Pan-Fried Asparagus!

Do you like asparagus? I LOVE them.  I only started trying these out last year when my mom first made them but man, are they ever yummy?

I decided last night for the weekly cooking that I’d go ahead and give it a shot.  I found a really nice recipe for it, but instead of baking it since the oven was lining up with too many dishes to heat up and cook (we made oven-baked ribs on Sunday also).  I would’ve posted up the ribs also but I really winged it.  I didn’t have any more rib sauce so I just used all sorts of spices.  It actually turned out pretty amazing. Maybe next time!

Back to the asparagus, here it is (you’ll find the recipe below):

The recipe was mostly inspired from Looneyspoons Collections by Janet and Greta Podelski, original recipe is called “Britney’s Spears” (Haha!)  The one I post up below will be what I did since I did make several changes.  I’ll tell you after the recipe.

PAN-FRIED ASPARAGUS

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs (680g) asparagus

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground  black pepper

1/4 cup water

Directions:

1) Prepare the asparagus by trimming off the tough ends.

2) Heat olive oil in pan on medium setting.  Arrange asparagus in a single layer (as much as you can) and move it around so it doesn’t burn.

3) Mix in garlic with asparagus.  When the garlic starts turning yellow, pour in water and put the cover on.  Let it simmer for about 2 mins or until the water has mostly evaporated.  Remove the cover and mix in salt and pepper.

4) Cover the pan for another minute till the water evaporates and it starts sizzling.  Remove the cover and make sure that it is cooked thoroughly but  still firm (not too mushy).

5) Arrange cooked asparagus on a plate and serve!

This was relatively easy to make.  I had one worry was that I wasn’t sure how to determine whether the asparagus was cooked too much or too little.  My asparagus was cooked perfectly by the way.  The taste was pretty good also.  I’d probably decrease the amount of oil.  You shouldn’t have that problem though.  I had more oil than mentioned because I had prepared it to go in the oven then changed my mind last minute.  Nonetheless, it tasted pretty good.  I was happy with my first attempt with asparagus and I think it’ll hit the dinner table more frequently.

The original recipe was to be roasted in the oven with garlic and oil then sprinkle on salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar.  Then top it with crumbled feta cheese or grated Parmesan cheese.  I think that would taste pretty good too.  I didn’t have any balsamic vinegar so I didn’t even season with that.  As for cheese, I can’t eat that so I’m pretty sure my house has limited supplies of that as well.

This is my first (or second?) attempt at writing directions for recipes, still so hard.  If there are any problems or anything is not clear, feel free to ask me in the comments.

I’m still a beginner at making asparagus.  Is there any other ways to prepare it that you’d suggest? Any other seasonings that would taste good?