Avril veut dire asperges autour de Saint-Aignan. And yes, they are white, and they need to be peeled. One way to eat them is boiled or steamed and served with a home-made dressing: vinaigrette, mayonnaise, ranch. Serve the asparagus spears chilled or at room temperature. That's how we often eat them at our house (photo below).
Another favorite way to eat asparagus is in a pie. Make bundles of two, three, or four spears and wrap each bundle in a slice of ham. Make a custard of cream, eggs, and parmesan cheese and pour it into a pie shell. Lay the asparagus and ham bundles on the custard, pressing them down slightly. Bake the pie (or tart, I should say) and serve it hot, warm, or cold, as you prefer.Here's an old post about making the asparagus tart using green asparagus. And another asparagus pie using bacon instead of ham. Finally, here's a post of Walt's that gives you a recipe and that is made with prosciutto-style ham.
I love that tart, and have made it several times, after reading about it on your blog and walt’s blog :-)
ReplyDeleteI've made that tart also! Do the French have ranch dressing? I thought it was just American.
ReplyDeleteI make the ranch dressing myself. I found a recipe somewhere and we both like it.
DeleteI think this is the recipe for ranch dressing that I found a few years ago. I always tinker with it, using fresh parsley if I have any, or fresh garlic, etc. I also put in some grated Parmesan cheese.
ReplyDeleteThat recipe looks good. I like that it uses whole milk since I don't always have buttermilk on hand.
DeleteI use plain yogurt in the place of buttermilk.
DeleteBoiled and served cold sounds very appealing. My mother never told me you had to peel the lower half of these.
ReplyDeleteYou served the ham-wrapped asparagus to me once, long ago. It was just as good as it looks.
ReplyDeleteThat was Chrissoup
ReplyDeleteI remember having that asparagus and ham tart when you were here.
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