Stalks And Shoots
These vegetables provide juicy crunch and versatility. Served raw, for instance, celery and fennel offer a sweet crispness. By contrast, when cooked, they offer invaluable depth of flavour.
PREPARING ASPARAGUS
Always choose green asparagus with even-sized, smooth spears and tips that are tightly furled. The very thin variety known as sprue, which is prized for its piquant flavour, is prepared as shown here, but it does not need peeling as in step 2. For white asparagus.
1. Snap off the pale woody ends of the asparagus. The spears should break easily where the pale flesh begins. Rinse the spears well in plenty of cold water, gently rubbing them free of any dirt.
2. Carefully peel away the tough skin from the bottom half of the spears with a vegetable peeler.
3. Trim away the spiky leaves from the flower ends of the spears with the tip of a small knife.
4. Tie the spears into small bundles, making them easy to handle. To cook asparagus.
PREPARING CELERY
Only use crisp celery that snaps easily. Flexible sticks indicate staleness. Before using raw or cooked, any tough strings must be removed from the coarse outer sticks.
Trim the top and root ends from a bunch of celery, cutting off any green leaves and reserving them for garnishing. Separate into sticks. Peel the tough strings from the sticks with a vegetable peeler.
PREPARING FENNEL
Keep pieces of cut fennel in iced water - they brown when exposed to air. For flavour, choose mature bulbs that are well-rounded and plump.
Trim the top and root end of the fennel bulb, saving any green fronds for garnishing. Rinse the bulb. To cut into chunks, cut lengthwise in half. Cut each half into quarters. To slice, cut the bulb in half lengthwise and place cut-side down. Cut crosswise into slices.
OTHER STALKS AND SHOOTS
CARDOON: A Mediterranean favourite that looks like celery but is from the same family as globe artichoke, which it resembles in flavour. Discard outer stalks, strip away leaves and peel strings from ribs. The stalks will brown in contact with air, so keep cut stalks in acidulated water to combat this. Boiling is the best cooking method.
SWISS CHARD: A member of the beetroot family with thick white ribs and coarse leaves. Steam the stems, whole or sliced. Leaves are cooked separately, often as a substitute for spinach.
WHITE ASPARAGUS: A favourite Continental variety that grows underground and is fat with yellow tips. Must be peeled and cooked twice as long as green asparagus.
