Deep Fried Asparagus & A Restaurant Style Omelet

You may know this, but the tops of the asparagus spears are the lateral branches and ferns before they have opened up.

As they grow taller, the distance between the laterals increases, then they become branches and produce the ferns on the ends.

I picked ours hard this week and as I mentioned in the previous asparagus post, the first use for them was deep-frying using the same batter recipe as for our fish with a couple of adjustments.

Deep-Fried Asparagus

Ingredients:

22 asparagus spears

5 oz. cups very cold beer (Yuengling for me)

1 small egg

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

2 1/2 teaspoons seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay

½ tsp. baking powder

dash salt

dash ground black pepper

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for coating fish

Oil for frying

Directions:

1. Prep asparagus spears and rinse.

2. Pour beer into a large bowl. Add egg, garlic powder, onion powder, seafood seasoning, baking powder, salt, pepper and cayenne, then add cornstarch. Whisk in flour until batter is smooth and thick (like pancake batter).

3. Heat oil in a skillet to 350 degrees F.

4. Lightly flour each piece of asparagus, then dip in beer batter and fry until crispy and golden brown, about 4 minutes.

The Verdict:

They were delicious, with a good taste and tempura type batter but I think it could have been a little thicker.  But they must have been good as we ate them all as our entire meal – ranch dressing on the side as dipping sauce - and never got to the planned brisket.

Omelet

Surprisingly, some of the asparagus stems were tender well past the length that would fit into my 12" pan so I saved them for an omelet.  When you order a restaurant omelet, it is often cooked on a flat top which results in the eggs spreading out a good bit requiring a double fold and I opted to make mine that way.

I first sliced the asparagus stems small and diced a slice of Kentucky Legend ham and sauteed them in butter to get them hot and the asparagus to crisp-tender.

For the cheese, I used Emmentaler which is the traditional variety when people say Swiss Cheese.  

Another common variety seen in our stores is Gruyere making these two of the 475 types of cheese produced in Switzerland.  The other variety normally found in our stores is Baby Swiss, which is a milder version that was developed in the USA by Guggisberg specifically for the American palette.

I removed the asparagus and ham from the 10” pan and added two beaten jumbo eggs, put the cheese down the middle along with the ham and asparagus, and topped with a lid.

When the top of the eggs was set, I slide it onto a plate and folded over both sides to get this delicious omelet.

We’ll likely pick the asparagus this week then call it a season after about eight weeks.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

05/02 & 5/03/23 meal dates