EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ASPARAGUS (BUT REALLY EVERYTHING)

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: everything you want to know about asparagus.

We love asparagus, the queen of vegetables and one of the last true Dutch seasonal vegetables, and we always want to score the very best portions of white gold. But how do you recognize quality? And what about the green and purple sibling? And how do you prepare them in the most delicious way? We have the answers for you, including tips from experts.

Green, purple, and white
The most well-known regions where white asparagus from Dutch soil comes from are Limburg and Brabant. This has everything to do with the quality and composition of the soil that is ideal for growing asparagus in those regions. Belgium also has a reputation as an asparagus country. The Dutch variant is recognizable by a blue label on the packaging with the Dutch flag, which guarantees that they come from our soil.

Cultivation
White asparagus is ‘harvested’ (read: picked) while still underground. When the shoots come above ground, they turn green or purple. For white asparagus, the soil around the plant is raised about half a meter, so the shoot seeks its way up to the light. Harvesting is labor-intensive; each stalk must be individually located in the field and then cut underground to the right length by hand.

Film
Asparagus fields are often covered with film. The reason for this is to warm the soil, so the plant grows faster and yields more, and to prevent the tips from changing color. The season always ends on the same fixed day during the feast of St. John (June 24). The soil must recover for the rest of the year until the land is ready for a new round of asparagus harvesting. The above-ground plant, with woody stems and side branches, dies off in the autumn, but the underground parts hibernate and form new shoots again in the spring.

What does AAA mean?
Every year there is a race to see who has the first asparagus from the cold ground. Nout Tieleman had the first pick last year and also took the first honor this year; he discovered ripe stalks on his land on March 5, very early for this time of year. There were so few that the family ate them themselves. Now, about three weeks later, there are enough asparagus ripened to start selling. But the true connoisseur waits a few more weeks. Asparagus has the highest sugar content around the middle of the season and is then the tastiest. White asparagus is available in different thicknesses. For a white asparagus, you can best buy the thick A version (16-20 mm) or the AA version (20-28 mm). A true diehard goes for AAA (>28 mm), which are even thicker.

Price
Good quality asparagus comes with a hefty price tag. After all, cultivation is a lot of work and due to the short season, the supply is limited. You usually pay around €10 per kilo at the farmer, with a variation of about €5.

Green asparagus
Only three percent of green asparagus is grown on Dutch soil, the rest is all white. The purple version is even scarcer. The purple has a high sugar content and can be used raw in a salad, for example. Green asparagus is best cooked briefly, but is suitable for the same types of dishes as the rare purple ones. Especially in Mediterranean countries, colored asparagus is popular. Unlike white asparagus, you do not need to peel purple and green asparagus. Try this quick tagliatelle with green asparagus and goat cheese. Also delicious: green asparagus with cheese from the oven.

Tips and tricks
Titus Galema is the best asparagus grower in the country, as revealed a few years ago during the National Asparagus Harvesting Championship. We asked for his best tips so you can score the tastiest portion of white asparagus yourself.

If you want to be sure that your portion is fresh, buy them from a farmer nearby. ‘In the supermarket shelves, they don't look good: uncooled in crates and not in water. They actually go in water to keep them fresh longer.’

A nice asparagus is straight and the tip must be closed. The longer an asparagus grows above ground, the more the bracts at the tip will open. You don't want that, so also pay attention to the tip.

Climate also plays a role. Galema: ‘The more water it contains, the faster it grows and the less time the asparagus has had to develop flavor.’ There must be a good balance when it comes to water supply. Asparagus is therefore not suitable for mass production and needs time to become tastier.

Asparagus, how to make them the tastiest
Jan-Chris Krabbendam is an award-winning asparagus chef; his restaurant, Gasterij Krabbendam, has been named the best asparagus restaurant of 2018 by the Brabant Asparagus Society. He knows how to prepare that white gold. How to make asparagus the tastiest.

I peel asparagus with an old-fashioned potato peeler, this works great. Peel 25 times while turning the asparagus twice, so 12 times back and forth and then once more. And then: make grandma Kees' old-fashioned delicious asparagus. Don't throw away the peels, as they have a lot of flavor; use them in the soup (the end can also be pureed in the soup) or infuse them in oil. You can even fry them, then you have asparagus chips, delicious!

Frying; the new way to eat asparagus
If you want to fry your asparagus, you should not fully cook them, but bring the water to a boil and then let them cool. Then pat the asparagus dry, coat them in flour, then in some beaten egg, and then in finely crushed prawn crackers. You might not expect it, but it is really very tasty. You then get very nice, crispy asparagus with a bit of sweetness from the prawn crackers.

Also great: asparagus tempura from the Airfryer.