Steam Sauteed Asparagus

It's spring! It's asparagus season! I'm waiting patiently* for my first CSA share of the year from Crown Point, and the big bunch of asparagus it usually contains.
That is...not very patiently. I share my CSA with my friend Pam, and I'm letting her get the first week's share. She got us into the CSA, so fair's fair. As a result, I have to wait an extra week for my first CSA box. Hurry up!

While I was waiting, I got a surprise gift. Our backyard garden has finally produced asparagus! We planted the asparagus two years ago, and had to wait until this year to get anything from it. Diane proudly presented me with...two asparagus spears.
By We, I mean my lovely wife, Diane. She does all the gardening around here. I built some Square Foot Gardening boxes for her to use a few years ago, stood back, and she took off with the rest.

I had to go to the grocery store to satisfy my spring asparagus cravings. Here's the recipe I use for a quick, weeknight side dish of asparagus, following the steam-saute technique from Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book.
How many more days until my CSA box arrives?

Recipe: Steam Sauteed Asparagus

Equipment:

• Wide saucepan or fry pan with a lid

Ingredients:

• 1 pound asparagus, stem ends snapped off at the tough part (see notes)
• ½ cup water
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (optional, but the asparagus is pretty plain without it)

Directions:
1. Steam the Asparagus: Put the asparagus in the pan. Add ½ cup water, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon ground pepper, and 1 tablespoon oil or butter. Cover the pan, and put over medium-high heat. Wait for the water to come to a boil, then cook, covered, for 5 minutes (for thin asparagus) to 10 minutes (for really thick asparagus).

2. Saute the Asparagus: Remove the lid, and cook, tossing the asparagus occasionally to rotate new spears to the bottom of the pan. Keep cooking until all the remaining water boils off, the asparagus is tender, and it is just starting to brown. This will take another 2-3 minutes.
*The asparagus will start to sizzle in the pan once all the water is boiled out, because all that is left in the pan is fat. That's when the saute part actually starts. I test for doneness by biting into a spear as a test. Depending on how you like your asparagus cooked, it should either have just a hint of crunch to it, or it should be perfectly tender.
**I like mine with just a bit of crunch.

Variations:
*Garlic: Add a minced clove of garlic (or two) with the asparagus and other ingredients.

*Citrus: Add a tablespoon of citrus zest to the asparagus after you're done cooking - I like both orange and lemon zests for this.

*Vinaigrette: Skip the butter, and when you're done pour a vinaigrette over the asparagus.

Notes:
*Traditionally, you should snap the bottom off of every spear of asparagus to remove the tough bottom part of the spear. That's too time consuming for me. Here's how I trim asparagus, the quick weeknight way. Take the bunch of asparagus, and remove the bottom rubber band, leaving the top rubber band on the bunch to hold it together. Now, pick a spear on the top of the bunch, grab it in the middle (without removing it from the bunch), and snap off the bottom of the spear. This gives you a guide mark - use a chef's knife, and cut the entire bunch where that spear snapped.
*Or, do what I did in the pictures to make it easier to see - remove the one spear, and line it up with the top of the bunch after it's snapped to see where your guide line is.

One spear snapped as a guide

...and the rest of the bunch is done with one chop!

What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Related Posts:
Some of my other favorite vegetable side dishes are Grilled Asparagus, Steam Sauteed Green Beans, Steam Sauteed Leeks, and Cast Iron Brussels Sprouts.

Adapted from:
Pam Anderson: How to Cook Without a Book

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