Asparagus With Hollandaise Sauce, The King Of Vegetables
By: Patricia Turo
Published: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 1:09am

Ingredients




12 green or white asparagus (remove the outer skin with a peeler)
Salt & sugar
Hollandaise Sauce:
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Chopped parsley
2 tablespoons ice cold water
1 stick of butter
2 egg yolks
Juice of one lemon

Preparation

1 Boil the peppercorns, wine vinegar and chopped parsley until it is reduced to almost nothing, then deglaze it with 2 tablespoons of water. Run it through a sieve and pour it into a cold double boiler. Add 2 egg yolks, whisking them into the pan. Add the juice of 1/4 of a lemon, at this point put the double boiler onto medium heat and begin whisking little pieces of butter until the it has melted and thicken. Whisk constantly - this is very important. If the sauce separates, put chilled water, and if necessary add another egg yolk. 2 Prepare the asparagus by peeling the outer skin with a vegetable peeler. This is not necessary if you are using green asparagus, but it has to be done with the white asparagus. Remove about 1 inch of the bottom of each steam. You can simply bend the stalks and they will break at the point where the hard stalk separates from soft stalk. However, if you want all the stalks to be the same size, cut them where you think the hard stalk ends. Boil them in salted water (add a little sugar, which brings out the taste of the asparagus), for about 4-5 minutes. 3 Remove from the water and wrap them in a kitchen towel to finish cooking. 4 Pour the sauce over the cooked asparagus. It is acceptable to eat the asparagus with you hands, dipping the asparagus into the sauce.

About


Green and white asparagus are interchangeable in recipes, but I feel that due to the amount of water in the white variety, they are not as good if added to pizza for instance. I also prefer the green the variety in pasta or anything where the heat continues to cook the vegetable.