Broiled Asparagus

Welcome to Café del Gata Roméo! This week's exciting adventure features... asparagus!

I love asparagus - if it's fresh. Canned? *blech!* Frozen? *ik!* Asparagus must be FRESH! And it's very easy to cook - a quick stir-fry, lightly grilled, simply broiled - so there's no excuse for those who claim they can't cook.

So, let's go into the kitchen and cook!

Here's my little corner of the world, where I create culinary catastrophes, um, I mean... "masterpieces," yeah - yeah, that's it!

So, here I am in my lovely kitchen. I'm sorry, but I didn't get a picture of my ovens - which is really too bad, since we're going to do a very simple, broiled asparagus recipe for our show today.

Please pay no attention to the non-existant finishing touches underneath my cooktop hood. I haven't gotten around to putting in the backsplash tile yet. Actually, I've been debating exactly what I want to do there. Any suggestions?

Oh, and don't look over here, either...

Geeze! I told you not to look!

I'm still unpacking from our move, and things are still a bit of a mess.

Eew. That's not even a good picture of me!

Yikes. Oh, well, on to the cooking lesson.

All right, we're going to need some very simple ingredients for this recipe:

• 1-4 bunches of asparagus (usually about a pound each - I've used four, 'cause this is a nummy recipe!)
• olive oil
• freshly ground pepper (remember, pre-ground pepper is the pits! Get the kind in the bottle that has a little grinder built in - you'll be amazed at the difference in taste!)
• salt
• 1-3 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

I'm trying out the garlic tonight, just to see how it does. See? I, even I, the great and wonderf... Oops! Got a little carried away, there. But, experimentation is a good thing!

And here's a lovely picture of our ingredients (even if that is only one bunch of asparagus):

Notice the grinders for the salt and pepper? Yes, I'm THAT serious about fresh pepper! I fill that 1 1/2 cup-capacity puppy up about every month. OK, OK, maybe only every two months. Mmmmm!

(Oh, and don't forget to - responsibly! - enjoy your beverage of choice while you're cooking. This should be fun, and even if it's a glass of sparkling water, you should be revelling in the excitement of creating something delicious!)

Oh, and for this recipe, you'll want asparagus spears which are fairly thick. Save those tender, pencil-thin stalks for a stir-fry or omlette or quiche. You want something about as thick as your fingers:

Now, after you've rinsed the asparagus well under cool water and let it drain a bit, you're going to need to trim off the woody ends. Usually, I'm feeling lazy and simply whack off the last inch or so at the base with a nice BIG kitchen knife (make sure you don't chop off a finger!), but the classic way is to lightly grasp the stalk (yes, darling, one at a time) on either end, and bend it gently until it snaps:

With all your cleaned and "snapped" asparagus tips in a fairly large bowl, I would suggest that now is a good time to turn your oven broiler on, and place your rack in the top postition, so that the asparagus spears will be 3 or 4 inches from your heating element. I would also use a rimmed baking sheet to cook with so you can spread things out in a single layer. However, a roasting pan will work fine; you may simply have to accept that you're going to work in batches.

On we go to the seasonings! This is one of the few cases where I'm NOT going to say, "Go easy on the salt." For some reason, asparagus seems to stand up to it. I use about a half teaspoon per pound (bunch) of asparagus, but you'll want to adjust for your own taste. If in doubt, go with less, since you can always add more - but once it's there, you can't take it away.

For the pepper, go wild! I loooove pepper! I think I used about 1/2 teaspoon of pepper per pound as well. Again, use your best judgement - and if you use that pre-ground crap, you'll probably need to use more. (Did I tell you I hate pre-ground pepper?)

This time, since I was experimenting with the garlic, I got fancy. I wanted to make sure that the garlic flavor got all over the asparagus, and therefore, I wanted to make sure the olive oil was really infused with it. So, I really mashed it up with my mortar and pestle. No, you don't need to do anything this fancy!

(But I love kitchen gadgets - so I've got to use them, right?)

Toss your asparagus spears with the salt, pepper and garlic (if using), along with enough olive oil to lightly coat - you don't want them dripping with oil, but you do want the asparagus to glisten with a sheen of oil.

Now spread them out in a single layer on your baking sheet, and slide them into your preheated oven. Keep a close eye on them! I would suggest stirring them up after 3 to 4 minutes of cooking, and again after another 3 minutes.

Depending on how  crunchy you like your veggies, I would NOT suggest cooking them longer than 10 minutes, total. The cut/snapped ends should still be fairly crisp, and the heads should be tender. See how there's some browning? Mmmm, yummy crispy stuff!

It's really irresistable.

As for the garlic? Eh, I don't think it added anything, which is odd, because I LOVE garlic! So, feel free to use just the salt and pepper for seasonings.

See? The Darling Munchkin approves! Mmmmmmm....!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week, I hope you enjoyed my little silly show.

This episode is sponsored by the Carnival of Recipes, hosted this week by... Hm, I don't know! Well, I'll have the host's website (and this week's permalink) up as soon as I get them. (UPDATE: This week's Carnival is hosted by  Trub - thanks for hosting!) Please feel free to explore my blog;  I write about whatever catches my eye (OK most of it is current events and politics). All my "foodie" stuff is right here and my cat blogging is right here.  So check things out, and have a great day!