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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Ingredients
- bunch of asparagus
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
Instructions
Snap the cut ends off the asparagus. Unless they are fresh-cut, asparagus stalks start losing moisture right away, and the end gets dry and woody.
Thread a wooden skewer through the stems about an inch from the cut end. Coat with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
Grill over a medium flame, turning frequently, until the color darkens to a deep olive, and the tips of the leaves are just starting to turn brown.
