Asparagus

Stephen Crossman at Withycombe asparagus

I haven’t been going out much. In fact, for more than 50 days now I’ve hardly been anywhere outside my valley - but one trip I am intending to make is over the Withycombe to buy some of Steve Crossman’s wonderful asparagus.

Fresh asparagus represents one of the crowning glories of the English food year, and the season is about to come to an end - but there is still just time to get out there and buy some bunches of the good stuff here in the West Country.

Grab it while you can, I say. No other vegetable offers you quite such a bang for your bucks. It might not be the cheapest green item at the greengrocer’s, but it does offer good value for money if you value flavour over weight.

A little bit of asparagus goes a long way, especially if you ignore all previous advice and utilise those woody stalks that people normally throw in the compost. A modern high powered blender - of even better one of those extremely gutsy smoothie-making machines - will knock seven bells out of those stalks so that you can use the resultant puree to flavour stocks for soups or risottos.

All you do is whizz the stalks up in some water, or perhaps a mix of full cream milk and water, then bung it all in a saucepan with other flavourings. If I am making a spring or summer soup then I’ll use up offcuts from my organic veg box - things like chopped cauliflower or cabbage stalks, carrot tops, onion sprouts and so on - all go to make a glorious vegetable stock and can be whizzed up in the same machine. 

The important thing is to pass the finished slow-cooked stock through a fine sieve to extract any woody bits, and you are ready to begin making a light summer soup or a nice fresh seasonal risotto.

Asparagus salad

For a pure and simple asparagus soup, I’d leave out the other offcuts, but I would I fry some new-season onion and garlic chopped fine until it is just cooked through, then add the little green cylinders snipped from the rest of the asparagus stalk above the woody bit. However, I keep back the plump and tender tips until just before serving. 

You can add a little flour if you want to make a weak roux which will thicken your soup a bit, then start adding that magical, homemade, stock - which actually should have the ability to thicken the soup on its own. I also bung in some good local cream. 

Season all this as you go and add the precious tips just a couple of minutes from the end - and you should end up with an asparagus soup that will match anything you’d see in a top restaurant. 

Asparagus shed at Withycombe

It’s all about keeping things simple when it comes to asparagus. Why would you want  to add anything else? When I serve it as vegetable, all I add is butter and maybe just a little pepper and salt with the tiniest squeeze of lemon. 

And if I’m just spoiling myself and my wife, I’ll go for a plain bowl of the stuff - no cutlery, just fingers, a napkin and a glass of dry but fruity white wine.  Perhaps the most simple and best way to prepare asparagus of them all is simply to put the asparagus into a roasting tin, pour a little olive oil over it with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Shake and roast for a dozen or so 15 minutes - and prepare yourself for one of those sensual, voluptuous, experiences which make life worth living.

“Don’t buy asparagus unless you can hear it squeak,” I was told by West Somerset asparagus farmer Stephen Crossman. “That’s the best way to tell if it’s fresh. With the best will in the world, the stuff from places like Spain cannot be as fresh as this.”

Cornish chef David Williams once told me: “I would say Cornish asparagus tastes better than any I’ve cooked with in any other place. Asparagus seems to have a natural affinity with the sea and the coast - for example, the asparagus we used when I worked in one of the world's top Michelin starred restaurants, in Paris, came from the coast at Normandy. But I’d say this local Cornish version is better.”

Fresh asparagus pizza

For decades the main British crop was grown in and around the Vale of Evesham before cheap air freight saw it being imported in huge quantities from Peru, which is the world’s largest exporter of asparagus. But in recent years more and more farmers have begun nurturing the difficult to grow spears here in the West Country. 

“Peruvian asparagus you can get all year round nowadays, but in my opinion it is entirely without flavour,” said Mr Williams. “I know it is difficult to grow here and that farmers sometimes get just a few weeks harvest out of their crop - but the Cornish asparagus is far superior. You have to treat it with respect - for example it should be stored like a flower, standing up.

Stephen Crossman examining last year’s asparagus

Asparagus sizes range from slender, young ‘sprue’ to thicker-stemmed, jumbo-sized pears - and some farmers refer to misshapen stems as ‘kitchen’ grade. It is an expensive crop for growers to produce as it takes about three years for asparagus plants to become established, and even longer to reach a fully productive state.

It was the Romans who first brought asparagus to Britain with the Romans and for a long while it did thrive in certain coastal corners of the country as a wild plant. It has a high tolerance of sandy, salty soil and will grow along riverbanks, shores of lakes, and coastlines - which is why some horticulturalists believe it was originally a coastal plant. A few swear that adding a dose of salt to ground when preparing it to plant the crowns helps the spears to mature more quickly and firmly.

Right tool for harvesting aspargus

In the past couple of years asparagus has become so popular in Britain that major supermarkets have been putting money into new high quality, early season varieties that can be grown in this country. One, called Jubilee, has won plaudits from foodies for its distinctive flavour.

But many chefs have an unshakeable belief that the West Country spears are best. “If you really want to get the full flavour from the very freshest local asparagus, don't cook it,” David Williams advised. “My favoured way to eat it is raw - I simply use a veg-peeler to take off the thin but fairly hard skin and then put the thin spears in salt and olive oil for five minutes. This has the affect of almost 'cooking' it, but it will give you the ultimate asparagus flavour…"