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.
Monday 06/05 10% / 0 inPlentiful sunshine. High 87F. N winds at 5 to 10 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph.
Monday Night 06/05 10% / 0 inClear skies. Low 51F. NNE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph.
28 Comments on “Asparagus Butter”
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That sounds like delicious butter, especially with the garlic 🙂
Yes, that garlic lifts the butter.. c
Do you use the stems or the roots of your ginger, or both? Do you grow it in regular garden soil, or at the edge of water? In late spring I go down the aisles of the local ethnic groceries and bring home any roots I think might sprout — ginger, turmeric, water chestnuts, interesting potatoes — pot them up and grow them for the summer. I have been growing ginger and water chestnuts in pots about 2″ deep in water, but you may have a better way…
I’d like to know how C does her ginger as well.
I use the roots. I have never eaten the foliage. I just buy organic ginger roots and pop them in a big pot and let them grow. Same with turmeric. I bring them in in the winter.
I tried that and had no luck. I’ll give it another shot.
Check out the “clearance” table at the grocery for things that are “past-due” and starting to bud… I’ve gotten (organic!) lemon grass and ginger that way (for next to nothing: )
Perfect tiny,tiny tomato, and that butter sounds yummy 🙂 Laura
That tiny perfect tomato makes my mouth water. And ta-da – I met a man at church that I can buy farm fresh tomatoes. Next Sunday – I will be having a tomato sandwich!
How exciting. And your wild flowers are growing down the back – I will take some photos when we start to get flowers! c
Just yum.. hmmmm sounds so good..
Easy too.. c
That sounds delicious. All of it. I’ve just had lunch, and yet reading this, I do feel a wee bit hungry. Now what are we going to do about that?
I bet you had a nice lunch too! c
what a yummy post- thanks and have a super day!
I love compound butter. I usually make it with lemon zest (good with fish or veggies) and/or herbs. …we had another massacre in the chicken house last night. This time it was a skunk. We had just let the chicks out of the brooder the day before. So maddening.
Oh that is horrible – ,my skunks seem only to eat the eggs – dreadful – how many did you lose? c
Thankfully, we only lost five (out of 17). I think they only eat chicks — the two full grown hens were fine.
C. how deep do you plant the ginger roots or do you just lay them on top of soil and keep moist? What a great idea!
I plant them like an onion with the tip showing – the ginger we have is on its second year in that pot.
Soon I’ll add the compound butter and chutney to my kitchen witch repertoire. Food is so much easier with homemade ingredients and pots of flavour in the fridge to dip into and garnish. We found turmeric growing in our garden, and now also have ginger I found sprouting at a greengrocer growing in pots and garlic. I love the inspiration of using what I’ve got to make something… carrot top pesto is my latest favourite 🌱
I love your recipe for compound butter. I have to try it. I make a turmeric, ginger tea with coconut oil and some pepper for my arthritis. Unfortunately I have to buy my produce . I am trying so hard to grow rhubarb but it doesn’t like our climate. I make strawberry rhubarb jam , crisps and cakes and pay four dollars a pound for rhubarb! 😮
I think “amiable battle” is such a good description. Of all life, but of especially of certain relationships. Farming/gardening is fast becoming my vantage point. And I live in the city.
Can’t wait till late August to make the butter! Quite a lunch: happy invitees 🙂 !! Am glad you can talk of an ‘amiable battle’ in the vegetable garden . . . don’t think ‘they’ are always ‘amiable’ towards you: hard yakka !!!
Great menu choices for that restaurant!
Hmm, I am going to use cattle panels to support my tomatoes next year. That surely beats those pathetic tomato cages that I end up putting t-posts in to keep them supported. That’s a lot to remove each spring when we till up the new garden area. Thanks for such a clever idea!!
Your Asparagus Butter sounds delish!!
And nice an easy tomato cages! Is it safe to assume the cattle panels come in a roll and just “cut as you go” for sizing? (Pretty much looks like page-wire fencing?) A friend uses the same set up for her peas, cukes, fava beans…: )
Love that piglet bottom .. oh so cute! And your first tomato – how exciting! Your recipes sounds superb Celi .. bookmarking it now 🙂