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Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Spanish Grilled Asparagus

I was recently in Portland, and when I got home, I took some cookbooks by Portland chefs out of the library in order to keep the food experience alive.  This is from the Toro Bravo cookbook, which is wonderful and exceeds our actual experience in the restaurant, but we would give it another try after cooking out of this.

2 pounds asparagus
2 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
4 slices jamon (Spanish ham), finely julienned
Kosher salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 preserved lemon, skin julienned
3 whole oil-cured Calabrian chilies (or ½ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes)
½ cup green and black Mediterranean olives, pitted and quartered (try a mix of Castelvetrano and Kalamata)
1. Start your grill. Prepare an ice water bath. Snap the woody bottoms from the asparagus spears, then peel about 1½ inches from the stem end.
2. Bring 1 gallon of water to a roiling boil with 1/3 cup kosher salt. Boil asparagus for 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on the size, then cool in the ice bath.
3. In a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, add the 2 tablespoons olive oil and the ham; cook, stirring constantly, until nicely crisped. Strain, discard the oil and set the ham aside.
4. Drain and dry the asparagus, season with remaining olive oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat. Grill the asparagus until charred, remove to a plate and set aside.
5. Put butter in a medium saute pan. When it begins to brown, add the preserved lemon skin and shake the pan a couple times. Once the lemon turns a little white, and begins to crisp, add the chilies and olives, and give the pan another shake. Stir and allow the mix to bloom for about 20 seconds. Add the ham, shake and top the asparagus with the mix. Serve immediately.

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