Which is a bit irritating to listen to, especially for those of us who grew up in the post war years, when you ate what you were given by your mother, no consultations having been made with you about what it might be, and when it arrived you thought yourself lucky to have it. Lest I dissolve into a Monty Python "luxury" sketch, let me say that I am lucky enough to be currently enjoying a surfeit of asparagus.
Such that you can only really have if you grow your own or win the lottery. Well I know it's not as expensive as it used to be, because you can buy it imported from Peru or somewhere for most of the year. But we're not even going to talk about that, this is English asparagus, seasonal and delicious and fresh, and only available in May and June. Even if you do win the lottery you are unlikely to be able to buy fresh asparagus of the quality you can grow yourself.
It's not really in the staple food category, shades of "Peel me a grape darling" I know, but if you have the space for it, and enough years of your life left to wait for it to mature into a decent crop then it's well worth the effort and the wait. My asparagus bed is about four years old and in full production. I bought two year old plants which I recommend you do if you're thinking of planting your own, it cuts the wait from four years if you grow from seed, to two years. I've been really surprised that my crop has done so well as I'm on very heavy clay soil here and asparagus is supposed to do best on sand. I should have taken out a deep trench, lined with sand and gravel for drainage and backfilled with compost. Instead I planted straight into the ground and hoped for the best. And the best has been very good indeed so far. I think the variety I used was Gijnlim (how you pronouce that I wonder?) and it's not only prolific but early as well. Even allowing for the good weather the crop has been early. Starting picking in mid April we have an 8 week window after which the plants are allowed to grow on and replenish themselves for the next year, and on for the next 10 - 20 years.
The one vital thing though is to keep the bed weed free. You just cannot grow asparagus in a weed infested bed, you will destroy the emerging spears trying to get the weeds out, so start as you mean to go on as my mother told me when I got married, and start with pristine soil and top dress with some compost every year if you can, pull out any weeds at the tiny stage and that's it. When you stop picking the little spears will quickly grow into a forest of ferny foliage which you can chop off at ground level after it turns yellow in late autumn. And wait for the next crop the following April/May.
Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
The first delicious spears are treated to the full works, proper hollandaise, or as near as I get to proper hollandaise which is my stick blender version
2 egg yolks (duck eggs are especially good)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
4 ounces/125 gr salted butter
Bundle of asparagus roughly coated in olive oil
Put first 3 ingredients into blender cup or small jug.
Gently heat the butter in a small saucepan until melted and hot.
Mix egg yolk mixture with stick blender and slowly pour on the hot butter keeping the blender going all the while, to make a creamy emulsified sauce. Taste and add salt, pepper, and more lemon if required. If it's too thick and mayonnaise-ey you can add a bit of thin cream or milk.
Quickly flash the asparagus in a very hot frying pan until it's hot and a little seared if you can manage it without setting off the smoke alarm.
Tip onto serving plate and pour over the sauce. Dust cheffy - fashion with a bit of cayenne or chopped parsley.
As the season goes on, and the crop needs to be used up, I find myself eating it raw on the way to the polytunnel, chucking it onto the barbeque, wrapping it in smoked salmon, (if I'm not too bored with smoked salmon of course) choppping it into salads and so on.
And Asparagus Surprise, the surprise being something that doesn't have asparagus in it, sorry I know I've made that joke before...And then I get to the stage I'm at now where I've had enough. No really. Enough already.
Asparagus and smoked salmon, not again....Yawn....
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