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Last time, I wrote briefly about some of the options for asparagus besides the recipe I gave you then. Well, I hadn’t actually tried everything I wrote about — fried breaded asparagus, for example. And I found I kept thinking about it, so for this week I decided to try cooking it.
In my own way, of course, which meant not using an egg for the coating. Yes, I used an egg for last week’s asparagus dish, but in that one it was pretty much the centerpiece. Maybe I’m just cheap, but at the price I pay for eggs, I don’t want to shove them into the background, and I don’t want to have any left over.
So, unlike Joe Famularo’s mother, who coated her asparagus in flour, egg, and then breadcrumbs, I went with mayonnaise and good old blending flour. Maybe regular flour would’ve worked just as well, but I don’t know. With no egg to bind the coating, I needed flour that would soak up the mayonnaise on contact.
Now, I didn’t end up with an even, crispy breaded coating that covered the entire asparagus spears and turned them into the equivalent of French fries with vitamins and fiber. (Can you tell that’s what I was hoping for? But it was always a long shot.) What I got was very green, intensely flavored asparagus with a sprinkling of crispy flakes, very good in its own way. Just be sure to let it cool a little before eating.
(And here’s something I picked up this week: Those tough lower ends of asparagus spears that you have to break off can be made into broth.)
- (No amounts, just use what you’ve got)
- Asparagus
- Mayonnaise
- Blending flour
- Oil for frying
- Wash the asparagus.
- Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on a plate big enough for an asparagus spear. (A brush is good for this.)
- Put a small amount of flour in a sturdy plastic bag (a resealable bag is good).
- Roll each spear of asparagus in the mayonnaise, using the brush to coat it if necessary.
- Shake each spear in the bag of flour till coated with that.
- Heat the oil in a cast iron pan till it sizzles.
- Carefully add the asparagus spears without crowding.
- Turn over after 3-5 minutes, or when the flour on the underside is brown and crispy.
- Cook another 3 minutes or as needed to crisp the other side.
- Cool slightly before serving
