The healthy asparagus and the delicious brownie

Asparagus is a vegetable that grows from a crown planted about a feet deep in the sandy soils. It has always been regarded as a priced delicacy both in present time as well as by ancient Greeks. Easily, asparagus secures its place among the best super foods available on earth. Asparagus thrives as a wild plant and has a high tolerance for sand soil. Usually it grows along river banks, lake shores and coastlines. It is classified into three categories depending on its colour as purple, white and green.

Asparagus is a very low calorie vegetable, 100g fresh spears give only 20 calories which means more calories are burnt to digest it than gained after consuming it. The quality of asparagus is measured by its diameter, thicker the diameter better is the quality. You can simply eat the spears raw and you can also lightly steam them and serve with butter, parmesan cheese and hollandaise and vinaigrette. The stem part is utilised mainly to make soup and stews where as the head or the spears are served intact.

Crispy Asparagus Spears

Serves 2

Ingredients

Asparagus spears 10 no

Flour 4 tbsp

Corn flour 4 tbsp

Salt to taste

White pepper to taste

Fresh Bread crumbs 1 cup

Lemon 1 no

Oil to fry

Method

Wash and cut the woody end of the asparagus stems to get 5 inch long spears keep aside.

In a bowl combine flour, corn flour, salt, white pepper and add some moisture to make a smooth coating batter.

Roll the asparagus spear in the batter and remove excess batter by holding the asparagus to the side of the bowl.

Roll in the breadcrumbs and keep aside.

Repeat for the remaining asparagus spears also.

To make the spears more crispy dip again in the batter and give a second coat of breadcrumbs.

Deep fry over medium heat till the spears are crispy and light golden brown.

Pierce a toothpick to the end of each spears so that it’s easy to hold and eat.

Serve hot along with lemon wedges and choice of sauce.

Note: Instead of the regular bread crumbs you can also use the Japanese panko bread crumbs which will be more crispy and delicious to eat.

Brownie

The brownie is a combination of a cake and a cookie in texture. Brownies are soft like cake yet firm enough like cookies. There are two stories about the origin of brownie. First one states that some chef while making cookies added chocolate by mistake, which resulted in brownie. Second is that the chef forgot to add flour in cake mixture which resulted in a brownie.

Brownies come in a variety of forms and flavours and chefs have always been experimenting with the way they bake, the way they serve and the way they want their brownie to taste. They are usually accompanied by nuts, whipped cream, variety of ice creams, marzipan, powdered sugar, chocolates, cookies, crackers and many other things.

A variation that is made with brown sugar and no chocolate is called a blondie. Variety of brownie options have been developed like flour-less brownie and fudge brownie. There are plenty of cafes that operate with mainly coffee and brownie, still they are very successful because of the popularity of a brownie with coffee.

Chocó Brownie Balls

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Butter unsalted 150 gm

Icing sugar 250 gm

Dark chocolate 250 gm

Egg 4 no

Flour 125 gm

Cocoa powder 30 gm

Baking powder 1 tsp

Chocolate sauce 50 ml

Chocolate vermicelli 100 gm

Mint sprig to garnish

Method

Sieve baking powder with flour and keep aside.

Cream butter with icing sugar till light and fluffy.

Add eggs in the mixture and whip again for 5-7 minutes.

Melt the dark chocolate separately and pour into the mixture.

Add flour and cocoa powder and churn the mixture over low speed.

Grease and line a baking tray with butter paper.

Pour the mixture to make the tray half full as during baking the mixture will expand.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190 C for 20- 25 minutes.

Also dip a knife in the brownie if it comes out clean, the brownie is ready.

Allow to cool and divide into equal sized portions.

Roll each portion to form a ball and roll it into chocolate sauce and then roll in chocolate vermicelli to coat.

Allow to set in refrigerator for 10- 15 minutes.

Serve garnished with mint sprig.

* Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to: exe.chef@horizonmanor.com