The Stalk Market Soars
Falling asparagus prices signal a strong early-Spring season and the easiest recipes you’ll ever find.
You won't find me searching for signs of spring in the flower garden or marking off calendar squares. Here in Santa Monica, where I photograph dandelion blooms in January, I rely most on my supermarket’s produce section or neighborhood farmers market to hint the changing season.
My revised plan, leaving robins and dandelions out of the prediction, follows one simple rule: Winter officially ends and spring begins when the price of asparagus stalks, ranging from slender to chunky, declines.
And that’s just what happened when my market’s very recent asparagus price dip seized my attention. Lower prices suddenly made me feel asparagus-wealthy. Yesterday I brought home three pounds, instead of the usual carefully weighed one-pound splurge, of one my favorite vegetables. (Tomatoes are the other favorite.)
Asparagus is a shoot vegetable, classified with artichokes, hearts of palm, endive and celery. Select tightly budded young green spears of the same dimension— pencil thin or fat. Cook the same size together so they will cook evenly. (See Moveable Feasts in sources.)
I’ve never met the author of Moveable Feasts: The History, Science and Lore of Food (see sources), but I’ve learned through reading Gregory McNamee’s paperback that we share the same memory pendulum-swing (from “yuk”to “yes, please”) evolving as the vegetable became a more common part of American family menus during the 1960s.
In Moveable Feasts, McNamee, who describes asparagus as native to Europe and named from the Greek word for “stalk,” paints the “yuk” side of that pendulum-swing as the “glory days of the 1960s” and TV dinners eaten during Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie, confronting the horror of canned asparagus with the consistency of a blend of okra and cottage cheese gone bad.”
“…suffice it to say that I did not clamor for it,” he wrote, adding “…even when fresh asparagus became widely available in this country in that decade, it was all too often boiled or steamed into a submissive pulp, its chewy straw-like fiber turned into a stringy mess, its nutrients gone.”
25 years ago, in the “helpful hints” section of The New Ebony Cookbook by Charlotte Lyons (see sources), the magazine’s former food editor recommended using string to tie asparagus spears in bundles before “cooking upright in 1-inch of boiling salted water in a deep, narrow pan or clean coffeepot, until stalk ends are crisp-tender, about 7 to 10 minutes.”
And looking back personally, the long and winding road toward my current “asparagus passion” began with steaming and serving stalks as a side vegetable with lemons. I progressed to sauces, quiches, stir-fry dishes, frittatas and even old-fashioned asparagus tea sandwiches made with steamed spears on buttered rolls.
Until recently, I emphasized my deep appreciation for asparagus by sharing how I had never run across a savory recipe that couldn't be enhanced with an asparagus tip or two. I didn’t include desserts before receiving the online registration link for the San Joaquin Asparagus Festival, scheduled for April 12-14, 2024, with the promise of Asparagus Ice Cream. (See sources.)
Until then, I’m partial to keeping things simple and savory with oven-roasted spears plus an easy and “awesome” celebrity skillet stovetop recipe.
Oven-Roasted Asparagus needs no recipe, but here it is: toss trimmed stalks of the same size in oil and place on a parchment-lined baking pan. After transferring to a 425 degree oven, cook thin to thick spears until tender and just beginning to brown, about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on size.
Ending with today’s “Stalk Market Question”—Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
The Answer: Patti LaBelle
The 60s Response: Awesome
Awesome Asparagus
2 pounds thin asparagus, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Seasoned salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the spears into 2-inch lengths. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the asparagus and garlic. Cover; cook, stirring occasionally, until the asparagus is barely tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest; season with salt and pepper. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Notes:
The Kitchen Hand by Anthony Telford (Allen & Unwin, 2003) “Garlic shoots can be used like chives, snipped into a salad or sautéed as a vegetable side dish.”
What are garlic scapes? /https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-heck-do-i-do-garlic-scapes-180951722/
Sources:
Moveable Feasts: The History, Science and Lore of Food, by Gregory McNamee (University of Nebraska Press, 2007)
LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About by Patti LaBelle with Laura B. Randolph (Broadway Books, 1999) Awesome Asparagus, page
The New Ebony Cookbook by Charlotte Lyons (Johnson Publishing Company, 1999)
San Joaquin Asparagus Festival, https://www.sanjoaquinasparagusfestival.net/
I love the recipe. I'm not big on asparagus but am willing to try it now. Thank you, Donna!