Make Asparagus with Lemon Balsamic and Parmesan
I don’t know if this is an appetizer or a salad or a vegetable side dish but it is delicious. This is Pan-seared Asparagus with some Lemon and Balsamic and a little Parmesan at the end. That’s one bunch of asparagus that I washed. I already trimmed off the bottom, of course, little salt and pepper, little reggiano Parmesan, we’re going to use one lemon, some olive oil and some Balsamic vinegar, as always all the ingredients in the recipe are on the site, Food Wishes.
All right, here we go. This is kind of a neat trick. Take a pan and line it with some heavy duty aluminum foil. Here is where going to do is we’re going to sear this asparagus for were not going to cook it all the way and then we’re going to wrap it in this foil with the flavorings and it just kind of steam and finish cooking, really interesting technique. So I dumped in my couple tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar. I dumped in a little bit olive oil, adds the juice of a lemon, just a little, maybe two, three pinches of salt and pepper. And that just kind of sits there and wait for our seared and seared Asparagus. Let’s give that a little shake and just let that sit like that.
Now, in a pan, now don’t use your non stick here because I don’t like non stick getting super high heat. In your stainless steel pan, I want you to bring that up to scary hot level. Let it get super hot, drizzle in just a teaspoon of olive oil and then you’re just going to pan sear the asparagus, all right. So there’s no water. There’s no pre blanching. And there are some chefs are freaking out, now you’ve got to boil the asparagus first. No you don’t, I want a really nice intense the asparagus flavor. What I’m trying to get here is almost a grilled asparagus okay. Now see that’s still stiff like shaking it and that’s not moving. You’ll know when these are done is they’ll just start to soften a little bit. You’re going to cook it in the foil really. So this took me maybe six or seven minutes and again, super high heat the whole way. You could see the edges start to get a little black, a little brown just like you’re putting them on the grill. So just keep on moving maybe every minute or two. Give them a little shake.
You can see how that just wasn’t as stiff as before. It just starts to soften and I do have some nice color on those. And again, that’s maybe why dish is we kept it kind of experiment once and do it wrong and then you’ll get it perfect. All right so when I thought those were just starting to get tender, they just became slightly bendable. Then I’m going to put them quickly into made bowl that’s lined with the heavy duty aluminum foil. I’m going to give that a fold. And one fold is good. And now, those are going to kind of steam in there and finished cooking. Now I’m going to use a second piece of foil because I want that dressing to go everywhere which it will kind of seep out. And that’s it. And that’s where all the flavorization is going to happen. Again, I don’t think that’s what we did it.
Anyway, what are you going to do and you can actually feel that heat there. You’re going to let that sit for about five minutes. Give it a toast maybe halfway through. And when you unwrap that as I’m slowly doing now, ways in valuable time, all right and you’ll see why I used that second piece of foil that the dressing kind of seeps out but that’s okay. It’s totally flavorized the asparagus. I’ve got that delicious sweet balsamic, the lemon, salt to pepper, olive oil, oh my god, so delicious. And those are just barely tender. And there just barely warm, otherwise you’re not going to be able to touch it okay. So now we’re just set a plate off. So got me a nice stock of slightly crisp, although fairly tender asparagus, they’ve been infused that delicious flavor because they wrapped in that foil steaming hot. I’m going to shave over with a potato peeler some beautiful reggiano Parmesan. Maybe I’ll dust it with a little more salt and pepper, maybe I won’t. And I’m going to serve with a little lemon on the side right. You could drizzle some of Balsamic here but that was just perfect for me. Such a great side dish, such a great appetizer, warm salad sheer what we can call them salad.
But anyway, need a little trick I know its spring and there’s a lot of asparagus in the market so there you go. Don’t boil it first, no need to just sear it in a pan until it just starts to soften just this asparagus just become a little pliable, wrap it tight on a foil with your flavorings and then you’ve got one great vegetable dish. Give that a try and enjoy.
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