To quote Julia: "We have tested every asparagus cooking method we have heard of -- peeled, unpeeled, boiled butts, steamed tips -- and can say categorically that the freshest, greenest, and most appetizing asparagus is cooked by the French method." Having read that early on, and loving to eat asparagus, I've been looking forward to preparing some asparagus using this method for some time now. Because it only needs to cook for "12 to 15 minutes," I've been waiting to cook this when I just wanted to do something quick. Hahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa. Julia tricked me again! Sure, it only cooks for a couple of minutes to "cook" but it takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to prepare it. Well, at least the first time around it took a long time. Spoiler alert: This was the best tasting asparagus I've ever had! Elizabeth better know how much I love her because of the amount of time I put into preparing this. I don't know that I'd ever prepare asparagus this way if I had 15 people coming over for dinner, but I'd definitely do it for someone I love as much as my sweetie, Elizabeth.
Here's the deal -- the French method for Asperges au Naturel (boiled asparagus) involves peeling the asparagus. I've peeled hundreds of potatoes over the years and I'm a pretty speedy potato peeler. How hard could it be to peel a little asparagus spear? The trick is that you peel using a paring knife, not a potato peeler. You start the knife below the tough layer of skin on the "butt" end (the non-point end) of the asparagus spear, about 1/16 deep on bigger spears, and carefully slip the knife towards the tip. The depth gets thinner and thinner until you're about one or two inches from the tip of the spear.
The tricky part was keeping the knife just barely below the skin. I accidentally sacrificed a couple of spears in the process when I angled the knife wrong and ended up cutting the spear in half. I was realllllllly slow for the first dozen or so but became pretty fast by the time I did the last one. The photos at the end of this post illustrate the steps of peeling the asparagus -- and after the peeling is done, the knife is used to shave off any largish scales that may remain towards the top. That's it - peel, rinse, repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And Repeat. All together it took me about two hours to get two bundles of asparagus peeled! Two hours. Uggh. Dinner ended up being served at about 8:55pm but it was good enough that I received a full pardon.
Back to the preparation -- The trick was getting everything peeled. Julia warned that a potato peeler would't work since the skin is too thick and tough for it. Julia was right. I had to at least try a potato peeler -- Yep, Julia knew what she was talking about, it didn't work. It took off some of the thin skin but I still had to use a knife at the thicker end. So with practice by the time I was working on my second dozen asparagus bundle I was getting pretty speedy at the whole peeling thing and I didn't even shed a drop of blood.
Once the peeling was done, the spears were tied together into bundles with one spear being left out. All of the spears were tied together (I had two bundles) except for one. Everything was lowered down into a large pot of boiling water, large enough to let the asparagus lay out straight. When the time was up, the single spear that wasn't tied in a bundle was taken out and tested for doneness. I ended up doing only 12 minutes of boiling and they were actually a tad overcooked. Without the skin the asparagus cooks realllllly fast. With the test one being tasted and done, the bundles were gently lifted from the water and allowed to drain well. Then the bundles were set on a towel to drain. The asparagus was ready to serve at this point -- but wait, there's more! You've got to have a sauce or it really wouldn't be French enough.
Instead of serving the asparagus plain, I prepared a fancy white sauce to go over it. The official name of what I made was "Sauce Creme - Sauce Supreme" which translates to "Cream Enrichment - Cream Sauce." It all started with my making a "Sauce Bechamel" which I thought was pretty unique and would impress Elizabeth. When I told her what I was making she said, "Oh, your making a bechamel sauce." Did she really know what I was making or was she just teasing?
In any case, I did learn some good tips in making this sauce. First was with the roux (butter and flour) that started everything off. More than just mixing some flour into melted butter, the butter and flour were mixed together in a saucepan and then stirred slowly on the heat until it "frothed" for a few minutes without getting brown and then taken off the heat to have milk added. The next trick was that when adding milk to the roux, the milk was brought to a boil in a separate pan before it was added (so cold liquid isn't mixing with the hot roux). All the boiling milk was poured in at once and then vigorously beat with a whisk. After that, the mixture went right back onto high heat, was brought to a boil, and then stirred while boiling for about one minute. Amazing - after a minute it was done and just the perfect thickness. After adding a little salt and pepper to taste, the basic white sauce was done. But wait!! There's more!!
There are several types of "enrichments" that can be done to the basic white sauce so, needing a challenge, I decided to do the "cream enrichment." The basic white sauce was kept simmering on the heat while cream was added by spoonfuls. The sauce stayed on the heat until at the consistency I wanted. Lemon juice was then added and it was perfect!
You know, adding a little cream and lemon juice doesn't seem like it would make that much of a difference but it brought the sauce to a whole new level. It was wonderful on the asparagus and good enough that we finished the last couple spoonfuls of sauce by itself! I'l definitely be making this sauce again.
Once everything was done, the asparagus was plated and the sauce was added. Without the peel, the asparagus was soft and creamy -- a texture I've never had with asparagus before.
In spite of taking forever to do the peeling, I was actually pretty efficient. I had all my ingredients measured and spread out ready to go. Once I started with the sauce I had it done in no time. Almost ready for a TV show! Ummmmm, pretty sure that ain't going to be happening.
Don't let the photos below scare you away. Preparing it this way definitely tells someone you love them but you'll love eating it too!
Bon Appetit!
Very good, but very time consuming. I doubt he'll be making for a crowd.