Monday, April 20, 2009

Green asparagus

Germans are mad about asparagus. And at this time of the year everything in this country is about asparagus (Spargelzeit).
Every year there are asparagus festivals that celebrate the "royal vegetable", as Germans call it.
I was watching on the news that at one of the festivals young beautiful woman was chosen to be "Asparagus Queen", and she got the honour of harvesting the first asparagus of the year.

A colleague of mine also told me that in her family asparagus is served every single Saturday during the season (April-June).

We all might be obsessed with something but here we got a whole nation being obsessed with a great vegetable like asparagus. It is wonderful to see this! Reminds me a bit of Swedish strawberry season.

White asparagus is the favourite asparagus of German. My favourite is green and I am firmly convinced that the best way to prepare green asparagus is when it is cooked with olive oil in a cast iron pan and when it is served with smoked salmon and sourdough bread.

Green asparagus
serves 2
500 gr green asparagus
3 tbsp olive oil
6 slices smoked salmon
2 slices sourdough bread
salt and pepper

If the asparagus is fresh-fresh (check the cut at the end) it does not need to be peeled. In other case, peel the asparagus, heat the olive oil in the cast iron pan (has to be cast iron) and cook the asparagus on low heat until soft to your liking, about 20 minutes. Keep on turning asparagus so that all sides get nicely cooked. When done, salt and pepper. Serve with smoked salmon and your favourite sourdough bread.

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