Recipes
Sautéed sea asparagus
1/2 pound fresh sea asparagus
1 shallot, minced
2 ounces butter
lemon juice to taste
Clean and soak asparagus for 1 hour in cold water. Drain, then steam or blanch for 1 to 2 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain. Sweat (sauté on very low heat) shallot in butter for 5 minutes; do not allow to burn. Add asparagus to pan and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn mixture out of the pan, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.
Pickled sea asparagus (New Recipe)
3 pounds fresh sea asparagus
1 tablespoon pickling spice
3 1/2 cups white vinegar
3 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3-5 garlic cloves
Place spices and 3 to 5 peeled cloves of garlic in each sterilized jar. Clean and soak sea asparagus for 1 hour in cold water (to leach the salt away). Drain; chop into 2- to 3-inch lengths and pack fairly tightly into the jars.
Bring vinegar, water and sugar to boil and simmer 15 minutes. Pour hot solution over sea asparagus, leaving l/2 inch headroom. Seal jars and process in hot water bath for 15 minutes. Makes about 10 pints.
Note: The asparagus is pickled after a couple of days, but gets better the longer it keeps. What I sampled was a year old, and deliciously tangy.
Variation: make larger amounts by packing pre-sterilized, food grade buckets with prepared asparagus, pouring hot solution over all, then fitting the lid snugly over top. The heat of the solution creates a vacuum, sucking the lid down and creating a seal. Caution: If the vacuum seal has not occurred, open and re-heat the solution before trying again.
Tomato and sea asparagus salad
2 cups pickled sea asparagus, drained*
4 medium OR large tomatoes, sliced 1/4inch thick
1 small red onion, julienned
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano OR 1 tablespoon
fresh, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
Mix all ingredients and chill in fridge for 1 hour. Variation:
Sprinkle sliced tomatoes with olive oil, and dust liberally with cracked pepper; arrange on plate. Combine 1 cup pickled asparagus with onion. oregano and 1 tablespoon olive oil; place in center of tomatoes or nest of raddichio.
Dip four 1 ounce slices goat (or blue-veined) cheese
in toasted sesame seeds; warm in oven for 2 minutes
and place on plate. Garnish with fresh chives and serve.
She Sells Sea Shells and Sea Asparagus Salad (New Recipe)
Serves Two
Prep.& Cook time 12 mins.
with smoked Alaskan black cod (sablefish)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. fresh sea asparagus blanched
[ see blanching instructions below]
1 tsp. butter
1/3 cup onions finely sliced
1/2 cup carrots sliced into 2 1/2 in. strips (julienne)
2 tsp. honey
2 tsp. apple cider or white wine vinegar
white pepper to taste
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. sesame seeds toasted white or dark
To blanch the sea asparagus, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the
asparagus. Blanch for 30-40 seconds. Remove the sea asparagus and cool it in a
bowl of ice water for 30 minutes.
Method:
Preheat a 9 inch sauté pan on medium heat. Add 1 tsp. of butter along with the
onions and carrots. Cook for 2-3 minutes until slightly tender. Add the sea
asparagus and 2 tsp. of honey. Sauté for 2 minutes. Season with white pepper to
taste and stir.Remove from heat. Add the vinegar, 2 tbsp. of olive oil and the
sesame seeds. Toss together and serve.
Preparation for smoked black cod- slice cod into 1/2 inch thick pieces and place
in steamer basket. Steam for 6-8 minutes. Remove and top with a dab of butter.
Another recipe from Kosta the Fishmonger for you to enjoy!..........
Special Remarks:
Sea Asparagus is available fresh for a short time. It starts from the beginning
of June and ends approx. mid July. It is one of our B.C. gourmet treasures. It
is harvested at this time because it has new shoots which are tender. Towards
mid summer these shoots become reddish in colour and become very woody in
texture and are not so palatable. Sea asparagus is naturally salty in taste. In
order to make it less salty, it is necessary to blanch and soak it as mentioned
above. It can then be used as a substitute for any green vegetable or tossed
into a salad. It is said to aid digestion. This natural wonder is packed with
phytochemicals that protect the liver, heart and cellular DNA. It also is rich
in vitamins A, C, B2 and B15, amino acids and minerals, iron, calcium and
magnesium. Sea asparagus is also commonly used for pickling. It has various
names such as picklingweed, sea bean and several more. If you come from a
northern European background you may know it as samphire.
feedback or questions e-mail kostaz@telus.net
or stop in at The Salmon Shop or Screaming Mimi's, Lonsdale Quay Market, North
Vancouver.
Sea Asparagus Grilled Salad (New Recipe)
Ingredients:
1 Cup mixed Bell peppers sliced 1 inch wide
1/2 Cup fresh sea asparagus
2 Fresh donut nectarines
2 Tsp. olive oil
1 Tsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tsp. extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of Oregano
salt and white pepper to taste
Method:
Heat the other side of the barbeque to medium. Coat the peppers and nectarines [whole] in 1 tsp. of olive oil and season with salt. Place on the grill . Put the sea asparagus on a foil sheet and drizzle with the other tsp. of olive oil. Wrap in the foil and place on the grill for 10 minutes .Cook the peppers and nectarines for 10-15 minutes until done. Slice the nectarine into bite sized pieces. Place in a bowl with the peppers and sea asparagus. Toss together with the balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and white pepper.
Another recipe from Kosta the Fishmonger for you to enjoy!..........
Special Remarks:
Many people may not know that spring salmon comes in a white meat or marbled meat colour. Only fisherman and true salmon aficionados appreciate the rarity of these salmon. In New York, the white salmon are marketed as Ivory Whites and fetch a much higher price than regular red spring.
The taste of white spring is much more oily and flavourful than red spring. The simple reason for the difference in their colour is what they feed on. The red springs [Chinook] feed mainly on krill which is a small shrimp . This shrimp causes the pigment of the salmons flesh to turn red . The marbled springs feed on herring and sardines and other white fleshed fish. They will afterwards feed on Krill which contributes to the beginnings of the red colouring blended into the white. After feeding on enough Krill, they will also eventually turn red. The white springs have not consumed any Krill so hence they remain a white fleshed salmon.
Feedback or questions e-mail kostaz@telus.net
or stop in at The Salmon Shop or Screaming Mimi's, Lonsdale Quay Market, North
Vancouver.