asparagus, slowly cooked in oil

asparagus
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Intrigued by what I read on the NRC food-blog the other day, I decided to slowly cook asparagus in oil, instead of boiling them in water. The idea behind all this is that asparagus easily loses its delicate flavour to the water it is cooked in; but when cooked in oil on a slow simmer, the flavour stays inside the asparagus and it was said to turn out much tastier, with deeper flavour. The original recipe called for oil at 100C, and asparagus cooking in the oven in 100C oil and thermometers and all that, but I decided to give it a try in a large saute pan. I poured in about 1 litre of oil to about 10 asparagus, barely covering them. Warm the oil slowly and slip in the peeled asparagus. Keep on a slow fire for about 30 to 40 minutes, then the asparagus are done. Mine started to brown just a little bit, but after taking them out and sprinkling on some flaky sea salt, they turned out to be the tastiest asparagus I've ever had! The flavour is much more intense, sweeter somehow, and they don't taste oily (since they don't absorb the oil, they just cook in them). From now on, I will always keep an extra bottle of oil in my pantry, for this is really a brilliant way of cooking asparagus!! Don't forget to serve them with a mixture of boiled eggs and butter, the classic accompaniment to this dish.