Vegetable: Asparagus Gratin

By Golfwidow7

For even cooking, buy asparagus spears between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in diameter.

Asparagus Gratin
A traditional gratin swaddles vegetables in a creamy, cheesy sauce. This approach works wonders for hardy potatoes and cauliflower but can easily drown out the bright flavor of delicate asparagus. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries
Rather than cook the asparagus in a cheesy sauce, we opted to cook the two aspects separately and combine them at the end.
Gruyère cheese, a classic element in gratin dishes, caused our sauce to be slightly gritty. Replacing it with milder, smoother Monterey Jack fixed the problem.
The half-and-half in our gratin muffled the flavor of the fresh asparagus. Tasters preferred a version of the sauce that replaced the half-and-half entirely with vegetable stock made from the trimmed ends of the asparagus, which also enhanced the vegetable's flavor.

Ingredients

• 8 (4)
• 2 pounds thin asparagus (1 Lb)
• 2 1/2 cups water (1 1/4 Cups)
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 Tbsp)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 Tbsp)
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (1/4 + 2 Tbsp)
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (1/4 Cup)

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 15mins
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat broiler. Line broiler-safe baking dish with paper towels. Trim 1½ inches from stem end of asparagus and reserve ends. Bring water to boil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add asparagus ends and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove asparagus ends and discard. Add asparagus stalks to skillet, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until nearly tender, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer asparagus to paper-lined baking dish. Pour asparagus water into liquid measuring cup; reserve 1 cup.

2. Melt butter in now-empty skillet over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until golden, about 1 minute. Whisk in reserved asparagus water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Off heat, whisk in ½ cup Parmesan and Monterey Jack until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

3. Remove paper towels from baking dish. Drizzle sauce over center of asparagus and top with remaining Parmesan. Broil until cheese is golden and asparagus is tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Serve.