Asparagus flemish style

Tasty...

White & green gold!

In Belgium we are in the middle of the asparagus season which, this year, goes from the end of march until the end of june. The vegetable we know is actually the young sprout from an asparagus plant. In the north-west of Europe the white asparagus is mostly cultivated, the green asparagus is usually cultivated towards the south of Europe in countries like Italy. They can be a quite expensive vegetable, because of the intense labour it takes to cultivate.
Both white and green asparagus are a delicacy. For my recipe I use white ones, but you may as well use the green ones.
A dish almost every self respecting Belgian has eaten, besides french fries, is "asperges a la flamande". Asparagus flemish style is a really easy dish that basically consists of four ingredients: asparagus, butter, eggs and parsley.
It is a dish I really love... the only downside is that asparagus make your pee stink, this is because of the sulphur containing substances in this vegetable.

White & green asparagus

Asparagus flemish style

Ingredients:

• 16 large white Asparagus (8 per person)
• 4 eggs
• 1 handfull parsley, chopped
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg
• 100 gr butter

Preparation:

Put the butter in a pot and heat it on a very low fire. The butter must slowly melt which will cause to clarify the butter. Clarified butter is a clear milk fat you get when you separate the milk solids from the butterfat. The "bad" fat will sink to the bottom and you'll remain with a clear substance.

At the same time start boiling your eggs for about 9 minutes.

While your butter is clarifying and your eggs are boiling peel your asparagus by holding the top and use a vegetable peeler to peel the outer skin off.

Take a big casserole with cold water, add the asparagus and salt, and start heating up to cooking point. When the water reaches cooking point, turn off the fire and let the asparagus rest for 5 minutes.

Lay your asparagus on a heated plate and top them with the hard boiled eggs you crushed with a fork. Add the parsley and spoon some clarified butter on top.

Another way is to mix your eggs, butter and parsley in advance and top the asparagus with this mixture.

Enjoy!

May 19, 2013