French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David

Author:Elizabeth David
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781101501238
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-12-23T10:00:00+00:00

LES ASPERGES DE CAVAILLON

CAVAILLON ASPARAGUS

The following recipe was given on the wrapping paper of asparagus exported to England from Cavaillon in the Vaucluse. Apart from those of Lauris and Argenteuil, the Cavaillon asparagus are supposed to be the best in France.

‘Rake each asparagus with an office knife20 and throw them one after the other in a large earthenpan full of cold water: wash them carefully, fasten them in bunches of 10 or 12 asparagus, according to their size, put them in slightly salted boiling water, and maintain boiling during 10 to 12 minutes on a lively fire. The asparagus are cooked when they melt under the finger’s pressure. To avoid that the soft part of the asparagus will not break in cooking, it is preferable to put the asparagus upright with the heads out of the water; this part of the asparagus being more tender than the rest; the water which recovers them in boiling suffices to make them well done.’

Personally, I do not go out of my way to pay huge sums for asparagus, either in or out of season. When I stayed in the Cavaillon neighbourhood, we used to buy the local asparagus for a few francs a bundle, but with all the trouble they were to prepare and cook (they had to be arranged flat in a roasting tin on top of the Butagaz cooker, as there was no suitable saucepan included in the batterie de cuisine of that house), I thought the fresh young broad beans, the exquisite haricots verts and the beautiful violet-leaved artichokes more worth while. In any case, asparagus are always best served in a straightforward way, with melted butter or hollandaise sauce, and the Cavaillon recipe, peculiar though the English is, is perfectly sound, although 10 to 12 minutes is very much on the scanty side for any but freshly picked and rather thin green asparagus.

A small quantity of cooked asparagus tips, particularly the small thin ones which are often sold very cheaply, make a first-class garnish for eggs en cocotte with cream.

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