341479 Fri Nov 10 01:48:57 -0800 2006 5 31 Home Cooking 0 2010342 I first saw white asparagus on a trip to Spain, where they're pretty common. Now I see if often at my local Safeway, and in fact this week they were selling them for just $2 a pound. I bought some and came up with this recipe that is similar to an appetizer I had at a restaurant in Barcelona. Braised Beef with White Asparagus Ingredients: 1 lb. white asparagus 6 oz. lean beef (chuck or round cuts), cut into 1-inch cubes 1 cup shiitake mushrooms (stem removed) 2 bulbs shallots (diced finely) 1 can low-sodium beef broth (14 oz.) 1 T Worcestershire sauce 3 T Marsala wine 2 t ground star anise (or two whole star anise) 2 T extra virgin olive oil 1 T flour 1 t thyme 2 t oyster sauce 2 t sea salt 1 t pepper Season meat with salt, pepper, and star anise powder. Add olive oil to hot large saucepan or dutch oven and cook shallots over medium high heat for about 2 minutes. Then add meat and brown on both sides. Add Marsala wine to deglaze your saucepan. Cook away the alcohol (about 2 minutes). Then add broth and season with worcestershire sauce and thyme. Simmer for 2 hours. Half-way through the cooking (about an hour), prepare your mushrooms by removing the stems and sweating them in a saute pan. Then add to meat and continue cooking for another hour. Cut off bottom 2 inches of asparagus (or snap at the end) and peel stalk with vegetable peeler. Boil in salted water for 2 to 5 minutes. Drain and let cool. Mix flour with some water in a small bowl to create a slurry. Add this to finish off your meat and thicken the sauce. Add oyster sauce for taste. Plate your asparagus and place meat and mushroom with sauce over. Makes four to six servings as an appetizer/starter or two to three servings as an entree. (As an entree, serve it with polenta and dark green vegetables like chard for added color to your plate.) Serve with glass of Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon. Here's a photo of how the dish turned out: http://singleguychef.blogspot.com/2006/11/braised-beef-and-white-asparagus.html I'm curious whether anyone else has cooked with this and how you've prepared it. I think they're cool looking so I definitely use it as a visual approach to cooking. So would like to use it more in other dishes. Any other ideas (other than salads)? Fri Nov 10 01:48:57 -0800 2006 43882 singleguychef 1 2010764 That sounds like a good combination. I love white asparagus, and hope to go to germany someday for the festivals. When I was in Provence in June I bought some white asparagus without much of a plan, but they were so beautiful that it was hard to resist. In the middle of cooking a large late brunch(for my brother's wedding) I remembered the asparagus! So I did a very basic preparation that came out beautifully and was a subtle counterpoint to some of the strongly flavored dishes I served. 1)Cleaned and trimmed the asparagus. 2)Blanched them in lightly salted water with a little white wine vinegar until just tender, and let cool to room temperature. 3)Made a light beurre noisette in which I steeped a few dried lavender flowers. 4)Poured the lavender-brown butter over the asparagus on a platter. 5)Enjoyed it. Fri Nov 10 06:36:07 -0800 2006 2010342 28245 ghbrooklyn 2 2011610 Oh, I love lavender! This sounds really nice because like you said, the white asparagus is so subtle in taste that the subtleness of lavendar sounds like a nice light dish. What's beurre noisette and how do you make that? Is that basically a brown sauce? And I agree, the white asparagus is so beautiful. The ones I saw in Spain were huge! Fri Nov 10 17:30:29 -0800 2006 2010764 43882 singleguychef 3 2011632 A beurre noissette is simply unclarified butter that has been slowly cooked so that its milk proteins turn to a hazelnut-like brown. Fri Nov 10 17:35:59 -0800 2006 2011610 13819 Karl S 4 2011638 Great, thanks! Fri Nov 10 17:37:25 -0800 2006 2011632 43882 singleguychef 4 2011655 thanks karl S for clarifying my lingo usage. and I highly recommend this recipe and the usage of beurre noissette in general. Fri Nov 10 17:41:55 -0800 2006 2011632 28245 ghbrooklyn