Very Local Asparagus, Bowling,

Thursday afternoon and I  have just bought 2 lbs of asparagus from the local store which is locally grown but is $5.98/lb as opposed to $3.98 at the farm. The farm is, of course, 20 minutes, or so, drive from here. I will eat some over the next few days and make a decision as to which I prefer. One bunch I picked up, and put down, had knobbly white bits on some of the ends. I have decided I am going to make the Garlic Shrimp with Asparagus for Friday supper. I posted it a couple of days ago.

Saw the scores for Wednesday League Bowling. Much to my surprise, I had the third highest average and the third highest triple. Our team is also in second place, but I really don't expect that to last. There are some very good bowlers who come to the Summer League. Mind you, today, I bowled a high average couple of games too. One was a 200 game. Oh if I can keep it up.

We have been watching As Time Goes By tonight, with Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, our favourite comedy series. Matt really enjoys them. Left if a bit late so have to scramble a bit to finish this blog. I have two sets  of DVDs which we can watch and 2 sets which are region 2, i.e. they won't play on my machine. Didn't realise when I bought them. Then I discovered one could set the computer to play them, so I did. Unfortunately at some point, the Windows was updated and once that has happened one cannot re-set it. Infuriating. I did think of buy an all region DVD player but never did so. I then fell into it with another DVD - The Cruel Sea - which is also region 2.

This is a recipe I picked up fairly recently and is one I have yet to try.

Asparagus with Indian Spices 

Long green spears of asparagus are not the usual Indian vegetable but with the right spices it really does work. Hari says.

Asparagus is a beautiful vegetable that only has a very short season, but when it is fresh, it’s perfect. Asparagus starts to appear in May until about July and I know it's a vegetable that needs very little to be done to it. The more simply it's cooked, the more tasty it is. That being said I like to experiment

and try new things and although this was a tricky one to put with some spices, by using the lovely aromas of fennel seeds I found that it really worked. I decided that keeping it simple with a couple of flavours worked well…so here you have my Asparagus with Indian spices - make the most of it while it’s in season. If you can’t get hold of amchoor, just use a little squeeze of lemon instead.

2 garlic cloves
3 cm piece ginger
500 g Asparagus, chopped
3 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 onion, sliced
1 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
½ tsp amchoor powder (dried mango powder) (or a squeeze of lemon juice)
3 tomatoes, chopped finely
Salt to taste

1. Crush the ginger and garlic in a pestle and mortar to a paste.

2. Heat the oil in pan and on a medium heat add the cumin and fennel seeds.

3. Once sizzling and fragrant add sliced onions with the chopped green chilies and crushed ginger and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the chopped asparagus and sprinkle in the salt, red chili powder and amchoor.

5. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Servings: 4

Author: Hari Ghotra

Have a great day