Cupid’s arrows

With negligible cooking time, the delicately flavoured and refreshingly crunchy asparagus tips with til will surely make your heart skip a beat

Asparagus is a delicacy in continental much valued and appreciated by gourmet. It has a delicate flavour and refreshing crunch that few other vegetables can match. It has, in addition, an eye appeal that is exceptional.

Years ago while working on Kambhog (a book on love foods), we stumbled upon a recipe called tarqash-e-tamanna (literally, ‘a quiver full of desire’) and were smitten by asparagus. We don’t know if the aphrodisiac magic works for those in its need but can vouch for the seductive succulence of the tip of these Cupid’s arrows!

The cooking time involved is negligible and not to forget most of it is water so those on diet can indulge without guilt. The only reason it didn’t make it from forest or farm to fork in India seems to be the price. Ironically, with all the vegetable prices sky-rocketing and even the staple alu-pyaaz almost attaining the status of exotic gems, asparagus appears much more affordable. It’s now grown by enterprising farm owners in the vicinity of big cities and is often encountered on the grocer’s shelves. This has encouraged chefs to try it out to provide variety and novelty to their vegetarian menu. Chef Aditya Tyagi, who presides over the kitchen of Masala Art at Hotel Crown Plaza Rohini in the Capital, serves a desi asparagus recipe that showcases most deliciously what can be done with it.

Believe you us, the fresh asparagus can’t be compared with the tinned stuff that you may have sampled in past. Unblemished by brine, it shines unadorned. Aditya calls his creation by a different name — asparagus tips in til if memory serves us right but Cupid’s Arrows seems much more apt for this beauty that has vanquished us.

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