Flavours of spring and early summer - asparagus, garfish and rhubarb.

For the last three weeks I've been snacking on the freshest asparagus imaginable. I am privileged enough to have five crowns growing beside our house, less than five metres from the front door.
I haven't bought any asparagus in two years. You just can't beat the flavour of asparagus that just ten minutes before landing on your plate was still basking in sunlight, bobbing its head in the wind.

Like many, I too love to eat it with eggs and toast, either steamed or grilled. Being so fresh I could probably just eat it raw but I love the smoky flavour of grilled asparagus. It takes about five to seven minutes with a panini grill. Quick, simple and beautiful.

Sometimes I will try something new though, like an asparagus pie or soup (didn't enjoy the soup). This time I found an interesting recipe by Nathan Outlaw, he calls it baked asparagus cheese, but I think it's basically a rich gratin. Anyway it sounded like a delight (if you love cheese like I do).

I went ahead and baked it. The taste was just as lovely as I had anticipated, after all, one can't go wrong with this much melted cheese!

It was thumbs up all round but I would like to add that I had some of the sauce left over. Not just a spoonful but quite a bit more.
So, unless your asparagus stalks are as thick as toddlers arms, I'd suggest making only two thirds of the Béchamel.



20 asparagus spears, trimmed
50g butter, plus extra for greasing
50g flour
450ml milk
2 egg yolks
1 tsp strong  mustard
a good dash of Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
175g cheddar cheese, grated




Preheat your oven to 200°C using the grill setting.
Blanch the asparagus in a large pan of salted water for one minute, drain and immediately refresh in cold water. When cooled, drain, pat dry using a paper towel and spread on the base of a buttered ovenproof dish so that the base is evenly covered.
In a small saucepan on a medium heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes until lightly golden. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually whisk in the milk to form a smooth sauce. Return to the heat, stir and simmer for 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper and pour over the asparagus so that all stalks are evenly covered. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve immediately.

I have many cookbooks, right. And one of the newer books is "Bouchon Bakery".

The recipe for blueberry muffins looked very interesting since it required resting the dough overnight. I've never done that with muffin batter before, only with yeast dough or madeleine batter. Naturally I had to try it out.

I did leave out a couple of things like molasses and honey. The thing was already sweet enough, besides I'm not a fan of molasses.

I did use however those large and fleshy foreign blueberries from the store, as that's what are commonly used in the States. But next time I would stick to the smaller European wild berries because I thought there wasn't enough blueberry flavour.

The overall result was satisfying, nice crumb, pretty domes, the mouthfeel was more cakey than crumbly.
I'm adding this to my list of "keepers".



Blueberry muffins


120g wild blueberries or bilberries
130g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
65g butter
65g sugar
50g egg (that's one small egg)
1 tsp vanilla paste
60ml kefir or buttermilk

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Cream butter with sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Now add half of the flour mixture, combine, add the buttermilk and the rest of the flour. Mix well.
Cover and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Crumble topping:
20g flour, 20g ground almonds, 20g butter, 20g sugar and a pinch of salt.
Rub everything together to a grainy/sandy consistency.

About an hour before baking take the batter out of the fridge. Turn your oven onto 220C.
Mix berries into the batter and divide it between six regular size muffin cups. Sprinkle the crumbs on top and slip into the oven. Lower the temperature to 165C.
Bake for about 30 minutes.

Crumbed scallops and blue potatoes.

First I went with silky mash, but these were equally good in a bun with coleslaw and tartare sauce. With some homemade blue crisps. Ohh. The smell of these crisps was out of this world, too tempting. I kept hovering over the bowl just to feel it again and again.

Last years blue mash photos.


Crumbed scallops

3 to 4 diver scallops per person, cut in half horizontally
1 organic orange
fresh ginger
sea salt
white pepper
crusty old bread
1 egg
flour

In a food processor, whizz the bread together with orange zest, grated ginger, sea salt and white pepper until tasty bread crumbs form.
Take three plates. Sift flour onto the first plate, drop the egg on the second, whisking it with a bit of orange juice to loosen, and pour the bread crumbs on the last one.
Take the scallops, dredge in flour, dip in the egg mixture and then coat all over with bread crumbs. Fry in batches until golden on both sides.


Silky mash

750g blue potatoes, skin on
about 120g butter
about 100ml single cream
salt and pepper

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about half an hour. Drain and let steam on the stove for a minute or two. Peel while still hot, put some gloves on if necessary. Mash the potatoes, gradually add the cream and continue mashing. For a super smooth result, push the mash through a sieve. Mix in the butter, make sure it melts in gradually, not leaving any lumps. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Tartare sauce

200ml homemade mayonnaise
3 tbsp capers
4 to 6 cornichons
small red onion
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon
lemon juice
salt

Chop all ingredients finely and mix into the mayonnaise. Taste and season accordingly.


Blue crisps

blue potatoes
groundnut oil
cold water
salt

Choose uniform potatoes, even sized crisps cook evenly.
Peel the potatoes and slice them very finely, less than a millimetre thick. Rinse under cold water and let stand in a bowl of cold salted water for about 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
Fry in batches in 160C degree oil until crisp. Too hot oil will result in too brown crisps or slightly burned taste.
Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and other seasonings while still hot.