I am cooking a special dinner this weekend to say thank you to a friend of mine; I often say thank you with food. I have never cooked for Jane, but although she calls herself ‘Jane the hopeless cook’ I know that her worldly experience means that she certainly knows her food, even if she doesn’t like to cook it.
Under such circumstances, I always find myself fretting over what to cook, basically because I want to cook everything. I had so many different ideas this time that I went one step further than ever before, the geekiest a food geek could possibly be; I entered my starters, mains and desserts into 3 columns of an excel spreadsheet and sorted them into menus that went together, so that I could rule out options that didn’t fit. I cannot believe I am admitting this on a public website. Lucky I don’t have much traffic yet. Not so lucky, most of the visitors to the site know me. Oops!
Anyway, one of the dishes that I wanted to try was this, so I tested it out tonight to see if it worked. It does. In fact, it may even make the cut for Saturday.
First I must give credit where it is due. The idea for the egg came from a recipe on River Cottage Spring. In this episode Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his head chef both put forward a recipe for the restaurant menu using the first asparagus of the season. Hugh pairs his with a soft-boiled egg to which he adds 2 drops of cider vinegar and a tsp of butter; in his words, “DIY hollandaise sauce”. Now I’ve been making hollandaise sauce for years and have used it as an accompaniment to asparagus on many occasions, but this is so much more fun and innovative. In my recipe below I wrap the asparagus in prosciutto to add an extra dimension (read: to make it look posh) and I think it works a treat.
I made this recipe as a starter for 2, but you could easily double or triple it for more people or bigger portions. Basically you just need 1 egg per person with its condiments, about 6-8 asparagus spears and ½ a slice of prosciutto per asparagus spear to wrap it.
Ingredients
12 asparagus spears
2 eggcups to serve
Method
Since this recipe is a very quick to make and is best enjoyed warm, I suggest you set up your plates with eggcups at the beginning.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Depending on whether you prefer to steam or blanch the asparagus, prepare a steamer with about an inch of boiling water or bring another large saucepan full of water to the boil.
Trim the ends of the asparagus and set aside. Cut the slices of prosciutto in half and put to one side.
Add the eggs to the first saucepan and take note of the time, you don’t want to cook it for any longer than 6 minutes*.
Put the asparagus in the steamer and steam for approximately 3-5 minutes or until tender (this will depend on the thickness of the stems, you can check one by cutting off a bit of the end). If blanching the asparagus, add to the second saucepan of boiling water and blanch for approximately the same time, again checking after three minutes.
Drain the asparagus when cooked and refresh under cold water; this will make them easier to handle instantly. You can then begin to wrap them in prosciutto and arrange on the plates.
Remove the eggs from the water (if they are ready before you have finished the asparagus then you may need to do this in the middle of preparing the asparagus). Place in the eggcups and tap the top of the egg with a teaspoon and slice off using the spoon or a knife. Add the lemon, butter, salt and pepper to the egg and serve.
* I find that the timing for soft-boiling an egg varies between 4 and 7 minutes, depending on the temperature of the egg, whether you have pricked it with a pin, how fresh they are and so on. I usually go for 5-6 minutes, but if you are really unsure and are after clearer directions, Delia online has some good tips. She also provides advice on steaming asparagus.
Vix
