Asparagus: Land & Sea
June 27th, 2008 | Published in East, Eastern Savory, Vancouver, Vegetarian & Vegan
Spring is the season for many things: asparagus for the West, bamboo for the East, and Vancouver’s China town today had an amazingly fresh (and cheap!) wave of asparagus. The bunches were inconsistently pencil thin to trunk-like sticks, but the bottoms were all vividly green and moist - fresher than the $6.99 or whatever rediculous price Whole Foods can come up with.
About 20-30 minutes block away on the downtown East Side at Fujiya were small packages of Sea Asparagus - more technically Salicornia, and locally known as Glasswort, pickleweed, samphire, Umari Keerai, and sea beans across the globe. Having nothing to go on other than liking the look, I tossed it in the cart along with al the other Japanese things that caught my eye (and never had on the shopping list): yuzu sauce, ponzu sauce, kinako, a basket…. Thinking it as a mini sea-version of asparagus, I imagined it microwaved, blanched, steamed, with as little as butter, or as much as a hundred other items. And like asparagus, it has a nice little crunch, and goes limp when over cooked.
The asparagus we’re used to ended up being quite good, following a recipe from Washoku; the improvised sea asparagus was a disaster of too much dashi, or yuzu, or butter with each bite. At least it looks good in the photos!
Asparagus with Dry-Roasted Black Sesame Sauce adapted from Washoku
12 oz asparagus
2tbsp mirin
2tbsp soy sauce
2tbsp black sesame
1-2 tbsp dashi/basic stock
Bring the water to a rolling boil. Slice the asparagus in about 2 inch long pieces. Separate the heads. Stick the middle pieces in the boiling water and wait until it boils again. Quickly toss in the heads. When it boils again, (should be no longer than a minute or two), take out all the asparagus. It should still be a vivid green, chewy, but not hard, and not too limp. Up to your preferences. Leave the asparagus to dry and do not remoisturize.
For the sauce, roast the black sesame in a pan. It won’t take too long - likely a few minutes after the pan’s warmed up. Stick it in the blender/motar & pestle, and grind. Part way throgh, add in the liquids. If it’s too dry, add in more dashi stock. Otherwise, leave it. Pour over the asparagus or put in a container to the side.