to yourself). Width is important with white asparagus because it needs to be peeled and extra diameter in "untreated" asparagus means that there is something left over. Grade 2 asparagus is still large in diameter, it is simply not as straight. I don't really care about this for 2 reasons: 1) I do not believe that organic material should be symmetrical and 2) it all evens out when you peel it.

In this dish, I got to finally try out the 12-year old vinegar I bought over 6 months ago. You don't need to break out a vinegar that has the same per ounce value as Dom Perignon, you can use a balsamico sauce.

This was my first time poaching eggs, and I still have a lot to learn. But I know that I'll be practicing this a few more times before "Spargelzeit" is over.

Two-Toned Asparagus with Poached Eggs
4 stalks green asparagus
2 stalks white asparagus, peeled
2 eggs
1 leaf wild leeks
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar (or sauce)

Sautee asparagus in olive oil. Poach eggs. Sautee wild leeks. Layer asparagus and eggs. Garnish with fried wild leeks. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over eggs.



Wild Leeks, also known as wild garlic, ramsom or ramps, are another springtime treat. Known under the Latin name Allium Ursinium, they are found in the woods and emit a strong garlic smell. They can be found right now (at least in my neighbourhood) and, like asparagus, should be enjoyed as long as the season lasts!

Albino Asparagus Season

Asparagus season is eagerly awaited in the entire nation. Every decent restaurant has some sort of asparagus dish on the menu for a 4-6 week period of the year. Music pumped into supermarket stereos announce "wünderschöne Spargelzeit" and advertise the hollandaise sauce you can buy to put on your asparagus. I don't believe in store-bought hollandaise, and I can't make any at home with a good conscience - the stuff has lots of butter. I need another solution to the asparagus time-bomb ticking in bottom of my fridge.

I just read an entry from Mark Bittman on how he tried Cuisine de Marché in Paris. I was appalled at how he tried to throw white asparagus into a chicken roast. Then he didn't understand why people pay up to 20€/ Kilo for it. No one does "Spargel" (white asparagus) better than the Germans, even without the hollandaise. There's the soups, the salads, just steamed & dipped in butter (think "landlocked lobster"). After living here for so long, I knew I could do better, I just wasn't too sure how.

I opted for a marinade of melted ghee (clarified butter), olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and some bruschetta herbs I have in the cupboard (oregano, parsley, garlic, red pepper, salt, pepper). I peeled the asparagus, let it steam, cooled it immediately in ice water, and poured the marinade on. It wasn't the asparagus that people wait 10 months for (that is the kind that is covered in hollandaise) but at least I didn't finish my meal asking myself why people pay good money for that.