Bonus: Asparagus

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0:44Sian Wyn Owen:So here we are. Tomorrow is the 1st of May. And we can see it already. The sun is shining. People are sitting outside. I think more people are sitting outside than inside. It does feel so different to be here, the light and the beauty of spring. And so with that, of course, we have all the different new vegetables that are coming in. And the one we're going to start with the first letter of the alphabet, I will start with the letter A, and we have asparagus. So I'm here with Sean Wynne-Owen and Joseph Trevelli, who are the executive chefs of the River Cafe, and we're going to talk about asparagus.

1:22Joseph Trivelli:Last week we had the first box of asparagus and Sian came over to me and she said to me, this is it, it's begun. I'm going to have asparagus every day. Didn't you? So, you know, she's eating asparagus every day, which I really like.

1:38Sian Wyn Owen:Yeah, because the season is so short. We've had the Italian asparagus has been here for about three weeks. So we've had Italian asparagus, then we've had the purple asparagus from Italy, haven't we?

1:48Joseph Trivelli:Not as keen on the purple asparagus. What do you think?

1:51Sian Wyn Owen:I mean I like all asparagus then you're going into white asparagus from France and then when you get to now May we're getting right into English asparagus season which is literally a reason why it is one of the most famous products

2:07Joseph Trivelli:I always thought growing up in the south east of England there was a few seasons that you know you seem to really stick by you know like I mean even in the supermarket really sticks by and one is everyone knows you get asparagus from us Peru all year round but there was like when it was British asparagus season you could really tell and it was the same with strawberries and we just kind of like whatever else was happening they were the things that we only had in season because they're just so much better.

2:33Sian Wyn Owen:Now why don't we tell the people who are listening what to look for if they are buying asparagus if they're going to a shop or they're going to a market what would you look for when you're choosing asparagus?

2:44Joseph Trivelli:Do you know what I do when I go to the supermarket to buy asparagus? I always just rummage to the bottom and get the packet at the bottom because I assume they put the one that, you know, and what you want is the newest one, the freshest one, you know, the snappiest one.

2:59Sian Wyn Owen:Ideally, you want the spears to be firm, not too bendy. You want that noise. I always think when you do it with your hands, you hear that little snap. And if there isn't that snap, then you sort of know that they're not. Let's talk about peeling them. The white, yeah.

3:15Joseph Trivelli:Yeah, all the way from the top and quite a lot because the skin is really bitter. Like sometimes I come in and the new chef saved me all the skins to like put in a stock or something. And I wouldn't put them in a stock. No. They don't taste good, you know. And you don't have to snap them because they've been grown, you know, in the dark or whatever. So you can pretty much eat the whole thing. So I just peel them really carefully all the way down and just cut the very end off.

3:38Sian Wyn Owen:I think white asparagus is a bit of an acquired taste though. No. It's not. It's very different. Yeah. I lived in Paris. I remember a friend of mine's birthday was on May 12th. And it was like, will they get here by May 12th? Because we always wanted them for his birthday. So I always had that date in my mind, May 12th, as having white asparagus. So what about a recipe for asparagus? Which one do we want to give everyone? So you've got the banyakoudas. So sometimes we do asparagus with like an anchovy and butter sauce, which can have either Nebbiola or Prosecco in it, which is really like buttery, alcoholic and salty.

4:16Sian Wyn Owen:So it kind of ticks a lot of boxes. Or you can do an anchovy butter. Yeah, that's really nice. Or you beat anchovies to soft butter. I love that. Yeah. Well, I love butter. And, you know, when you think about how traditionally they put melted butter on, you know, or whatever, butter sauce, and then you actually heat the asparagus and then you have this lump butter which just melts as you're eating it. or maybe doesn't melt. You know, I like to get it before it actually melts and just have the butter. Batarga butter. Batarga butter. Yeah, that's the winner. Soft butter with grated Batarga, a little tiny bit of lemon juice, black pepper.

4:53Joseph Trivelli:You need a lot of Batarga. It's very fancy. Yeah. It's really good.

4:56Sian Wyn Owen:Very fancy. And then the other one, which is, because we all cook together so much, we all go in and out of things that we love. But the asparagus with fonduta. So the fonduta is a sauce. The cool thing about the recipe that's in the River Cafe Green cookbook is it's actually a recipe for pasta sauce, isn't it? And it's called fondue. It's made out of creme fraiche and parmesan and egg yolks. And I think in the recipe, it actually said to rub the bowl with one garlic clove, doesn't it?

5:31Joseph Trivelli:Yeah.

5:31Sian Wyn Owen:And then you cook out this eggy, creamy mixture over hot water till it thickens. and then what I think is really nice is just put a bit of that on the plate with the asparagus spears on top nothing else and it's just so elegant it's so delicious it's beautiful as well the green and the asparagus and the yellow but it is, it's very Italian as well but in the book we have the asparagus and we cut the asparagus into pieces small pieces, very thin pieces then we mix that with tagliatelle and then the fondue which is the cheesy sauce

6:05Joseph Trivelli:that is also really it's also really good yeah and not to be overlooked and there's that other asparagus um pasta sauce that i think the originally the recipe came from the wild asparagus in the book it's called a la boscaiola and it's kind of the idea it's got all the herbs and the idea of walking through the woods you know in tuscany or something and finding wild asparagus you know and the herbs around and just chopping them all up and just cooking them very simply and pudding with pasta is also really delicious.

6:36Sian Wyn Owen:I think you did Dover sole today with white asparagus, did you? Yeah, I did. That's nice. Yeah, I can see that. I like to have just a plain Dover sole with some oregano and lemon, just wood roasted, just simple on a plate. And then on a side plate have some white asparagus that we just boil before service and then roast it with, not in the same pan as sole, but wood roast it. Nice. And on a side plate. So you can just eat two really good things. Yeah, two really good things. But you don't have to like can eat them separately. Or together. You're so liberal. I know. Okay, well, we are welcome to asparagus.

7:12Sian Wyn Owen:Welcome to May. And thank you.

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