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Sea Bass and Asparagus
A fish dish with Lincolnshire asparagus…
The season for asparagus is tragically short, end of May to mid-late June and that’s it in my opinion. After that you’re on to thick, woody stems, loss of taste and vibrance and a gastronomic disaster. So with that in mind I like to showcase it as much as possible and that, I suppose comes from my training in Germany.
In Germany the season for white asparagus is a thing of celebration. Special menus are created featuring the noble spear on every dish and the idea has stuck with me, albeit slightly less imposing on the menu.
Sea Bass is a great vehicle for asparagus, cook the spears correctly (plenty of boiling salted water) and the combination of textures is remarkable.
I use a lot of fresh brown chicken stock for my sauces, natural reductions thickened at the last moment with a compound butter and the light, citrus infused stock is a perfect foil for the fish and vegetables. Add to this some mushroom flavoured gnocchi or Italian potato dumplings and you have a lovely light supper dish.
Have a go at cooking some fish with asparagus before the season ends, salmon or any white fish will work perfectly well as would a simple spoon of hollandaise sauce.
Sea Bass and Asparagus
Miles,
We enjoyed it yesterday: lincolnshire asparagus, salmon and sauce hollandaise, excellent.
I agree with you and will only buy and eat it in season.
Your dish looks delicious and could just sit down to that.
Anne
June 2, 2010 @ 9:14 am
Miles,
What a marvelous vegetable and how I love it….. however for some it is a curse in the digestion department
On the general culinary front, I got all excited yesterday when I spotted a tiny box of natural food colours. Miniature bottles to add a splash of colour to my macaron without the need to render down a beetroot or spinach as I have before. I’ve acquired more tamarind to go in a cake recipe I noticed a couple of weeks ago….. coffee and tamarind, not exactly a run of the mill flavour combination but it looked good and I seem to recall was gluten free, so one for Melissa possibly. I shall report back once these are made and quality tested. Also aren’t blueberries popular this year…. they’re everywhere not to mention in front of me now. There’s a recipe for breakfast muffins in my Cranks book which I may tackle, alas I can’t find any buttermilk so must find an alternative but instead of marmalade I’m adding the berries. More of the lovely organic chicken livers which I’ll cook and eat on toast rather than make pate, either way I’m a real fan in fact I like liver in all guises unless it’s over cooked. I could go on….. ye verily my shopping trolley runneth over
Cid
June 2, 2010 @ 5:52 pm
Anne,
Support your local grower! None of this Peruvian nonsense in the middle of our season…
Miles
June 3, 2010 @ 9:30 am
Cid,
That sounds nice, did you know it was National Macaron Day last week?
Miles
June 3, 2010 @ 9:31 am
Looks great Miles!
I must try that. Not only is it asparagus season, it is also time to catch the first bass of the year for me, so if I have any luck, that dish is going to be made!
Better get cracking!
Sam.
June 7, 2010 @ 4:25 pm