Delicious starter/lunch with boiled white asparagus, browned butter, hazelnuts, and hand-peeled shrimp.
Recipe for boiled white asparagus
Delicious starter/lunch with boiled white asparagus, browned butter, hazelnuts, and hand-peeled shrimp.
Springtime is asparagus time. Besides the return of the sun and a bit of warmth, asparagus is clearly one of spring’s highlights—especially the white ones, if you ask me. We don’t quite share the same enthusiasm for the plant as the Germans, who even have asparagus festivals.
I prefer the white ones, typically paired with browned butter, Hollandaise sauce, Mousseline sauce, or homemade mayonnaise.
Servings: people
Boiled White Asparagus
Delicious starter/lunch with boiled white asparagus, browned butter, hazelnuts, and hand-peeled shrimp.
Equipment
- Cutting Board
- Chef'S Knife
- Pot
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 6 pcs. White asparagus you can settle for two per person if they are as large as mine
- Salt
- 50 gram Butter can be replaced by 40 grams of ghee or browned butter
- 20 gram Hazelnuts
- 5 gram Lemon Juice
- Prawns preferably fjord shrimp or hand-peeled
Instructions
- Start by peeling your white asparagus:
- Peel from the top (head) downwards. The head should remain intact. Peel all the way around and stop when it no longer strings at the edges.
- Put water and plenty of salt in a pot.
- Bring the water to a boil.
- Place your asparagus in the pot and cook them for 4 minutes if they are average-sized and 6 minutes if they are very large. Mine were the latter.
- Melt the butter over medium-high heat (9 out of 14 on my stove) in a pan and let it foam until it browns. If you use our version of ghee, you don't need to brown it.
- Add the hazelnuts with the skin on to the pan and toss them a few times in the butter.
- Remove the nuts from the pan and chop them coarsely.
- Add lemon juice to the butter and reduce the heat to low (3 out of 14 on my stove).
- Lift your asparagus out and place them directly in the pan. Do not dry them off; the small amount of water on them will be used for the "sauce."
- Turn off the heat and toss your asparagus in the butter mixture for 30-45 seconds so it clings to them.
- Place them on a plate with chopped nuts and season with salt and pepper from the mill.
- Add hand-peeled shrimp and serve immediately.
Notes
You could easily grate Parmesan or dried egg yolks on top, and fresh herbs would also make good sense.
If I had a bit more time and wasn't so hungry when I made this dish, I would probably have poached an egg and placed it on top.
If I had a bit more time and wasn't so hungry when I made this dish, I would probably have poached an egg and placed it on top.