Asparagus Spring

This simple green salad made of a selection of blanched green vegetables, asparagus, hot smoked salmon and fresh basil and parsley mayonnaise, simply sings the refreshing taste of spring.

Asparagus, the quintessential and delicate vegetable that heralds spring, and available right through until mid summer, is not the easiest vegetable to grow. The spears which take years to sprout after planting are the shoots of a perennial in the lily family. However, once they break the surface the stalks can grow several feet high, driven by the plant’s own energy sugars stored in its roots – they don’t need sunlight. In fact, half of the world’s asparagus is harvested after the spears have been hidden from sunlight, so the asparagus-eating world is divided between European kitchens, which prefer white, and the ‘new world’ kitchens (USA and Australasia) which prefer green. The white asparagus, not usually seen in New Zealand, is nutty/sweet and more delicate, but you do have to peel the stalks.

The spears shoot through the surface of the soil at quite a rate (up to 20cm a day) with the harvesters lopping off a single day’s growth just a few hours after they have turned green in the sun. The stalks toughen very quickly from the bottom up, especially after being cut, and the longer they hang around in the green grocers or farmers’ market, the tougher the fibrous sheath around the stalk gets as it dries out – so buy fresh and use fresh.

You want medium-sized stems that are straight, firm and bright green and bundles of equally-sized spears so they cook evenly.

Some portion of the cut end of each spear will be dehydrated and tough and it has to be either ‘snapped’ off by bending the stem until it breaks at the intersection of tough and tender, or (better) just feel your way along the stem and chop off the firm part – better to end up with short spears that are all tender than one with chewy butts.

Green salad

This is a simple salad just sings ‘spring’ with its vibrant green vegetables and ‘Kiwi touch’ of moist, hot-smoked salmon, served with a classical condiment of green herb mayonnaise.

We sourced the very first of the new season asparagus from the wonderful Jack Lum and Co in Remuera Auckland along with some flat beans, snowpeas, a ripe avocado - and basil, Italian parsley and a lemon to flavour the mayonnaise.

Cut the bottom half of the stalk off the asparagus spears and then blanch the spears in boiling water for a few minutes until slightly tender. Refresh in cold water.

Top and tail the beans and shred them through a bean shredder, then blanch until tender and refresh in cold water.

Pull off the little stalk/vein from the snowpeas and quickly sauté them for a minute in a little hot olive oil. Place on a plate to cool.

Peel and dice avocado into chunks.

Break up a generous slab of hot-smoked salmon into bite-sized pieces.

Assemble carefully on a large serving plate (see photo).

Drizzle a little simple vinaigrette over the top to moisten/glisten the salads, and serve with small side bowl of the herb flavoured mayonnaise.

Mayo – make in a blender and add a bunch of chopped basil and Italian parsley and finely grated rind of one lemon – whiz until it turns green.

Spring 2009

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