Asparagus, The Regal Debutante
On April 22nd I headed to my first farmers market since moving to the Pacific Northwest, held in downtown Vancouver. I always look forward to chatting with the farmers and buying their produce!
While we were living in San Francisco, my husband George and I enjoyed our Sunday morning trips to the Fort Mason Center Farmers' Market in San Francisco, delighting in its diverse offerings of year-round fruits and vegetables grown in the Central Valley of California. Citrus began to dominate my mornings and still does, as I always come home from the market with a 10 pound bag of oranges. Some people must have coffee. I crave fresh-squeezed juice.
Height of Summer Fruit and Veggies from Fort Mason Center Farmers' Market
I reckon I need to familiarize myself with the local growing season and a colder, wetter climate. First clue...Saturday, April 22nd's market featured makers of nut butters, sauces, jams and marmalades, glass art and jewelry. And one farmer with the season's first asparagus. He assured me that more fresh produce was on its way.
Watering the Asparagus
Although the paucity of selection was at first a shock, I quickly pulled myself together and purchased several bundles of fragrant green asparagus, which I've been cooking daily in a variety of ways, each meal confirming the superior flavor of Washington asparagus.
Earliest documentation of asparagus-growing dates back to 1st Century AD and the Romans. Ancient Egyptians positively revered the vegetable. My first taste of it was in a classic Paris cafe, prettily lined up on a platter, dabbed with a creamy white sauce and a sprinkle of hard cooked eggs.
Here's my recipe for Beth's Asparagus, Mushrooms and Eggs Sunny Side Up:
Ingredients For Two People:
2 bundles of asparagus, 8 ounces of mushrooms, 1/2 cup of high quality olive oil for baking, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, one teaspoon dried oregano, a pinch of sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, 4 eggs as fresh as you can get 'em, and a teaspoon full of butter
How To:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the asparagus bottoms if they are woody and thick, using a potato peeler. Take care not to break the stalks. With medium or thin stalks just lightly trim the ends. Arrange asparagus in a shallow baking pan, mix in the mushrooms, add the oil and spices and pop the dish in the middle of the oven. After 20 minutes start checking for doneness. For me, that's when the tips just begin to brown a bit and the stalk is soft when a knife goes into it.
Take the asparagus out of the oven and let it sit on top of the stove while you grease a skillet large enough to fry 4 eggs in, with the teaspoon of butter. When the butter begins to brown, crack the eggs into the pan one by one and let them cook on a medium heat until the whiles are solid white, the underside is turning brown, and the yolks are set, yet still bouncy. I like non-stick pans for this, as they guarantee that you will not break the yolks trying to scrape the eggs away from the skillet!
Plate This Dish:
With a spatula, lift asparagus and mushrooms out of the pan, and set them on a dinner plate. Slide 2 fried eggs on top and sprinkle them with a bit of fresh ground pepper. Sometimes I grate some Parmigiano-Reggiano or Montgomery Farms (from Great Britain) Cheddar on top.
Beth's Asparagus, Mushrooms and Eggs
