After a break last week, we’re back with Spargel mit Kratzete (white asparagus with pancakes). Spargel is pretty delicious and it’s everywhere in Germany this time of year. Normally I have Spargel with Hollandaise sauce, but this recipe served it with butter. We had a big block of French butter we bought over Easter in Forbach, so we melted a good chunk of that down to have with the Spargel.
Wow, I thought this meal was delicious. It turned out to be more work than I had expected, and I might leave out the pancakes in the future, but it was really good.
We invited over some friends to help us peel all the Spargel, that’s me and Jentry. She’s got a dog named Charlie too, so we had a nice big Charlie-fest. We haven’t yet settled on nicknames for our guys. Should it be Big Charlie and Little Charlie, Big Charlie and Bigger Charlie, Little Charlie and Hairy Charlie? I dunno.
We were six adults, two toddlers, and a baby, so we bought 3kg of Spargel, which proved to be just about the right amount. I didn’t have a pot that would cook that all at once though, so we made it in two batches. I also forgot to cut off the “woody ends” on the second batch, but it didn’t really seem to make a big difference. I ate the “woody ends” and they didn’t seem all that woody.
I made Spargel soup using the woody ends and peels using a combination of the suggestion at the end of the recipe we used here and another that was in the cookbook Meine bayerische Küche
Overall though, very tasty meal. All the kids enjoyed the pancakes and Oliver even ate the asparagus as well.
Other participants (will be updated throughout the day):
- CN Heidelberg at Heidelbergerin
- Stephanie at A Greenville Life
- Yelli at 50% of my DNA
- Amber at Genausländers
Next challenge!
Our lucky 13th challenge, also featuring Spargel, will be Krabbenragout (Shrimp ragout) from the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein section of the book. Make it sometime this week and we’ll post about it next Monday.
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http://cndrnh.blogspot.com/2009/04/amiexpats-spargel-mit-kratzete-white.html Yum!!
This was quite tasty! I wish little Charlie wasn’t such a whiny baby last night and I could have helped out a bit more
. I will probably recreate this at some point sine it was so good! Oh, and little Charlie has a pancake/loads of play-time hangover…he’s sleeping it off on the balcony in the sun 
We liked this dish!
http://agreenvillelife.blogspot.com/2009/04/spargel-mit-kratzete-white-asparagus.html
*** I’d like to put in a vote for the strawberry dishes – strawberries just came into season here and will be around for about the next month. After that, back to the mediocre grocery store ones!
It looks delicious, but I did not get round to making the pancakes. My favourite recipe is à la Flamande, or Flemish style. Simply serve with chopped parsley, chopped hard boiled eggs, and melted butter. It’s perfect!! I made that instead yesterday, but I had no time to write a post about it, I was too wrapped up installing a new PC!!
Jientjes last blog post..Macro Monday Apple Blossoms
@cn heidelberg: Looks good! I agree that this recipe makes A LOT of pancake. And our local Spargel comes from Abensburg.
@jentry: Our Charlie slept all day as well, I think they had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming down!
@stephanie: Glad you liked the dish, and all our plates do look very similiar! Strawberries aren’t in season here yet, can I put it off a little and maybe we can hit the end of your season and the beginning of our? I remember the fresh strawberries in NC too, man were they good.
@jientje: I love getting a new PC and seeing how much faster everything runs. I like Spargel your way too, and it’s a lot less work intensive than making pancakes
My mom (from Germany) makes a good Spargelsuppe with just boiling the ends and peels of the spargel in water with a bit of salt. Then strain out the peels and ends and keep the broth. Simply add some flour with cold water to make a paste and add it to the broth that should still be on the heat to thicken the soup a little bit. Now here is the trick to bring out the spargel flavor, add a few tablespoons of sugar. (It seems like a lot, but it’s amazing how it brings out the flavor.) Then add cream or half-n-half as well as some already cooked pieces of spargel and you have it. It’s SOOOOOO good. (Oh and you can cook the spargel pieces in a separate pot and add the “broth” from that to the other broth as well.) My mom also sometimes adds some egg yolk that you beat and then temper with the soup just a little at a time so it doesn’t “cook” or “curdle” to make it just a little richer, but you don’t have to do that.
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Looks delicious! I had some asparagus soup at a great restaurant last week, and it did not disappoint. Yum!
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Somehow I missed the pancake end of that.
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I finally posted the recipe due to a missing camera cord! It was DELISH! Thank you again! This was really fun and now I am going to look forward to Spargelziet!
Yellis last blog post..Real German Cuisine Challenge: Spargel mit Kratzete
I’m back! I made the Spargel recipe on Monday and just got my post up. I agree that the soup suggestion was not so good. Heidi’s suggestion sounds great. I’ll try that next time. By the way, I maybe ought to introduce myself. I’m originally a Minnesotan who finished grad school and moved to Germany in September to do materials science research at DLR (the German Aerospace Agency) in Cologne. I live in a small town outside Bonn. Hi!
http://genauslander.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/just-call-me-spargel/
Ambers last blog post..Just call me Spargel
@heidi: Thanks for the tip. I love Spargel soup and would like to try and get it right at some point!
@lindsey: I have to order Spargel soup during Spargel season when we go out, it’s one of my favorite soups.
@ed: I’ve never seen it served with pancakes, but it went well together.
@yelli: Yay! A new Spargel convert.
@amber: Nice to meet you! The Bonn area is a nice place to live. Both of Rainer’s brothers live in Bonn so it’s one of the places in Germany that I’d move to in a second, but I think we’re here for good.