We served this with mashed potatoes and pork au vin (made like coq au vin but using pork shoulder, red wine and two kinds of mushrooms). A garnish of three different kinds of thyme was the finishing touch. Steamed asparagus is also brilliant with duck.
Asparagus served with oven-roasted potatoes, pork chop sprinkled with sumac and garnished with thyme
J'adore asparagus with Hollandaise sauce!!
On this occasion, we served the asparagus with barbecued pork, baked potatoes, mushrooms and thyme, chives, tarragon and violas from the garden. Not shown in the photo is the small(ish) dish of Hollandaise placed by the side of the plate. Obviously, that's NOT enough Hollandaise sauce!! (Snork)
We got some baby red onions at our weekly farmers' market. We sliced them in half to go with a good shot of fresh Ontario asparagus.
After washing the asparagus well, we drizzled both asparagus and onions with olive oil.
And then into the barbecue wok they went to get beautifully caramelized.
Just before serving them (with barbecued chicken and oven roasted potatoes), we drizzled the asparagus and onions with balsamic vinegar and garnished them with fresh thyme leaves. (Here is more barbecue wokked asparagus.)
We used to bend asparagus and allow it to break at its natural point, theorizing that this is where the tender part starts. But because of the way the asparagus is pretrimmed at the vegetable store, there's a LOT of waste that way. We learned the following method from watching Laura Calder's TV show "French Cooking at Home": Use a very sharp knife and hit from above to find where the asparagus is no longer tough.
