Transcription
What's up, dude? If you clicked on this video today and you're not a super fan of asparagus, I don't know what's going on in your head, but you should probably go see a psychiatrist cuz you shouldn't be here. However, if you are an absolute asparagus freak, I have three of my favorite foolproof methods when it comes to cooking these little delicious divine spears of green. Now, let's go.
Now, before we get into these recipes, let's talk about choosing your asparagus because there are a lot of mangy, wrangly, sort of uh string beanie just uh fibrous asparagus out there. You don't want those. When I'm buying them, I'm almost always looking for big fat asparagus with tightly closed heads on top, meaning they're nice and young. They're not going to flower our and seeding and bolting and getting all chewy. But obviously, you're not going to always be able to find really thick, beautiful asparagus. But just keep those tips in mind when you're shopping for them. The best asparagus I ever had was when I lived as a chef in Holland. We would get those big fat white asparagus that are famous to that area, and they're ghost white because they're grown completely underground. They just pile dirt on top, so they're never exposed to the sun. They don't photosynthesize and therefore you have these albino asparagus. They taste absolutely incredible. But hey, green ones are good, too.
Now, I think we need to talk about how to break off that bottom bit because the standard for this I really, really hate. Now, what you're going to see people do is this snap test where they just basically grab it here on the bottom third and they bend it until it breaks. And they say this is where you should start cooking the asparagus and this you should throw away. However, if I just bite this bottom piece right here that I broke off, completely tender. Another bite, still no fibers, no chew. Another one. Still tender. How low can I go? Now it's starting to get a little bit fibrous. So that is why I really dislike this thing because you're always wasting a lot of asparagus. Here's what I do instead. What I like to do is just with a knife start down here and I can feel how fibrous and hard it is until I get to about that point. That is all completely good. And that might take a little bit of practice with your knife to get a feel for how that really works. But I mean, if you compare that to the brake test, look how much gets wasted when you break it off. All of this is still absolutely good. So the snap thing is totally dumb. I don't know when and where that started, but it's just horrible advice that spread, you know.
Now, here's the thing. Do you do that for each one individually? I don't. You could, and there would be some difference in all of them. I like to just take my whole bunch, make sure the tops are all lined up, and I'll start by taking just a little bit off the bottom. I can feel that was all real woody. Now, I'll go a little bit more. A little more. And I can tell you right right now, I think we're good. But I'll take a maybe a shave off. But I'm telling you, all of that is absolutely good eats. Also, never rip that off. Use a knife or a scissor to cut off that top rubber band so you don't break your asparagus. But these are all really good to eat just like this.
Now, the next great asparagus debate is whether or not you should peel these things. And the answer to that is totally dependent on the asparagus. If you're getting really new season, fresh, tender, young asparagus. All of this stuff down here completely and totally tender. There is no reason to peel this. There's just no reason to do it. Later in the season, you may be getting tougher, woodier asparagus. You can definitely tell when those bottoms are more white and less green, they're going to be more fibrous. In that case, I would go ahead and peel them. On another note, peeling them does give you a sort of pro look. They do definitely look really nice, I think, when you peel that bottom bit. Although, for most situations, it's just completely unnecessary. So, don't feel the need to do that unless they're very, very woody. Another peeling trick I learned while working in Holland is just to run a knife just slightly through the skin like this. You're just going to peel up from the bottom. And once we get to that line we made with the knife, it's just going to drop that peel right off. We'll work our way around and you end up with this sort of interesting visual where it goes from green straight to light green like that. Honestly, I would never really do this. It's sort of a fancy restaurant thing, but it does look kind of cool.
Now, the first method I'm going to show you today is blanching. We're starting with some boiling water here. And I'm going to season it up quite heavily. About a tablespoon of salt going in, maybe a little more. And then over here, I have a bowl of ice cold water. There's a ton of ice in here. And so the idea here is we're going to quickly cook those asparagus in this salted boiling water. And it's going to bring out this vibrant, beautiful green color while at the same time seasoning them. And then when they're done, they will get shocked in the ice water, which will completely stop the cooking process and lock in that green color. There are pros and cons to this method, which I will discuss. But for now, let's just do it. So bring that water to a boil. Drop in some asparagus. You don't want to overload it too much. Ideally, when you're blanching, you never lose your boil. It can be quite hard to do at home. Home in restaurants, they've got much more powerful burners. But you don't want to see it cool down too much, so don't add too much at once. And also use a bigger pot so that doesn't cool down the water too much. And we're just going to let these cook briefly. And as you can see right away, look at the color of those asparagus. You can really see the difference from the raw ones now. They've really just got so much more green. And how do you know when your asparagus are done? By following the exact directions you see on internet websites. No, man. You're cooking. Take the thing out of the water. If it burns your hand, if you don't have like fireproof hands, dip it in the ice. See, that's close. Personally, I like a little snap to my asparagus. I don't like them completely cooked through, but it's personal preference really. If you want them softer, cook them a little longer. I'll give you the time frame for these, but I like that snap. These ones I did for just shy of 3 minutes, 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Get them right into that ice water. And all you need to do now is leave these in here for 5 minutes to cool down. And speaking of cooling down, you know what's not cooling down? My gaming channel, because it's only heating up. And you should go subscribe. I'll put a link down in the description. And that's literally all she wrote, my friends. All you need to do now is get these on a little bit of paper towel. We're going to just dry them off a bit.
