Asparagus in season

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Its officially asparagus season in the UK, The season runs from late April until around the summer solstice in late June. So if you are in the UK you should be able to find UK grown asparagus in all the supermarkets.

I recently discovered this type of asparagus (which I had thought could only be obtained in France) on sale at Tescos. Its the wonderful purple asparagus. This variety is called Bergundine. Its absolutely delicious!

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Lovely big chunky spears as you can see:

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It features on the cover of my 'old-school' ring binder recipe book:

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Truth be told, asparagus is so popular that it can be bought all the year round. Its in the top ten most purchased vegetables. Most of the asparagus not grown in the UK comes from Peru - most commonly the fairly thin green asparagus rather than the thick spears.

The one type we can't seem to get here (fresh) is white asparagus which is much favoured by the French. I'm not sure I've ever tried it.

Do you eat a lot of asparagus? Is it as popular in your country? Which types are available and where are they grown?
 
Pasta primavera time!

We usually see the green pencil or thick varieties. Occasionally, we'll see the white in one of the spendy groceries.
 
Love asparagus. It's probably available year round here, but the price is lower about now. The white, as I recall, are more expensive because they are grown in the shade - if I'm not mistaken. Usually prefer the pencil, as the fat ones sometimes taste a little fibrous to me. Depends on the dish sometimes.
 
Karen W said:
Usually prefer the pencil, as the fat ones sometimes taste a little fibrous to me. Depends on the dish sometimes.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean - but the Burgandine one's pictured above were definitely not fibrous although I did 'shave' the lower part of the stalks. Here is what I did with them:

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Looks good. What's the foamy stuff? Asparagus and salmon always pair well together. Recently made shrimp scampi, asparagus pasta., etc, etc
 
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My friend grows it and gave my wife some to grow about 3 years ago, you don't get any spears for the first 2 years. We had enough for a meal or two season just gone. It should appear around September in spring.
I flash fry in butter and near the end I add balsamic vinegar,it's beautiful.

Russ
 
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