By Sidonie Maroon , The Food Co-op’s Culinary Educator , abluedotkitchen

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Find Sidonie in The Leader every other week in Kitchen-to-Kitchen, an article sponsored by The Food Co-op.

Recipes included:
Purple asparagus spears

Onion Jam

Louinaise

Coddled Eggs

Toast Soldiers

Nothing proclaims EARTH DAY like emerging asparagus. Heralded as a fertility symbol, and sacred to Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, asparagus is a prized vegetable. It’s easy to see why — those verdant arrows pushing upward from the cold earth into the spring light.

While we usually covet thin stalks, chefs rave about the flavor of the meatier spears. The cooking challenge, similar to a Thanksgiving turkey, is that the tip and stalk finish at different times. The delicate asparagus tip needs only a brief blanch, while the stalk demands a longer one. What to do? Many, and I admit my guilt, cut off the stalks, and choose to eat only the prima donna tips. Yet, asparagus is expensive, and the secret to less waste is to shave off the thick lower skins with a vegetable peeler.

It excited me to try purple asparagus, and inspired me to write a brunch menu with a nod to the classic combination of asparagus, coddled eggs, hollandaise and onions. I have a thing for coddled eggs and toast soldiers; loving to dip the soldiers in yolk. I love any excuse to pull out my egg coddler collection and am amused with the words coddled and soldier next to each other. I often cook to amuse myself, so this was perfect.

The purple asparagus was tender, sweet and juicy. It wasn’t fibrous and kept its lilac hue after blanching. To shallow blanch: bring water to a boil in a large skillet, add salt, then asparagus and cover with a lid. Cook it until tender, about 3 minutes.

To keep things low stress, I made the onion jam, Louinaise, toast soldiers, and coddled eggs earlier. It was an interactive feast — dipping spears of asparagus in the sauce, layering the toasts with onion jam and breaking into the coddled eggs.

Louisaise is halfway between a mayonnaise and Hollandaise. It’s an easy blender sauce and becomes spreadable when chilled. I like to keep it with the onion jam for impromptu sandwiches and snacks.

Toast soldiers are thin fingers of toast, reminiscent of soldiers on parade used to dip into the yolk of a coddled egg. Any kind of good toast bread works. To make ahead toast as for bruschetta, dry and crunchy brushed with olive oil or butter.

We gently cook coddled eggs below the boiling point, in an egg coddler, or in their shell. Poached eggs are a form of coddled eggs.

Asparagus Tips:

Keep all of your trimmings to make asparagus broth. Bring the trimmings to a simmer in a quart of water with salt for 15 to 20 minutes. Strain and use for asparagus soup.

Try blanching the asparagus in 6 cups salted water with 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 tablespoon butter. Finish with lemon juice

Roast peeled asparagus at 425 F drizzling with olive oil, salt and parmesan cheese for 12 to 15 minutes.

For stir fry, slice the asparagus into diagonal slivers

Asparagus loves: lemon, butter, onions, cheeses especially parmesan, mushrooms especially morels, garlic, black pepper, salt, dill, parsley, ham, shrimp, prosciutto and eggs.

Onion Jam

Makes 1 ⅓ cups

Ingredients

4 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup sherry

To finish

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Have a second sheet of parchment paper the same size to wrap the onions in.

2) Lay second parchment paper on top of the parchment lined baking sheet. Rub the onions with other ingredients except maple syrup and vinegar. Wrap the onions into a package and turn upside down, so that the opening is facing the baking sheet.

3) Roast for 30 minutes. Unwrap and discard the top parchment. Spread the onions out on the baking sheet and continue to roast for another 30 minutes. Stir in the maple syrup during the last 10 minutes.

4) Add the vinegar and pulse in the food processor until chunky smooth.

Louinaise Sauce

makes 1 cup

Wonderful with poached eggs!

2 egg yolks

½ cup melted unsalted cultured butter

½ cup avocado oil

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish sauce

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon each caraway and dill seed, ground together

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon Maldon flake salt

pinch of cayenne

In a food processor: add all the ingredients, except the butter/oil, and pulse. Combine the oil and melted butter together in a liquid measuring cup. In a continuous thin stream, pour them slowly through the food processor’s feed tube, while the machine runs. The sauce will thicken before the last of the oil/butter is added, but continue pouring until all of the oil/butter’s used. The sauce will resemble mayonnaise and is delicious, but refrigerated, it becomes semi solid and spreadable.

Aphrodite Dressing for Asparagus

2 ½ cups

Ingredients

1 ½ cups avocado oil

½ cup fresh lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon Red Boat brand fish sauce

Zest of a large lemon

Directions

Assemble the ingredients. Grind the pepper in a spice grinder or coffee mill. Add all ingredients to a blender, Vitamix, or food processor. Blend at high speed until creamy and emulsified. Pour into a salad dressing bottle, using a rubber spatula to get every drop. The dressing will keep for several weeks in the fridge.