The Stinky Pee Dinner Party
Asparagus season is here! And I’ve got a menu to celebrate.
As some of you might have seen posted on my Notes last week, I visited my parents on the Victoria Day (Canadian) long weekend.
With nothing much on the agenda – always the best visits – I made them lunch. A simple roast chicken with a vaguely Niçoise-inspired salad. Well, the only thing Niçoise about it was the addition of eggs, so I suppose it wasn’t Niçoise at all. Never mind.
Let’s call it a spring salad – one with bursts of tangy capers, crisp romaine, sweet onion, and, showing for a limited time only, in-season Ontario asparagus.
If you’ve followed along for a while, you know how I luvs me a good theme. These don’t always have to be grandiose, such as a Cinco de Mayo party full of guacamole and margaritas, though, who would turn down that invite? Sometimes the theme can be far more subtle, as in this case. A dinner built around a single ingredient.
Enter asparagus.
I really only eat asparagus when it’s in season, which is devastatingly short in Ontario. Only a month, about mid-May into mid-June, though climate change is playing around with that timeline. Outside of local and in-season, just like strawberries, asparagus are tasteless and woody. And expensive to boot. No thanks. There are other miraculous things to eat that pop up throughout the year and offer far more enjoyment.
But back to asparagus.
The May long weekend is about the time those phallic little stocks start sticking their heads out of the ground, and my gorging begins. I feast on asparagus with eggs in the morning, blanched in salads at lunch, in soups and pastas and on flat breads at dinner. Truly, I eat so many that by the time the harvest ends, I just can’t take it anymore.
This menu is delicious and easy and celebrates the laid-back joy that spring brings. The weather hasn’t become oppressively hot, the sun still welcomingly warm on bare shoulders for backyard lunches. People are deeply relaxed, the soft breezes undoing the tension in frozen muscles. Colourful bowls and heaping platters scatter a table strewn with wine glasses in various states of fill. Life is good.
Menu
Asparagus bruschetta
Asparagus bisque
Asparagus salad
Linguine with smoked chicken and asparagus in lemon-cream sauce.
Asparagus Gelato (JK!)
What to drink:
For these easy-breezy gatherings of spring, when there’s not the pressure of an anniversary or Ivy League graduation for a “pinkies up” meal with many forks, I love the idea of plunking a few well-chosen bottles in a bucket of ice and letting people help themselves. I may be a sommelier by training, and food-and-wine devotee by extreme nerdiness, but heck, pop the cork and let people do what they will. Getting bossy about it just harshes the vibe. Don’t harsh the vibe, Barbara.
The easiest and most natural pairing with asparagus is a sharp and zesty Sauvignon Blanc. I have a general preference for those from Loire or Bordeaux, but there’s a reason more than two-thirds of New Zealand’s production is Sauvy B.
Rosé is always a smart choice for al fresco dining. I might lean to a slightly richer style, especially with the smoked chicken pasta. Choose something nearly pale red and fruity, such as a Tavel from the Rhône.
And you will never see me turning down a bottle of good fizz. Especially to start, sparkling sets the festive tone without uttering a word – just the satisfied whisper of bubbles bursting on the surface of the glass. I enjoyed a cold glass of brut bubbly with the bisque the other night. It paired beautifully.
I’m trying something new for this post, dabbling with PDF’s for recipes, rather than writing them in the actual post. This might work better for those of you who want to save, download, and/or print the recipes.
To that extent, I’m not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, so though I’ve tried to make them look pretty, I’m still playing around with the imagery and style I like best, along with the formatting that makes my life easiest.
Let me know what you think?
Asparagus Bruschetta
As I mentioned in last week’s post, bruschetta in Italy refers to a toast with any topping.
At our cooking school in Umbria, evenings always began with a glass of wine and a little bruschetta bite. Sometimes bright green, spring peas; sometimes creamy braised fennel.
Here, I take that spirit for asparagus. Have a plate of these little toasts ready for when people arrive, and serve with chilled brut bubbly.
Asparagus Bisque
You could call this soup, but you can charge at least $5 more per bowl by calling it a bisque.
A few years before becoming a sommelier, I was a journalist enamoured with food, wine, and entertaining. When I decided to leave broadcasting, it was a literal coin toss for me to decide between culinary or sommelier school.
Anyway, finding joy in hosting gatherings at my place after work and on weekends, I was in constant search of great recipes that echoed my entertaining ethos: easy and impressive, and most importantly – delicious.
I discovered Recipes from Wine Country, a then very posh and cutting-edge cookbook, now endearingly nostalgic of the 90’s (goat cheese lollipops, anyone?). Chef Tony Deluca wrote it in 2004 while at the helm of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Hillebrand Winery Restaurant (now Trius). Broken down by wine varietals, and further divided into seasons, it’s a cookbook I return to again and again for gorgeous recipes that look and taste masterful, but are absolutely manageable by any confident home cook.
While this recipe is heavily based on Tony Deluca’s, I’ve adapted to my own tastes over the years. He cooks the asparagus separately; I can’t be bothered. He adds potato, I’ve discovered it’s fine without it. I add miso for a little boost of umami, likely an ingredient almost impossible to find in Ontario in the early aughts. I also toss in fennel seed for a wink of herbal brightness. Chef Deluca does not.
With veg stock this is vegetarian, though I have also made it vegan by using quality non-dairy milk.
I hope these tweaks are enough to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit. Better print this one off quickly, lest my cease-and-desist letter arrives promptly.
Also, a reminder I really wanted to make this look pretty for you to download or print out. However, I drink for a living and I don’t really know how to create PDF’s (work in progress), so the ingredients are on Page 1, and the instructions on Page 2.
Asparagus Salad
This is truly a no-recipe recipe.
Sometimes, I’ve served simply steamed asparagus with no more than a sprinkling of lemon zest, a drizzle of good olive oil and a blob of fresh burrata.
Sometimes, I make a more composed salad with romaine or Bibb lettuce, red onion, radish and capers.
It all depends on my mood, which works well for spring whimsy.
Asparagus & Smoked Chicken Linguine in Lemon Cream
I should call this recipe, “what to do when you have an enormous amount of smoked chicken.”
My current cooking course assigned a recipe for buttercup squash gnocchi with smoked chicken, ricotta, and lemon-sage cream sauce. A decidedly autumnal dish, that I wasn’t interested in making again in the early heat of the season. (Also ricotta in cream sauce is not a wise idea: the whey doesn’t break down and just looks unappetizingly lumpy.)
Instead, I opted for indulgent mascarpone, and swapped the fall squash for spring asparagus.
If you can’t find – or don’t want to use – smoked chicken, regular roast chicken works just as well.
Asaparagus-O-Rama
As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m headed back to the kitchen to make another pot of that bisque. Like Depeche Mode said, I just can’t get enough. (This time, I’m making it with chicken stock, as I’ve run out of chickpea broth. If you missed my weekend note with my vague instructions for the recipe, it’s linked here.)
You can always scroll through my Instagram for ideas and recipes on asparagus tart, risotto, and ravioli. (If you’d like recipes for any of those, let me know.)
But should that be quite enough asaparagus, a quick and easy carbonara always does the trick.
That recipe is below.
PS – If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it with the party hosts you know. And, if you don’t know anyone, simply giving this a little heart will let me know you like this kind of thing. And if you really want to go crazy, let me know your thought in the comments below.
I’m grateful for your time and attention.
