It's asparagus time again in Belgium. The place where I live is known for asparagus, cauliflower and strawberries. We mostly buy then directly from the farmers, so much better than the supermarket version. We only buy them during the short season (end of April till end of June). Although we can buy them in the supermarket the whole year, it's not the same. I don't like the imported ones, same with the strawberries. During the season we get 2 times a week fresh from the field asparagus. Each time we get 1 kilo. Over the years we tried a lot of different dishes with the "White Gold".
In Belgium most people just boil them and serve "Asparagus the Flemish way". This dish is the boiled asparagus, topped with egg mimosa and a clarified butter sauce. But when you boil them, you will loose so much of the taste. So we started to steam or stir fry them. Yesterday we made our first dish since we're back from Spain. I will explain this further with some pictures. If you like asparagus, give this a try!
- The first step is to clean the asparagus. I use a vegetable peeler to do this. If you buy them at the supermarket you also have to cut the woody ends. If you have really fresh ones, you don't need to cut off the endings. Now chop them all in little pieces (like 2 cm).
Next we cut the chicken breast filet into small pieces. I season them with a bit of salt, pepper, curry powder and paprika powder. Mixed all well so every piece is covered with the seasoning.
Put some oil (I use olive oil) in your frying pan and heat it very well. You need a high temperature to stir fry!
Start with the chicken and stir it till it's colored.
- When the chicken is colored on the outside you can add the asparagus to it. The will need a bit longer, so don't worry about the chicken ... It will be fully cooked inside as well. It's hard to tell how long you need to stir fry them. We like them "al dente" with some bite, some people prefer them very soft. It's up to you!
During the preparation you will notice the asparagus leave some liquid in your pan. This will make them soften. The trick of stir frying is to keep stirring (hence the name), and the liquid will vaporize.
- And now the final step: add culinary cream, stir again and let it cook for a very short time. This way it will thicken a bit.
And here you go ... Ready to eat. You can serve this dish with pasta (we prefer penne).
Hope you like our version. Give it a try and stop boiling this delicate vegetable 馃槈