Tabasco in your butter

DOMINI KEMP

FOOD: I’M BEING A bit bold sticking in a recipe for asparagus at the end of August, as the seasonal police will be out for my blood. But really it’s just an excuse to make this citrus and Tabasco butter.

It’s so tasty you will want to dunk all types of steamed vegetables into it and munch through your five a day.

British asparagus has a very short season and is well prized, but nowadays you can get asparagus all year round, mainly from Peru. However, eating imported asparagus in the middle of January doesn’t feel quite right.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of Irish asparagus available, ever, but I’d love to be proven wrong. If a grower is supplying shops with Irish asparagus, please let me know.

You rarely see the white varieties for sale here, so prized on the continent for their gastronomic qualities that they are known as “white gold”. They are grown under the soil, so don’t get that blast of chlorophyll that makes them green.

I can attest to their yumminess, having spent a week in Holland years ago, during which the annual asparagus festival was in full force. At every pub and restaurant around the country you could gorge yourself silly on asparagus, served up any way you can imagine.

After three solid days of bingeing on the stuff, I came down with a horrible tummy bug and couldn’t look at asparagus for nearly a year. Luckily I am over it now.

Asparagus seems to divide the population into those who suffer from asparagus pee and those who don’t. Seemingly, most of us produce what is commonly known as “asparagus pee”, but only half the population can smell it. It’s a chemical reaction that passes quickly enough, but one that jars with asparagus’s gourmet qualities, but is entirely in keeping with its diuretic qualities. Suffice to say if you mention “asparagus pee” as a conversation filler (or stopper), you may get blank stares.

Asparagus with citrus and Tabasco butter

Makes a large amount of butter, but it’s worth doing a big batch and then freezing any leftovers in cling film, which you could roll into a sausage shape and slice as you need it.

• 200g butter, soft
• 1 big tbsp Dijon mustard
• Zest juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange
• Sprinkling of sea salt
• Coarse black pepper
• 1 tbsp Tabasco sauce
• 6-8 asparagus spears per person

Mix the butter in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and chill until required.

Cook the asparagus or any veg (broccoli works great too) in plenty of boiling water until just cooked, then either toss immediately and eat with a good knob of the citrus butter, or else rinse the veg in cold water until you want to serve.

Then just heat up a big knob of butter in a saucepan and quickly sauté the veg until hot, and serve.

Chuck an extra knob of butter on top and call the cardiologist another time.

dkemp@irishtimes.com

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