I love to eat asparagus. My mom makes it wonderfully. However often when I make it, it seems to be too woody, at the ends, like I didn't know where to cut it correctly.
I'm thinking to roast these guys with some olive oil and sage.
Can anyone advise me, where do I cut off the ends?
Thanks for helping a cooking rookie figure it out :)
Do not cut the ends. Break the stalk by bending between the end and the middle and letting the end snap off. It will snap at the point where tenderness begins. Then prepare it any way you like.
INTERESTING!! Thank you!! going for it.
My favorite way to cook asparagus is to slice it in 2 to 3 inch pieces on the diagonal and stir-fry it in a little butter and/or olive oil, salt, and onion powder until it is tender-crisp and browned in spots. It takes about 5 minutes to cook.
Easiest thing to pick in my ditch. They know where to let go.
I like to lightly braise (uncovered) in water (just enough to cover the asparagus), olive oil, butter and Parm at the end. Once the water is gone, let them sizzle just a bit and they're ready.
do you guys do anything with the ends?
True - but problem with the snapping approach is that you won't get evenly sized stalks nor a clean cut. So yes it works well but for presentation purposes it's not the best approach imho. I just cut the stalk where I think the wood ends - I'll have the occasional woody asparagus but it looks darn good!
Except that the bunches of asparagus that I get at the farmer's market always contain stalks of widely varying length. The only way to prepare them so that they are all the same length would be to cut off large portions of the "good" parts as to the longer stalks, which I am not inclined to do. So, I'd just as soon snap each. (The bunches of asparagus in the supermarket are generally the same length.)
This is so true of the asparagus I got at local farmers markets.....for just the 2 - 3 weeks they were available...some were very long and thin, others were much shorter and broader. They snapped at very different proportions. But, it didn't take long to snap them individually because they were very expensive for a small quantity. Really worth it. I think local berries and local asparagus (as well as corn and tomatoes) have the biggest positive taste differential compared to supermarket.
If you have a LOT of asparagus to trim, say, a 28-lb box for example, there are easier ways than bending and snapping every single spear. Pull a representative spear out of your bundle (assuming the spears are bound by a rubber band or two), and bend/snap it. Then use that as your length guide, put it back into the bundle and cut the whole bunch at the length of the snapped one. You may end up cutting one or two a quarter of an inch too much or not enough, but it'll be close enough and so much faster. You can trim five pounds this way in as much time as snapping half a pound, spear-by-spear.
You’ve got some good advice on cutting (snapping) the asparagus already. I’ll offer my two cents on cooking it. I like to cook it simply on a grill pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. I’d recommend not cooking for very long, so it still remains “al dente” with a little crispness. The worst thing is to cook it until it’s mushy. It’s also surprisingly good if you just blanch it in salted water. The salt brings the chlorophyl to the surface so the colour remains very vibrant. You only have to boil them for about two minutes, then toss them in good olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a squeeze of lemon if you like. It’s an incredibly easy vegetable to cook as long as you don’t over cook it.
I love asparagus - although our season is very much over for another year. As others have suggested, I always go the bend & snap route. Roasting, or char-grilling, is a good way to go although I wouldnt be convinced about using sage which could so easily overpower the "grass". That said, I have yet to find a way with asparagus that beats steaming it, drizzling with melted butter and sprinkling with sea salt (I usually have Halen Mon). This year I ate it like that every 2/3 days or so.
I cut 4-5 stalks at a time, about .5 inch from the bottom. The trick is to pay close attention -- if a stalk feels woody, pull it aside and trim more until it's not.
I snapped them for many years. But, for the past few years have been peeling them and not wasting nearly as much of this expensive vegetable. This video of Jacque Pepin shows how to do it:
I looked in the Internet for the answers for your question and I found something interesting. It says to cut asparagus between your thumb and forefinger and bend until it breaks. It automatically breaks in the part where woody part of the asparagus ends and the tasty asparagus begins.
I’ve long been using the bend and snap (not as in Legally Blonde) method, but last night I had a bunch of lovely stalks. Inspecting each it was obvious where they became woody. I cut each individually with a knife. Every bite was tender. There was less waste. The bend and snap approach can, not very often, yield a woody bite.
I cut, rather than snap, but if I don't have a lot of it, I also peel each stalk, just at the bottom. Sometimes the outer part is tougher than the inner, and peeling gets rid of it.
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