Christine wrote:

> McGee also wondered about snapping vs. cutting the ends of the
> spears....
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/di...tml?ref=dining


"I tried slicing all but the very bottoms into millimeter-thin rounds."

That's more trouble than I'm willing to take. Millimeter-thin rounds would
take FOREVER by hand, and I don't think my mandoline would even do well at
it (unless the asparagus was in a bundle as thick as a baseball bat, maybe).

I currently have a bunch of asparagus which has been in the fridge for
eleven days, and is consequently stringy. If Lin doesn't cook it in the next
few days, my plan is to cut off the very tips and the very bottoms, then
slit the stalks lengthwise and cook them in broth until soft. Then I'll run
the cooked stalks through a food mill to remove the stringy parts. The
asparagus tips will be cooked in the resulting soup. That should work,
shouldn't it?

What I'm wondering is whether a similar treatment would be worthwhile for
kale stalks or collard stalks, both of which are too fibrous to be enjoyably
edible if cooked simply.

Bob