Asparagus is one of the first green crops to hit the market each year. People rush to pick up the first asparagus of the season. But I have never seen the draw. I have always thought that asparagus was disgusting. It had this bitter, awful flavor I have always hated. But in the interest of this blog and your own health, we decided to give it one more try in our household. So I thought I first needed to buy the best asparagus I can get my hands on. So that would be directly from a farmer. So I purchased a bunch at a farmer’s market last week. The second thing I needed was a good recipe. So I turned to Alton Brown. I watched his episode of Good Eats entitled “Age of Asparagus”. I decided that his recipe for roasted asparagus was the best choice. Below you will find my notes from this recipe. For the full recipe, visit Food Network’s website.
1. The first thing you need to do is cut about 1 1/2 inches off the bottom of the asparagus. The bottom is usually pretty fibrous.
2. Alton cooked his asparagus in a tray made of foil. In this interest of saving on foil, I just threw it on a sheet pan lined with a Silpat
3. Cooking the asparagus five minutes per side worked perfectly in my oven. It came out soft enough to eat, but not mush. It also is perfectly caramelized.
4. Alton adds nutmeg to the asparagus. This may seem like a strange thing. Most of the time nutmeg is used in sweet dishes like pies and applesauce. But actually the nutmeg adds a nice dimensional of flavor to the asparagus. So don’t leave it out. Make sure you use whole nutmeg
This recipe changed my mind about asparagus. It actually tasted really good. My wife loved it too. My 3 year old ate it, but I don’t think she was that fond of it. So as long as the asparagus is in season we are going to keep buying it and keep roasting it!
Recipe Grade: A
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