The first week in June is my favourite culinary week of the year. It is sort of the hat trick of seasonal items. During this one week of the year, you can get BC Spot Prawns, Sea Asparagus and Fiddlehead Ferns.

Sea Asparagus is a little bit of a misnomer but really not that far off. It is actually a distant cousin of the beet and spinach. Sea Asparagus (Salicornia virginica) is grown along the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It has a very short season, usually only a month at the most. This marine plant has a rich green colour and crisp, salty flavour.  This salty flavour can be quite overwhelming when eaten in its raw state.

To tone down the saltiness, either soak the sea asparagus in cold water, changing every 30min, for two hours or blanch for 30-40 seconds in boiling (non-salted) water, and immediately chill in ice bath.

For my web-designer’s and subsequently my future father-in-law’s dinner, I decided to do surf & turf Culinary Ink style: fresh, local, approachable and slightly unconventional.

Wild boar pancetta cup with sea asparagus, seared mushrooms & vanilla bean balsamic puddle

• 4 slices of wild boar pancetta (I got mine from the Oyama Sausage Company (can substitute regular pancetta)
• 200g sea asparagus 
• 4 mushrooms (I prefer shitake or morels if you can get them)
• 2 cherry tomatoes
• 4 tbsp Vanilla bean balsamic reduction (reduce 1 cup of balsamic vinegar (by 2/3) with split vanilla bean)
• Juice & zest from one lemon
• Salt & pepper

Lightly oil or spray muffin tin. Push pancetta slice into greased muffin spot. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 min or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove pancetta cup and finishing cooling on paper towel.

Blach sea aspagus in non-salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Chill in ice bath for 2 minutes. Remove and dry asparagus. Zest lemon using microplane or fine grater. Juice lemon. Place asparagus and lemon zest/juice and pinch of pepper in small bowl and let stand for at least 5 minutes. There is no salt added to this dish as both the pancetta and the asparagus are naturally salty.

Remove the stems from mushrooms, wipe lightly with towel to remove surface dirt. Cut into thin strips. On MED/HIGH heat, saute mushrooms with a small knob of butter or two tablespoons of olive oil. Season with pepper. Mix mushrooms and asparagus in bowl.

On small place, plate pancetta bowl. Remove a half handful of the sea asparagus & mushroom mixture, squeeze little to remove excess juice and place in pancetta cup. Using a spoon or squeeze bottle, make a small balsamic  ”puddle” near the pancetta cup. Cut cherry tomato in half, place in cup with one grain of coarse salt and a tiny pinch of pepper. Your dish should look something like mine….

This has been a chef’s help on sea asparagus