All asparagus! | The Press

It is one of the first field vegetables in Quebec to come out of the ground each spring. And if very few people go to asparagus as we go to strawberries or apples for U-pick, the plant with long fleshy buds, called turions, has its share of followers who do not hesitate to go and get their bouquets directly at the farm.

Simon Chabot
The Press

Asparagus is benefiting from the craze for local foods that has emerged in the wake of the “Grand Confinement” of 2020. “The year of the pandemic, we had 35% more people on the farm” , says Nicole Saint-Jean, co-owner of La sublime asperge, in Saint-Aimé, south of Sorel, in Montérégie. “It looks like people, who couldn’t go on a trip, were walking around the countryside and coming to buy asparagus from us. Last year, it held up pretty well. »

France Droulers, owner of the Biophile farm in Saint-Anicet, not far from the New York State border, has observed the same enthusiasm for several years. “People come because they know that the asparagus sold in the kiosk was cut that morning,” she says.

Busy amateurs

Already at the end of April, regulars showed up — in vain — at the kiosk in the hope of biting into some very juicy asparagus. The first harvests at the certified organic farm since 1994 should take place these days.

If the weather forecast is correct, the bourgeoises, young ladies and pitchounettes (named according to their size) from La sublime asperge will appear on the shelves around May 15, roughly on time, despite a fairly late spring this year.

The farm’s customers include more than 80 Montreal restaurants, including Toqué!, Maison Boulud, Elena and Le Mousso, which buy about a third of the 100,000 lb production. “Our asparagus are highly appreciated for their sweeter taste and less fibrous texture,” explains Ms.^me Saint Jean. We cultivate in less sandy soil than in Lanaudière, which is perhaps what explains these particular qualities. »

“I have a lot of comments from customers who tell me that they have never eaten such tasty asparagus,” observes France Droulers, who also cultivates land that is not very sandy.

A better known vegetable

At the LMR horticultural farm, which produces La belle verte asparagus on 30 hectares in Saint-Liguori, in Lanaudière (where asparagus has often replaced tobacco in the fields), farm sales remain marginal. Most of the production is sold in the major grocery chains in Quebec and Ontario. “We’ve been making asparagus for 30 years,” says co-owner Suzanne Mercille. We started selling on the farm because people asked us to. »

Quebecers know this spring vegetable better and better, notes Ms.^me Thank you. “In the past, people always wanted to have small asparagus, believing that it was the most tender,” she says. But no, it’s the bigger one that’s tender. »

If asparagus plants can produce for 20 years, and even a little more, harvesting the vegetable remains physically demanding. For the moment, in Quebec, everything is done manually, for lack of technology capable of cutting only the spears that have reached the right size, each day, in each row.

“It gives us energy to see that our products are loved,” notes Nicole Saint-Jean, who is delighted to see two of her daughters about to take over. “To think that in the 1980s, our neighbor had all the trouble in the world selling hers, at a discount and almost only to Italians in Montreal…”

Featured asparagus

Mathieu Masson-Duceppe, chef and owner of Jellyfish and PubJelly in Old Montreal, likes to feature vegetables in his dishes. So we asked him to work with asparagus, a challenge he took up with enthusiasm. “I prepared a plate to put in the center of the table for brunch, lunch or as an accompaniment to grilled meats,” says the chef, who is taking part in the third season of Food Network’s Fire Masters this spring. I really followed my desires of the moment…”

Quebec asparagus with Halloumi, labneh grebiche sauce, candied cherry tomatoes, eggs and zaatar

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 15 fresh asparagus
• 400g halloumi cheese
• 400ml labneh
• 3 eggs
• 200ml chopped almonds
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 150 ml old-fashioned Dijon mustard
• 100ml chopped parsley
• 100ml chopped dill
• 50 ml of zaatar (mix of spices)
• 1 bunch of cherry tomatoes
• 100ml spiced honey
• 200ml olive oil
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• flower of salt
• Pepper

Preparation

• 1. Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F).
• 2. Lightly peel the base of the asparagus (no more than half). Blanch in salted water for 1 minute, then cool immediately in ice water. Dry and set aside.
• 3. Cook two eggs in boiling water for 5 minutes, then immediately cool in ice water. Peel and finely chop the eggs.
• 4. Prepare the sauce gribiche style in a mixing bowl. Mix the labneh, eggs, almonds, shallot, mustard, parsley, dill, half the zaatar, a little fleur de sel, pepper, and 100 ml of olive oil. To book.
• 5. Oil the bunch of cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet, then roast for 5 minutes. To book.
• 6. Separate the piece of halloumi cheese into 4 equal slices. Fry them until they are golden brown on each side. To book.
• 7. Cook 1 sunny-side-up egg in the pan, making sure the yolk remains runny. To book.

Assembly

• 8. Arrange the asparagus in a large serving platter. Brush them with a little olive oil. Salt, pepper and add the lemon zest.
• 9. Arrange the bunch of cherry tomatoes, the halloumi slices, the gribiche sauce and the egg in the serving dish. Sprinkle everything with the rest of the zaatar and spiced honey (you can also use regular honey and add a little chilli on the plate). Taste.

Store fresh asparagus

To keep his asparagus crisp and juicy, chef Mathieu Masson-Duceppe keeps them upright in the fridge, stripped of their rubber bands and wrapped in a slightly damp paper towel, in an empty yogurt dish with a little water. basically. “That way they can stay beautiful for a really long time,” he says. Sometimes they even look better than at the supermarket after a night like that in the fridge. »