Asparagus w/ Caesar Dressing WOW


I follow this French dude, Simon Auscher on instagram.
J'adore his recipes and the videos in his stories, he gives me great ideas.

Here, he took the most beautiful of spring asparagus and dressed them with a sexy Caesar dressing.

New Rules:
I haven't been roasting my asparagus much lately.  I don't like how limp and stringy they get.

Instead, I have been blanching my spears in a skillet with the tiniest amount of water, covered, for 2 minutes.   (If the asparagus spears are on the fat side, then I peel them and saute them in some olive oil and butter for a few minutes).  
   
With this method, you can actually taste the asparagus, and they stand up to dressings and keep their bright green color.

Try it this way, and you will love how nice the vegetable turns out, sturdy enough for crudite or for this Caesar Asparagus recipe.

Here, we are making a simple dressing, that is creamy and luscious, you will want to lick the bowl. 

 The interesting thing about this recipe is the addition of heavy cream and the espelette (Basque red pepper). 

If you don't have espelette, use my favorite pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika) instead.

Here is how Simon makes it, and how I made it too.

Asparagus with Caesar Dressing:

8 oil packed anchovies
1 garlic clove (shaved on a microplane zester)
3 tbsp mayo (I use Hellmann's, of course)
1 tsp of espelette (or pimenton)
juice of half a lemon
1/5 cup olive oil (5 cl)
1/5 cup of cream (5 cl)
3 tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano


In a mini chopper, combine all of your ingredients and whiz a few times until nice and creamy.

Blanch your asparagus spears in a shallow skillet with a few tablespoons of water.
Cover with lid and steam for 2 minutes.   


Shake off the water and remove the asparagus with tongs to a platter.

Pour some of this dressing on top of the asparagus and season with a few grinds of black pepper.


Garnish with shaved parmesan curls.

We ate this with our fingers.   I think it would be a delicious dip to serve (like a bagna cauda).

and the next day, I used the leftover dressing to dress my daily avocado.


LOVED!

Comments

Ciao Chow Linda said…
I cannot wait to try that dressing. I know I'm going to love it. It almost reminds me of bagna cauda. Peeling the asparagus and blanching is the best way to go and I've been doing it that way for decades, but it's not always easy to find fat asparagus until later in the season. Curious though about the 1/5 cup measurements. Who has that size measuring cup? One can always estimate I guess.
Stacey Snacks said…
Linda,
I converted the recipe from the French metric, it was all about 50ml.

I never really measure, you can eyeball it....a little less than 1/4 cup makes sense.

It was delish....I made it twice so far.
Hope you try it.

S.
Amen Kahwajy said…
I made this the day posted on Instagram.
Dressing was great, I use Duke's Yellow Top.
Maybe odd , but I add a short piece of Rosemary to the steamer water.

Celeste said…
I love asparagus and Caesar, I can’t wait to try! I will have to use the smoked Spanish paprika though.