This lovely spring recipe is quick and easy to prepare. It is, however, a little trickier to find suitable wine pairings, given that asparagus doesn’t necessarily go well with wine, but you know us, we never shy away from a challenge. At the end of the recipe, you’ll find several possible options.
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ingredients (4 people)
16 stems of green asparagus
16 slices of Parma or Serrano ham
8 small shallots
Butter for the pan
1 tsp acacia honey
60g grated parmesan
4 eggs
Method
Start by preparing the asparagus. Carefully cut away the ends that’ll be too hard to eat and steam them for 6-8 minutes. It you don’t have a steamer, you can cook them in a saucepan of boiling water for 8-12 minutes.
Peel and finely chop the shallots and sweat them in a frying pan with the butter. Add the honey when they’re nearly ready to caramelise them.
Next prepare the parmesan wafers. Cover a baking sheet with baking paper. Next, take a medium-sized, round biscuit cutter to shape the parmesan wafer by placing a enough grated parmesan within it to create a thin wafer. Repeat until you have enough wafers. Place the baking try in an oven that’s been preheated to 210°C. Be sure to keep an eye on the parmesan when it’s in the oven as it should remain light in colour.
Roll each asparagus stem in ham and place them in the oven for a minutes until the ham is golden.
Then cook the eggs in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Take the eggs out of the saucepan and place them in a bowl of cold water to stop them cooking.
To serve the dish, place the shallots in the centre of the plate and add the soft-boiled egg on top. Surround the egg with asparagus and add the parmesan wafer on top.
The perfect pairing
Condrieu
Crozes-Hermitage
Hermitage
Saint-Joseph
Cairanne
