If you're concerned about timing issues when it comes to cooking or if you just want to quickly put something healthy and good on the table, this simple recipe is for you. I purchased and prepped way too much food for our Tet feast on Tuesday night, and among the leftovers was a pound of asparagus. Not knowing what to do, I parboiled them in lots of salted water and kept them refrigerated. Why? Because prepping asparagus up to that point allows you to do whatever you want to them at the last moment. For example, you can add them to an omelet, toss them in a salad, stir-fry them with a little oyster sauce or coat the green spears in a little rich and savory-sweet dressing.
For lunch today, I took the last approach for this recipe, which is from Shandong province in northern China. The dressing is seriously fast and easy. I have no qualms about admitting that I borrowed this idea from The Seventh Daughter, an engaging and informative cookbook by legendary San Francisco restaurateur Cecilia Chiang of the Mandarin.
Prep and boil the asparagus days in advance and add the dressing before serving. I coated the asparagus with the dressing and ate some around 1pm, keeping the rest at room temperature for hours for dinner around 7pm. The six-hour wait made the asparagus a tad dark and salty but still good. My guess is that you can keep them at room temperature, already coated in the dressing for up to 2 hours. My husband didn’t complain as he ate up all the asparagus.
Serves 4
1 pound medium asparagus spears
Salt
1 tablespoon sesame oil
4 teaspoons light (regular) soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon toasted hulled (white) sesame seeds
1. Use your fingers to snap off the woody ends of each asparagus spear. If they are short (around 4 inches long) like the ones I bought, keep them that length. Otherwise, cut them on the diagonal into dramatic 2 inch lengths.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. While the water heats up, ready a large bowl of ice water and set it near the stove.
3. Add all the asparagus to the boiling water and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until bright green and crisp tender. Eat one to make sure.
4. Drain in a colander, then immediately transfer to the ice water bath to cool. Drain again, pat the asparagus dry with paper towel or a dishtowel, then set aside in a bowl or plastic zip-top bag. Refrigerate for up to 2 days.
5. For the dressing, combine the sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar in a bowl, stirring or whisking to dissolve the sugar. Taste and make sure the flavor is balanced between being rich, salty and sweet. About 2 hours before serving, toss the asparagus in the dressing and set aside for the seasonings to penetrate. Right before serving, transfer to a plate and garnish with a shower of sesame seeds.
Serving suggestion:
If it was barbecue season, I’d grill some of the Vietnamese lemongrass pork and add the dressed asparagus to the grill at the last moment, searing them for about 30 seconds on high heat. Large asparagus spears would work best and kept intact as whole spears. The asparagus and pork would be a great combination on a plate.
Dave -nibbleanibble says
Looks simple enough. The way I like it.
TripleScoop says
Sounds nice and easy and the picture is mouthwatering. I'll have to try this one night. Thanks for the tip
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks -- this asparagus dish reflected my speed this week, after Tet and all... Glad you like it!
Rotisserie Chicken Recipe says
This Recipe pic doesn`t look so great 🙁
Rotisserie Chicken Recipe says
This recipe pic doesn`t look so great
Ohiogirl says
Looks excellent!
Simple to make but with a flavor that should be lovely! I'm going to try it.
And I like the pic : )
Kirsten says
This looks great. I do something similar with asparagus and other vegetables. I sautee the veggies in a small amount of olive oil, when they are close to being done, I throw a splash of Ponzu sauce in the hot pan (I use that instead of soy sauce because it is a little lower in salt). Quickly stir the veggies while the sauce evaporates (happens fast with a hot pan). Then I turn off the heat, drizzle the veggies with sesame oil, and sprinkle on the sesame seeds. I always get compliments with this. I do like your make ahead approach! I love sesame oil!
cups and cakes says
if you grind the toasted sesame seeds and mix them into the dressing (and omit the sesame oil), you basically have a japanese gomaae! i make this all the time using any green veggie (spinach, broccoli, asparagus). yum!
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=772554672 says
Interesting. Sadly, there will be no local green asparagus until April. This recipe sounds good and I prefer green asparagus made in a simple way like this to the (cheaper) Bavarian white asparagus made in some drown-all-semblance-of-vegetable way, as it usually is.
My apologies for the following totally off topic question, but we got back from Vietnam recently where we had stayed overnight in Hai Phong and had Banh Da Cua Hai Phong. Banh Da Cua are mung bean fettucini and have a lovely texture. I can get them in the local Vietnamese markets. While I can make a guess to the veggies in the dish, I have no idea what went in the broth or fishcakey bits. It is seriously my favorite noodle soup dish I had in Vietnam (and yes, that IS saying a lot). I cannot find a recipe for it online in English (and am even having trouble finding one in Vietnamese, partly due to weird Vietnamese web site behavior) and was hoping you could help. I realize Hai Phong is well outside your balliwick.
If I can somehow get a recipe from one of the Czech Vietnamese here, many of whom come from near Hai Phong, I'd be happy to send you a link. My Czech is worse than most of theirs, which in the older generation isn't very good, and their English is about as good as my Vietnamese. (hello, goodbye, thank you)
mutfak says
nefis bunlar
Andrea Nguyen says
Rotisserie Chicken Recipe -- please offer comments that contain more detail. That would be helpful and substantiate your reaction.
Kirsten and cups and cakes: Great ideas. I was wondering about some Japanese takes on asparagus -- particularly grinding the sesame seeds up for a rich flavor!
Czech -- I believe that there is onion, crab stock, tomato, fish sauce, and mam tom (shrimp paste). Then there there should be a raft of finely ground crab. Se the crab and shrimp noodles soup (bun rieu cua tom) in my book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Substitute your banh da noodle for the rice noodles.
Lisa says
I love asparagus -- this recipe looks wonderful!
r4 gold says
Asparagus with Soy.....its sounds testy!!I like Asparagus but with different recipe so now I will try this today and have a some different spicy test sure.Thanks Mem!
Tuyet says
I made this the other night with Vietnamese lemongrass pork. It was delicious! The recipe was very easy to make. I used the same dressing for steamed vegetables as well. Thanks for the great recipe!
Amy says
Yum, that looks great! I lent my copy of your book to a friend & I'm wishing I had it back already!
Danielle says
Great job! Thanks.
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Sesame Sauce says
Lovely and healthy looking recipe for asparagus lovers.
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Mutfak Modelleri says
great article and i love Soy with Sauce
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I purchased and prepped way too much food for our Tet feast on Tuesday night, and among the leftovers was a pound of asparagus. Not knowing what to do, I parboiled them in lots of salted water and kept them refrigerated. Why? Because prepping asparagus up to that point allows you to do whatever you want to them at the last moment. For example, you can add them to an omelet, toss them in a salad, Job Summary: Responsible for the creation of the fifty page quarterly journal, incadfluding receipt of submissions, choices for publication, copy editing, page layout, transmission to the printer, index creation, and production of PDFs for the web. Reports periodically to the IGS Board and the Publications Committee.
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if you grind the toasted sesame seeds and mix them into the dressing (and omit the sesame oil), you basically have a japanese gomaae! i make this all the time using any green veggie (spinach, broccoli, asparagus). yum!
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