SPRING BRINGS ASPARAGUS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 173, 16 October 1942, Page 13

SPRING BRINGS ASPARAGUS

SPARAGUS is so delicious by itself as a separate course, that it seems almost a pity to make it into fancy dishes. Wash the stalks carefully, tie them in bundles, and stand them upright in a saucepan containing enough boiling water to well cover the white part. The tips will cook in the steam. Add a little sugar as well as salt.to the water, and cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes, or till tender. Untie the bundles, and serve each person’s quota in an individual dish, with a piece of toast underneath to absorb any water. Pour a little hot melted butter over the tips. Asparagus Tips With Bacon Cook the asparagus as above, then arrange on buttered toast, and put crisp grilled bacon on top. Asparagus Spring Salad This is most delicious. Pile up cooked asparagus on individual salad plates, allowing about six stalks to each person. Arrange crisp heart-leaves of lettuce round, and pour over a little French dressing, mixed with minced chives. Sprinkle with tiny crisp croutons of bread .fried in butter, and garnish with ted radishes peeled backwards to look like flowers. Asparagus Cigarettes These make delightful savouries. Prepare some thin triangular pieces of fresh white bread, spreading very sparingly with butter, and a dusting of grated cheese. On these place cooked asparagus tips, about 3 inches long, and roll them up. Brush with melted butter and grill a pretty brown all over. If preferred, " cigarettes" may be fried brown in a little butter. Grilled Asparagus Half cook the asparagus tips in a saucepan in the usual way, as explained in the first recipe. Then take them out, dust with pepper and salt, and roll them in fine breadcrumbs mixed with a little melted butter. Put them in the already heated grilling pan and grill for about eight minutes, turning them so that they are browned’ all over. ‘Sprinkle with a little grated cheese and serve at once. Scalloped Asparagus One bunch asparagus; 2 cups milk; 2 tablespoons butter, 1 cup breadcrumbs; 2 tablespoons flour; 4 hard boiled eggs. Cut the asparagus into inch lengths, soak in cold water for half an hour, then boil half an hour. Make a sauce of the butter, flour and milk, chop the eggs finely and add to the sauce. In a buttered dish put a layer of asparagus, then a layer of sauce, then breadcrumbs, and repeat till the dish is full, finishing with breadcrumbs on top. Bake a golden brown im a moderate oven.