And so, in my eyes, the biggest plus when it comes to this method is that bright, vibrant green color. You chop these up, throw them in a salad, they are going to look absolutely incredible. So, for any type of room temp or cold dish, these are just the best way to cook them to get that strong visual impact and to have that seasoning penetrate in there as well. On a negative side, anytime you cook anything in a big pot of water, you're always going to lose some of the flavor from whatever you're cooking into the water. You know, the first thing that comes to mind is baking a potato to make mashed potatoes or boiling a potato to make mashed potatoes. That baked potato is going to taste more like a potato. It's the same exact thing with asparagus or anything else. Overall, a really great method. I have a lot of fun doing it. Let's move on to the next one.
Moving on to asparagus technique number two. We are going to be cooking these hot and fast using a convection oven or even better an air fryer if you have one. I'm going to be cooking these in the Typher Dome, which has been my favorite air fryer I've ever owned and is the sponsor of today's video. And today we're talking about the Tyer Dome 2 air fryer. I've been using their previous model for quite a long time now and it is an absolute beast. But they have really stepped it up with this next generation because this time Tyer has made it even better with their 360° heating technology featuring dual heating elements on both the top and bottom. Which means Tyer has essentially fixed all the main problems I had with air fryers. One, that they're not big enough. The Typher is absolutely massive. And two that the heating element only comes from the top, which means you have to do a lot of flipping if you want to get that crispy coating all around on most air fryers. But now it's solved. The Typher Dome 2 is equipped with a pair of dual temperature sensors, which ensures your food is perfectly cooked every time without needing your attention to shake or flip. And with 15 cooking functions, you can air fry, bake, broil, grill, roast, dehydrate, reheat, and much more. I mean, this thing basically covers all of your cooking needs. It also heats up extremely quick. If I've had a busy day in the kitchen, I don't want to get a pan out on the stove, I will just blast a steak in there and get a pretty decent sear all the way around. And in terms of cleanup, Tyer's self-cleing feature makes life way easier by breaking down grease from the top cavity at 500° Fahrenheit for an easier cleanup. It operates quietly while it's working. It's super intuitive and easy to use, and it's just a great addition to anybody's kitchen. No one is going to have a bad time with that machine. You can check out the Typher Dome 2 in the description below, and you can use my code that dude cook for 15% off your order. Thank you Tyer for sponsoring this video. Now, let's get back to the recipes.
And all we're going to do is hit these with some really delicious extra-virgin olive oil. And then I'm going to gently just toss these around while applying a whole bunch of delicious molen salt. You can use whatever kind of salt you have around. We're going to give these a really good season. And the second thing is just some fresh ground black pepper. Same exact deal here. I'm going to go ahead and just mix and grind so it gets evenly distributed. Take a few moments here to do a really good job with the seasoning. It will pay dividends. Got my Typher Dome preheated to 420° Fahrenheit. And I'm just going to drop my asparagus in. That is why I love this air fryer so much because of the space. That's my biggest gripe with air fryers is there's just not enough room. This I love cuz it's huge. And back in it goes. And after 4 and 1/2 minutes, those are completely done. Go ahead and get those out. And for some reason, asparagus always look good when you sort of crisscross them like that.
And so the beauty of this method is you're going to get a much stronger asparagus flavor. But like I said, when you're blanching, you're losing flavor to the water. When you're cooking in dry heat like this, you're intensifying that flavor. To me, this tastes smiles better than the blanched one. Not that the blanched one was bad, it's just this one, it just tastes better. And with all the asparagus methods I'm teaching today, it's hot and fast. I really feel like for asparagus, hot and fast is just the way to go. These are so enjoyable for me. Honestly, I could eat loads of these. My favorite thing, just a little bit of lemon juice on top like that. If you want to poach an egg and have that with this, you want to make some Holland days with a poached egg on this, that's next level. So, the main pros with this method is really you're getting a better flavor and it's the easiest out of all these three methods. It's just so easy to blast those in your air fryer and have a great little side dish in 5 minutes.
For our third and final asparagus technique, we are going to take these outside and cook them hot and fast over charcoal. And this is by far my favorite method when it comes to just the taste. I mean, the taste is unbelievable. So, just straight onto the coals here nice and hot. These are going to cook real quick. Just get them all positioned nicely like so. And when you're cooking these, you want to be basically constantly turning them. Maybe wait like 15, 20 seconds in between turns. And we are definitely after some char here. So don't be afraid of that blackness, but you also don't want to burn them to a crisp. And I always tend to rotate these ones out from the outer edge to the middle. Push the ones from the middle towards the outer edge so they're all getting that intense heat. And I can tell they're done when I literally just pick one up and just squeeze. And if it gives a little, I know it's done. It only really takes about 3 minutes out here on the grill. 3 to 4 minutes and they're absolutely cooked. Then when they're done to your liking, just go ahead carefully grab them up just like so. And with this method, I love to put them back on that tray that I oiled them in and just sort of re oil them. There's still a lot of olive oil and seasoning on here, so that's not going to hurt. And of course, just like any of the others, a little bit of lemon here is your best friend. Really is going to take it to another level.
And so, the major benefit of this method is obviously that meaty char grilled flavor, which really just takes this and makes it something incredibly special. I think like I could sit here and just eat probably all of those. And I'm not going to do that with the blanched ones and the air fried ones. Maybe a little more, but not like this. This is insane. So, pros, obviously, best flavor. Cons, I mean, you got to light a charcoal grill and do that whole thing. Obviously, if you're already grilling, this is a great thing to do if you have asparagus around. You're probably not going to light up your grill just for asparagus. Although, I'd be lying if I said this just wasn't clearly the best method in terms of flavor. It's my favorite. Thanks for watching today, my friend. If you're a fan of written recipes, check out my Master in the Making ebook. It will be linked down in the description. And if you want to learn some more lighter, spring forward recipes, here are two to my left and right that I know you're going to love. Until next time, you know I love you and I'm out. [Music]