These delectable spears of spring, with their vivid color and delicate flavor, are good hot or cold, dressed up or down. Let’s start to remember these tips to have your most delicious asparagus.

- whatever sizes, ranging in diameter from thinner than a drinking straw to fatter than your thumb, when shopping for asparagus, look for firm, brightly colored stalks with tightly closed tips.

- try to cook it as soon as possible after you buy asparagus because it begins to lose its sweetness as soon as it’s picked.
- asparagus should be kept in refrigerate or stored standing upright in cold water.
- If you do plan to store it in your refrigerator for a few days after you get it home, treat it like a bouquet of flowers: trim a small amount from the bottoms of the stalks with a sharp knife and place them in a tall glass with a little water in the bottom. Cover the top loosely with a plastic bag, and store in the refrigerator. This will keep the stalks firm and crisp until you are ready to cook them.

How is right time to have asparagus cooked? There are things you should consider, namely:

- Tiny spears only need a minute or two in a sauté pan.
- Larger spears may need more than five minutes in boiling salted water before they’re perfectly tender.
- Try drizzling spears with olive oil and roasting in the oven.
- However you choose to cook it, watch your asparagus closely so that it doesn’t get overdone. Well-cooked spears are easy to penetrate with a knife, but still bright green in color.

Tags: asparagus

In: Food & Cooking Asked By: MsMoon [36 ]