main · Cooking course

Ingredients

Asparagus

• Asparagus — 300 g
• Egg — 4 pcs
• Butter — 15 g
• Salt — to taste

Hollandaise sauce

• Egg yolk — 2 pcs
• Ghee — 100 g
• White wine vinegar — 20 ml
• Shallot — 30 g
• Black peppercorns — 10 pcs
• White pepper — to taste
• Salt — to taste

Instructions

Hollandaise

1. Set a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water and place the butter in it. It should melt without going further.

Asparagus

1. Trim the thick ends; line up the bundle by the tips and trim the tops to the same length.
2. From each stalk, measure 1.5–2 cm from the tip and peel from that point down with a vegetable peeler — only the outer layer.
3. Tie the bundle with kitchen string and stand it in salted water. The bundle should stand with the tips above the water, steaming. Cook 3 minutes, then plunge into cold water.

Hollandaise (cont.)

Make the sabayon — base for hollandaise.

1. In a saucepan, a splash of vinegar, black peppercorns, and shallot. Reduce slightly. That’s the “gastrique” — a sharp flavour booster. Base for sabayon.
2. In a large bowl whisk 2 egg yolks (the emulsifier). Let the vinegar cool slightly and pour a little over the yolks (through a sieve).
3. Whisk vigorously over the water bath until smooth and emulsified. The sabayon is ready.
4. Stream in the melted butter slowly (about one ladle), whisking constantly.
5. Thin with a little lemon juice; salt, pepper, stir.
6. Transfer to a smaller container, cover tightly with film, keep warm.

Poached egg

1. Heat water in a saucepan to at least 63 °C. The water shouldn’t visibly boil.
2. Add a little wine vinegar; salt the water.
3. Crack an egg into a small cup.
4. Swirl the water into a whirlpool and pour the egg in from a small height. Or pour straight from the shell. Cook 3 minutes.

Asparagus (cont.)

1. Warm the asparagus in a pan with a little butter or ghee.

Serving

Cross the asparagus on the plate, top with the poached egg, spoon hollandaise over the egg.