By Bethany Jean Clement
From The Seattle Times
For a long time, cooking asparagus any way other than the very simplest seemed like gilding the spear to me. Blanching it in boiling water for just a few minutes until just tender and bright green like a spring dream, then eating it as soon as possible—what could be better than this?
My grandmother, who raised Angus cattle in Sunnyside, Washington, out east of the mountains past Yakima, made it this way. To be honest, she generally let it cook too long, but it still was excellent. Asparagus was often the crop in the field adjoining her modest spread, which meant that when the season came, the good stuff was literal steps and moments from quiet early-evening field to happy family plate. Under these circumstances, asparagus prepared with the least intervention possible is difficult to best….