The last time I grilled asparagus I used the grill pan. Someone pointed out in the comments that you can also do asparagus by threading them onto a wooden skewer. Well, I happen to have some wooden skewers, so I gave it a try. She was right, it works great.
Ingredients
bunch of asparagus
olive oil
salt & pepper
Directions
Snap the cut ends off, like I showed in the previous asparagus post, then sort them into thick and thin piles.
On the grill pan, you can turn each piece when it needs it and push the thin ones off to the the side as they’re done. When they’re on the skewers, you have to turn everything together. If everything on one skewer is closer to the same size, they’ll all cook at the same rate.
Pierce the stem about an inch from the snapped end.
NOT a half inch.
Yeah, “Oops.”
Push the stem all the way to the end of the skewer before threading the next one. You don’t want to try to slide several pieces down at the same time.
I was worried the the pencil-thin (and thinner) pieces would all split when I did them. But it turns out the point on the skewer separates the fibers and the skewer slides right through.
In the whole batch I only broke two stems.
Both of them, I tried to put the skewer in right next to one of the leaves. There’s a little bit of a “knuckle” in the stem at the leaves. I’m guessing the stem is less flexible there.
Cut the ends of the skewer off with kitchen shears. Don’t cut too close to the stems, or they might slide off when you turn them over.
Give them a generous coating of olive oil, then kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
Put the asparagus on a heated grill, with the stems perpendicular to the grill.
Turn the pieces over a couple of times until they start to brown just a little bit around the edges. Be careful as you’re nearly done. As they asparagus cooks, it gets softer. Which means it will tend to slide off the skewer. So flip them end over end, not side to side.
Set the finished asparagus back in the same plate you seasoned them in. This isn’t like meat, where you can’t use the same plate you brought the food to the grill with.
And that’s it.
Later this week, what do I like asparagus with? And what did I do differently to make it even better? But first, a trip to the farmers market to get some local produce for a delicious dessert.
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Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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4 Comments
Glad it worked. How embarrassed would I be if you tried and the skewers failed miserably!
Now you’ve got me craving grilled asparagus.
Cravings are good. How sad would it be going through life eating just because you had to?
I love the wooden skewer idea. I’ve lost way too many stalks to the hot coals and this method would surely prevent that. I’m a convert!
I’ve only lost a few, thanks to my grill pan. But even one is too many when you like it as much as I do.
BTW I left a comment on your flank steak recipe. That one’s a keeper.
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