Grilled Asparagus Recipe

Rob Carson: Hi my name is Rob Carson, I am radio personality and I like to cook and my goal of these videos is to bring foodies and friends and families together in the kitchen and to demystify things, you might have been afraid to try otherwise. This is my buddy Bryan from bryanskitchen.com. He is a professional chef and you guys do all sorts of things in your kitchen here. Bryan Davis: Yes in this kitchen studio basically do corporate team building. We do cooking parties, private and public. We have private wine dinners. Rob Carson: That’s excellent, cool. So today we are going to try something that is fairly simple. It’s a great sight we are going to do? Bryan Davis: Grilled asparagus. Rob Carson: Grilled asparagus. Now there are a lot of ways to make asparagus. There are only a few really good ways to make asparagus and they usually involve fire or high temperatures. Am I right? Bryan Davis: Yes. Rob Carson: Okay so cool. Let’s talk about what we are going to need today. Bryan Davis: Okay. What we are going to have is we need the asparagus of course, salt and pepper, olive oil. Rob Carson: That’s it. Bryan Davis: That’s all we needed. Rob Carson: So we need this for as tools and materials are concerned. Bryan Davis: What we are going to be using is sharp knife, cutting board apart with water in it. Rob Carson: Okay so boiling water. We are gonna to blanch. Bryan Davis: Boiling water. We are using induction burner, but you could use the stove top. A bowl with ice water in it and an empty bowl. Rob Carson: Alright so we are going to toss the asparagus in that. Bryan Davis: Yes. Rob Carson: Alright, cool. So now, why we are blanching the asparagus to start with? Bryan Davis: Okay whenever you grow a vegetable that’s kind -- needs a little while to cook, if we just put this asparagus straight on the grill, it is going to cook on the outside before the inside gets done. So basically we are going to burn the outside before we get the inside done. So by blanching it, we give it a head start in cooking. Rob Carson: It’s kind of like when you let a take rest before you put it on the grill. Bryan Davis: Correct. Rob Carson: Alright. There you go. Okay so we are going to cut the asparagus and throw away the ends. Bryan Davis: First off we are going to do is we are going to add a little bit of salt to our blanching water. You want it to be about -- you have been to an ocean or sea and been dumped by wave and tasted the water. Rob Carson: Yes. Bryan Davis: I want it about that salty. Rob Carson: More times than not actually. Bryan Davis: All right, so what we are going to do is we are going to clean the asparagus first. The easiest way to do it is to just hold it, bend the bottom of it, where it breaks tail end is bad, and tip end is good. Rob Carson: Okay. That’s a good advice. Bryan Davis: So that’s what we are going to do and the blanching process, we are going to take our asparagus here and we are just going to take it all and we are going to drop it in. Rob Carson: How long we will leave it in the boiling water? Bryan Davis: We will leave it in the boiling water for about minute and a half. Rob Carson: So how much asparagus did you put in here? Bryan Davis: About a pound. Rob Carson: About a pound of asparagus, this will serve how many people? Bryan Davis: About four people. Again depending on sizes. Okay its been in there for about a minute-and-a-half, I am going to pull it out and we are just going to put it in ice water. What this ice water does is stop the cooking. Rob Carson: Yeah I did the same thing when I was in the hot tub in Montana. It was snowy outside and we got out of the hot tub and jumped into the swimming pool and you get the same reaction. You left it in the hot tub, Bryan what are you doing. So, hey! Where you guys are going? Are you going to the bar? Can I go with you? Bryan Davis: Well we are going to keep this one. You know how you can tell when its done? Rob Carson: How? Bryan Davis: Taste it. Rob Carson: Okay. Let's give it a shot. You are right about the salt. Bryan Davis: Add flavor? Rob Carson: It did. Bryan Davis: It’s got a nice crisp to it? Rob Carson: I like the salt. I wouldn’t have added that much salt, that really, really adds the flavor. That’s an excellent tip Bryan. So you have got the asparagus cooling here. We are going to leave this in here for? Bryan Davis: Just long enough until it cools off. Rob Carson: Okay cool and then we are going to toss it over here. Bryan Davis: I am going to tell you what we are going to do is we are going to lay down the towel down in there. Rob Carson: To take away the excess water. Bryan Davis: Laid down the paper towel and all we are doing here is trying to get as much of the water off as we can. So we got that in here now. We are going to fold the paper and just kind of pat them dry. Rob Carson: Sure. I really liked what the salt water did to this asparagus. That’s a great idea. Alright, so whats coming up next? Bryan Davis: Next, we are going to put a little bit of olive oil on it, salt and pepper and then we are going to put them on the grill. One thing to be careful of when you are doing the olive oil, not too much. Once the oil hits the fire it’s going to flame up on you. If it flames up on you, the olive oil can burn, turn black and then you got a burnt olive oil flavor. Okay, so we got a little bit of olive oil just enough to coat it. Salt and pepper, going to toss it around and we are going to put it on the grill. Rob Carson: Okay cool. Lets take it over. Okay so Bryan you've got them on the grill. How high is the grill turned up right now? Bryan Davis: High. Rob Carson: Its high. Bryan Davis: You want a high heat because they are not going to be on very long. Rob Carson: Alright cool and obviously you are going to be turning them here I see, how long do you think they are going to be on here just turn them once or what? Bryan Davis: Basically what you want is, you want to put them on and then kind of roll them. Basically all you are looking for is this char; get a little bit of char on them. Rob Carson: You don’t want to take limp asparagus off the grill? Bryan Davis: No and again that’s the personal preference. I like the texture and crispness. Rob Carson: As opposed to mom who would boil them till they were gray. Yeah, but I do like to crisp this, so I think its a great idea. Okay cool, lets take them off. One thing I might mention, you can also if you don’t have a grill, roast this in your oven as well, right? On a baking sheet by what, four and a quarter. Bryan Davis: 4. 25. Rob Carson: Okay until it’s done essentially. One of the great things about asparagus, you may know is that when you cook it at high temperature it gets really caramelized and there is a sweetness to it. Am I right? Bryan Davis: Yes. Rob Carson: You know we don’t think asparagus is a sweet vegetable, but it actually really is. Its great, let's plate some of this stuff, shall we? Bryan Davis: Yes what we are going to do in terms of plating it is just kind of lay them on the plate. You can pyramid them, you can lay them down. I kind of like just -- my personal preference all the tips go in the same way. Rob Carson: Sure. Now obviously I wouldn’t serve this as a course, you would serve this as a side and a very colorful side. If you are going to be serving with fish, you are going serving it with beef; you are going to be serving with whatever. Bryan Davis: You could actually serve this as small side if you want to add a few accouchements to it, to the asparagus, take a cup of julienne, roma tomato slices, lay those on there. Give it a little bit of color. Rob Carson: Beautiful. Bryan Davis: Then you could make some sort of puree or cheese sauce. Just pull over it and you have got a nice vegetarian first course. Rob Carson: Or even a balsamic. Bryan Davis: Or a balsamic reduction, yeah. Rob Carson: Okay cool, there you go. Grilled asparagus done right with chef Bryan.