Asparagus boiled for 3-4 minutes then individually wrapped in Parma Ham, put into oven dish and cream poured on top of with some mustard or cheese or nothing added and then baked for 15-20 minutes
Due to having Gall Bladder removed couple of months ago I will not have the above this year but always next year
Sounds delicious - but only when I have become sick of 'simple' asparagus. I've never been able to satiate my desire for white asparagus (and green asparagus available in the UK - at least from local (shop) sources - tends to be 'woody' and only the tips are worth eating IMO. It's rather like fresh peaches and tinned peaches. I enjoy both (but to my liking they are different taste experiences).
stepping off-thread for a moment - racedo: Due to having Gall Bladder removed couple of months ago I will not have the above this year but always next year.
I had mine out and afterwards noticed no problems in eating fatty stuff. Chorizo sausage is about the only thing that accepts, sorry, upsets me (but still eat it anyway).
I believe that the gallbladder is redundent in most of us older folk, as by the time we are adults, our body has learned to produce bile etc at the (three) times of the day we usually eat and goes on making enough at the appropriate times after the gall bladder has gone.
So...back to asparagus. Yeah, I prefer the white stuff. Pretty much all you get around the Mediterranian, never the green.
Yeah, I prefer the white stuff. Pretty much all you get around the Mediterranian, never the green.
That's odd. My side of the Pyrenees (S. France, Montpellier area) we get more of the green than of the white variety. Since some of it is Spanish import, that may explain where yours is going.
Alors, ChristiaanJ, will check with my wife - she buys it. In fact she buys it at AUCHAN in Perpignan. So maybe, as my French colleagues told me all my working life, I am full of it, and not les asperges, either....
Ah well, back to the Calçots. You have to be a MAN to eat these !
LOL, OFSO... it was only coincidence that I did the shopping last week at our Carrefour, and saw that most of what was on sale were the green ones. A 'producteur local' of fruit and vegetables also sells them at the moment : again green only !
Check with the wife.
CJ
PS : I don't think calçots have made it north of the border yet...
My wife says you can find both white and green asparagus at Auchan. However here at Empuriabrava market (Saturday mornings) they mostly sell white because of the high German content of the local population, and that's what Germans prefer.
There is a very sensuous feeling eating both asparagus and calçots, but as a fastidious person I find it much easier to stay clean when eating the former. I usually feign incompetence when eating calçots and then some nearby female diner, overcome with impatience, comes over and peels them for me. Takes about 30 seconds - Catalan women - especially the prettier ones - have a low tolerance watching idiot men bungling the peeling of calçots and it brings out their motherly instinct. Nothing like a beautiful stranger of the opposite sex lowering a grilled calçot into your upturned mouth !
Two weeks ago in a restaurant at St Marti on the Bay of Roses we were having lunch when a party of six older French, 3 men, 3 ladies, came in and ordered Calçots. It was their first time. As usual in a "fine" restaurant, the waiter brought over all-embracing bibs, rubber gloves etc, for them to wear and left them to don their protective clothing.
Suddenly there was one hell of a bang - we looked around, and discovered that one of the French gentleman had blown into his rubber glove before putting it on, and had exploded it. A moment's pause and every one in the place collapsed in laughter.
Nice people. Nice place. Roaring log fire. Excellent food. Fifteen euros for a three course lunch including a bottle of Perelada and coffee.
Rossian, Try this : Time for Calçots! or try Wikipedia. Something between leek and onion, and clearly very local. Even here, only a coupla' hundred miles north, I've never heard of them or seen them.
We are just coming to the end of the Calçots season here, but it's worth coming to Catalunia one time during early spring and trying them. And for those frightened of vegeterian meals, calçots normally form part of a complete menu which includes a large amount of steak and so on.
As I said before, go to a nice restaurant, order calçots, look utterly pathetically incompetent eating them, and you'll have fun.
