Asparagus prepared in a Flemish way

Upcoming BBQ season could change for me this year. Grilled asparagus is another great way of using this veggie. Thanks for the photo to Another Pint Please... @Flickr

I must say that so far in my life I’ve had very little experience with asparagus. I remember one year during the Strasbourg plenary session my colleagues at that time brought me to supposedly the best asparagus restaurant in the area but I didn’t get what all the fuzz was about. OK, there they are on your plate, all green or white looking at you with no particular invitation to be eaten… and on top of that just before the dinner I was  told that when you eat asparagus, later on you would still smell like it… All in all – not something that you are  craving to repeat over and over again.

So, I did not. Until last weekend I got a request – if I could prepare asparagus Flemish style. Not only did I not know what it is, I was not sure if I am ready for this – to make something nice from the main ingredient that I haven’t cooked with before nor towards which I have a lot of trust. However I though that I should try preparing it at least once and see whether I could fit this veggie into my lifestyle.

The result turned out to be great. Not something I would eat on a daily basis, but I would definitely not mind to have it from time to time. Later on I even went and looked up some extra info on asparagus and their preparation and found that it is one of the healthiest vegetables you can have. As we say in Latvia: you get two rabbits with just one shot 🙂

A variation of the Flemish recipe would be that you mash the egg and add it to the sauce. Thanks to roolrool for the photo. @Flickr

Here is the recipe I made.

Ingredients for 2

• 12 white asparagus (of course, you can also use the green ones)
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 8 small peeled potatoes
• 4 slices of Serrano ham
• 2 tablespoons of lactose free butter (I use products from Valio. You can, of course, substitute all the dairy with soy products. or use the real dairy :))
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• parsley, dill and any other greens you would like to add to your butter sauce
• a bit of a lemon juice

Preparation

• wash the asparagus and trim the endings. If needed (if they are so hard, that knife wouldn’t want to cut through it easily) cut the hardest part of the stems off.
• bring a pot of salty water to boil, put the asparagus in and immediately reduce the fire. cover and simmer the asparagus for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on their size (if you are choosing green asparagus, don’t cover them or they’ll loose their green color)
• at the same time put the potatoes to boil.
• 5 minutes before your asparagus and potatoes are ready, start preparing your butter sauce: melt the butter in a pan, put garlic and your other greens in the sauce, add the lemon juice and let it simmer for a little while on a very low fire
• plate the boiled potatoes and asparagus, add sliced eggs and Serrano ham, top it all off with the butter sauce and….
• ….enjoy!