Asparagus Canapes

By crabseeker

These asparagus and beef Asian-style canapés look harder than they are, are very tasty, make great conversation pieces and you may even eat them as a meal with hot rice!

Ingredients

• Teriyaki Marinade:
• One bunch thin/medium-sized asparagus spears
• 1/2 lb. or 250 g. beef, either pre-sliced thinly from an Asian butcher or pounded thinly by hand (any cut is fine, depends on your budget)
• 1/3 c. Japanese soy sauce (Kikkoman is best)
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. mirin
• 2 Tbsp. sake
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1 Tbsp. minced or grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp. chopped green onion

Details

Servings 12
Adapted from desperatelyseekingcrab.com

Preparation

Step 1

If you don't have thinly sliced beef purchased, place beef between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet until almost paper thin. Slice meat into 1 to 1.5 in. (2.5 to 3.5 cm) wide x 4 in. (10 cm) thin slices (long enough to wrap around the stacked asparagus).

Mix all liquid ingredients together making sure that the sugar is dissolved before beef in placed in the marinade. You may double or triple this recipe to marinate a larger amount of meat. For this particular recipe, I used a small amount, about 250 g (about 1/2 lb). Leave in marinade for at least an hour before cooking.

To make canapés: Blanche asparagus spears whole in boiling water until nearly cooked. Place immediately under cold water to stop cooking. Cut uniformly into 2.5 in / 5 cm pieces and place three pieces of asparagus in each stack. Place raw marinated beef pieces on a flat surface and roll around the asparagus clusters.

Once assembled, pan fry the stacks with the join on the bottom to be seared initially, so that the cooked beef doesn't start to unravel when turned over to cook the other side. Once browned, remove from pan. Serve hot or at room temperature.