The Essential Ingredient

It may take a few weeks until it really feels like it, and it might not even technically arrive until the equinox, but it’s time to get excited about spring.

Although enthusiastic chefs and cooks are always excited by the produce of any season, embracing the freshest local ingredients, spring tends to hold a special place in the hearts and kitchens of food lovers.

As the green returns to the trees, so too it reappears in our kitchens. Dense root vegetables, the essentials of winter cooking, make way for peas, exotic lettuces and bunches of fresh herbs.

Horseradish puts the zing in spring, while rhubarb begins its takeover of the dessert menu.

Spring lamb also appears, meat grilled and layered onto salads perfect for the increasingly warm sun of spring, rather than alongside the risottos and in the slow braises of winter.

But the mascot of spring food is undoubtedly the asparagus. Green, white or purple, asparagus appears early in spring and vanishes again as the season ends. So for only a few months of the year, this delicious member of the lily family is blanched, dressed, chopped, grilled and steamed in high-end restaurants and suburban home kitchens alike.

So prized is the asparagus as a symbol of spring that many cities in Europe, particularly around France, Germany, Italy and Spain, hold asparagus festivals during which all local restaurants are encouraged to serve a unique signature dish including the versatile ingredient.

Invite spring into your kitchen with your own festival of asparagus. After all, the ideas are almost limitless:

• Blanched and dressed in melted butter with thyme and lemon rind
• Accompanying grilled chicken breast in a crusty bread roll with homemade mayonnaise
• Wrapped in prosciutto and baked
• In a rich spring quiche
• Barbequed and tossed in olive oil and fresh lime juice
• Arranged in a steamer under a generous fillet of barramundi
• Sliced and combined with cucumber in a salad with a mirin, rice wine vinegar and white miso paste dressing
• A hearty cream of asparagus soup, with fennel and white truffle oil
• Carefully arranged into a duck and quail terrine
• Served with mint alongside roasted chickpeas

And thousands more. Leave your favourite asparagus dishes in the comments below and help inspire others!
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For essential spring cooking equipment, such as tart tins, grilling pans, microplane graters and roasting trays, visit your nearest Essential Ingredient store today.

We’ll also inspire you with spring-friendly ingredients of the highest quality, such as extra virgin olive oil, delicate, aged vinegars and the most perfect anchovies.

Posted under Essential Inspiration, Featured.