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+ servings
Servings: 2 people

Boiled White Asparagus

Delicious starter/lunch with boiled white asparagus, browned butter, hazelnuts, and hand-peeled shrimp.
Author: Per Asmussen
Course: Dinner, Lunch, Starter
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Asparagus, Lunch, Nuts, Prawns, Starter
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes

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.