Thursday, June 14, 2012

Germany's most favourite spring food: asparagus

In light of recent events I will delay my stories about the place where the wild things are and will turn to some more urgent food matters.

Germany’s favourite spring food is white asparagus. There is no region where they don’t have a special asparagus which is so much better than all the one from all the other areas in Germany. Even I, who am not very fond of white asparagus, have to prepare some dishes now and then; this year I made everything thinkable: from asparagus with pancakes and sauce hollandaise over asparagus lasagna and asparagus pesto to asparagus salad.  But these two recipes were my favourites from this season. The first one is a recipe from Pflanzenlust Blog. It is actually a very simple recipe, but with an astonishing twist. The asparagus is seasoned with salt and then tightly wrapped in baking paper with some butter/margarine and lemon slices. After 15-20 min in the oven it is ready and believe me, quite explosive to your taste buds. The sauce is made from a large cooked floury potato mixed with half oat milk and vegetable broth and fresh herbs (I used wild garlic). I served it with potatoes and a vegan 'schnitzel' for P and C.



The second one is an old friend, a recipe I posted some time ago on my blog. This time I used linguine, added some semi-dried tomatoes and used lemon instead of lime.


But back to the recent event. On June, 24th there is Midsummer's eve or Johanni (St. John's eve) and with it ends the asparagus season. 
Which isn't that bad at all. We had plenty of time to eat white and green asparagus and now new delights are ready to be transformed into delicious meals. Since it is a very old holiday which, being a festival of the sun (summer solstice), goes back beyond the Iron Age and consists of feasting (there is an abundance of food right now and in Sweden herring is also important with the fishing season in the Baltic Sea from March to April therefore even by putting it in brine it has to go now), drinking (the wine and beer cellars had to be cleared for the next harvest) and being merry (the month of March was thought to be especially favourable for giving birth). The Christian church tried to take away all these heathen happiness and made Midsummer the day for the celebration of the birth of St. John the baptist. Often the church forbade poles, bonfires, dancing, and drinking at this time of the year. However, as you can see from this IKEA video their efforts were in vain:



 
So if you are preparing a special dish for Midsummer's eve, please let me know and I will tell you
mine :)
 

5 comments:

  1. I love asparagus but my husband does not. ; ~ (

    I once had the most delicious I ever tasted in Germany! In England we eat it green but I noted that in Germany it was a pale colour and the taste much richer.

    I have no special dish for Midsummer, but I hope the 'little people' leave me some fairy cakes! x

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    1. I actually prefer the green one, but my hubby is a 120 % German and loves his white asparagus :) but come over for next year's season and have some more white asparagus :)

      I wouldn't trust the fairies too much especially not during such a rainy summer :))

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  2. deine Seite ist super :D. Ich finds super dass du japanisch (sugoi!), englisch und deutsch kannst ^^. Würde am liebsten mit dir in Kontakt treten^^.

    Also das freudvolles Spargelessen :D. Ich dachte erst das sind Restaurantbilder xD. Sieht echt lecker aus ^^!

    Liebe Grüßa Asia

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    1. Oh danke für das nette Lob ^.^
      Dass ich dein Blog ebenso schätze hast du ja wohl an meiner blog roll gesehen *hehe*

      Nun bin ich nicht wirklich ein Kochblog, und bei japanisch darfst du mich keine Kanji abfragen, aber beschnuppern kann man mich auf facebook (Torwen Ba)

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    2. ja hab´s gemerkt ^-^ bist eine der ersten die ihn schätzen ^^° hab keine ahnung wie man einen blog bekannt macht.
      Ob kochblog oder nicht, ist mir egal du spricht english und japanisch *.* und kannst toll vegan kochen ^^ das macht dich schon mal sympathisch :D.
      naja ich kann abgesehen von "zannen nagara wastashi wa nihongo de hanasemansen" nicht viel xD, also beneide ich jeden der mehr kann xD.
      hab kein facebook ^^° aber studivz, keine ahnung ob du da drinn bist, ^^ eher nciht wenn du in den usa bist ^^°

      Liebe Grüße :D

      Asia

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