Asparagus Butter

Most of gardening is an amiable battle -we fight to get the plants growing, we fight to keep the weeds down, then we fight to get the plants  growing into the direction we want them growing in. Then we haul hoses and sprinklers from garden to garden keeping them alive. We feed them so they flourish and return to battle with us again tomorrow.

And here is our perfect reward.  A tiny, tiny first tomato. A harbinger in miniature.  Small enough for an ant to take home for dinner but big in encouragement.

The good thing about having a big noisy Sunday lunch (with the compound butter: recipe to follow)  is that I do not need to make a big noisy dinner so I spent a good deal of the late afternoon and evening pruning laterals from the tomatoes, removing the first low hanging flowers and tying them to their supports.

This year we have rows of cattle panels and T posts (waratah standards) driven into the ground to hold the cattle panels up these will support the tomatoes as they grow. 

The piglets have fun chasing the roosters, getting them back for pecking at them when they are little.

Yesterday I made an asparagus compound butter. Compound butters are very easy. There are a myriad of vegetables that can be cooked down and blended into a butter. Garlic butter is the most common.

I made asparagus butter to accompany the tiny roasted potatoes and crusty bread at lunch yesterday.

Asparagus Compound Butter:

Toast or pan fry (or steam) asparagus and garlic. Cook down the asparagus until it is soft and cook the garlic until toasty.. I let the garlic get a little browned to add that delicious spicy nutty goodness. You might want to blanch the garlic in milk which gives a subtler garlicy flavour  Add a good tablespoon of the home made well strained greek yogurt to the asparagus and garlic then blend it all together (I used my stick blender).

Once cooled slightly, whip this into half a pound of softened butter. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Transfer to the serving dish and chill.

So easy and so delicious and mine used up home grown asparagus, home made yogurt and home made butter.

I also made rhubarb and ginger chutney. Adapted from this recipe here.  This is wonderful on chicken. Or paired with goats cheese on thick slabs of fresh bread. The recipe is very simple. I use home grown rhubarb and home grown ginger.

I hope you have a lovely day.

celi

Weather Report: Sunny and hot. Windy later on.  Note the Northerly – a wind from the cool side of the skies.