March 30, 2013
Know all those dyed hardboiled eggs you have sitting in the fridge? Well, come Easter some can go on your table and then grab one or two to take your asparagus to a new level in just a minute. The eggs and asparagus are an egg-cellent (sorry, could not resist) pairing, this tastes delicious. With grilling, you blister the skin of the asparagus, resulting in a great nuttiness while keeping a good crunch. This is a great dish for entertaining because it can be served at room temperature.
Serves 4 – 6
For this preparation, you always want to find the thickest possible stems with tightest flowers. If you use the skinny kind, your cooked asparagus will get stringy and limp.A quick tip to figure out where to cut your asparagus is to hold a stem and grab the head or flower tip and the end of the stem then snap it in two by hand. If you do this, rather than cutting it with a knife, the stalk’s woody stems will naturally separate from the part you want to eat.
2 bunches of asparagus, woody ends trimmed
2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher salt
For the garnish:
1 hard boiled egg
Best quality olive oil
Sea salt and cracked pepper
Set your two burners on low or simmer and place your grill pan on top of them. Then, crank up the heat to medium high. If you turn up your burners to high and then set your grill pan on after, you might end up searing the hair off your arms.
Prepare the asparagus spears and place them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of oil and two healthy pinches of salt.
Move the spears around to coat all of the veggies with the olive oil and salt. Once the pan is smoking, transfer your asparagus to the grill pan and cook until the asparagus skins blister, turning with tongs from time to time. If your pan is hot enough this should only take 3-5 minutes.
Arrange asparagus on serving platter and then using a box grater, grate the hardboiled egg evenly over the veggies. Finish with a drizzle of best quality olive oil and serve.
