It still remains the perfect time to celebrate and enjoy one of our unique products, fresh white asparagus from Tudela. An original Basque culinary gem that you can enjoy for a little while longer.
Asparagus from the orchard of Tudela
Our friend and supplier, Lus Oses, looks after this exquisite product that has been grown in the fertile Navarra regions for many centuries. Because of the delicate conditions and the fact that it is a 100 percent season product, this product requires a lot of manpower.
Because of the accumulated humidity in the previous months, according to Lus, we are able to enjoy outstanding asparagus this season.
Tudela’s asparagus requires dramatic differences, such as nocturnal cold and daytime heat, in order to produce the product we serve in our restaurants: a fresh, completelytender asparagus that can practically break.
The asparagus grown in the Geographically Protected Indication “Espárrago de Navarra” has a white colour, soft texture, low or no fibrosis, and a perfect balance between the softness of its bitterness on the palate, owing to the zone’s chilly nights, water quality, and growth practises.
The orchard is picked up every day until the middle or end of June, just as the spikes appear and the produce is at its peak.
The secret to getting a one-of-a-kind product is a direct relationship with the producer, with no middlemen, and product freshness, as the product is delivered to our restaurant just a few hours after it is collected.
We treated it with the utmost respect, peeling it by hand, scalding it right away, then softly tempering it in our grill. A straightforward cuisine with no extraneous ingredients and the product as the star. Root food at its finest.
GRILLED HAND PEELED FRESH ASPARAGUS
Ingredients:
6 asparagus
8gr grey sea salt
2 tips of chives 10ml virgin olive oil 1 sprig of chervil
Vegetable vinaigrette for 8 portions:
170g spring onion
160g green pepper
160g red pepper
300ml olive oil 100ml cider vinegar 15g fine salt
Elaboration:
ASPARAGUS
Wash and dry the asparagus. Peel the asparagus with a vegetable peeler, removing the skin superficially from the tip to the bottom of the stalk. Once they are all peeled, cut off part of the stem.
Put 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar for each litre of water needed for cooking in a high pan.
When it starts to boil slightly, add the asparagus, tied together and tied with string. When the water comes to the boil again, cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus.
Then grill the asparagus on a “racket” type grill.
VINEGAR
Clean and chop all the ingredients listed in the recipe: onion, green pepper and red pepper. Add oil, cider vinegar and salt and mix.
PACKING
Place the asparagus on a tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Top with a little grey salt and 1 sprig of chervil. Place a small pile of salt on the asparagus stems.