Morning beautiful subscribers,
A quick recipe for you for what I had thought was a very indulgent supper until, that is, I ate the leftovers for breakfast! And, perfectly timed for the arrival of British asparagus.
I haven’t done much cooking in the past month owing to the back being so rubbish but it’s significantly better now, I’m like a different person, and Horatio was out and (shock horror), hadn’t left me any tasty morsels upon which to nibble, aka gobble down with gusto. It may surprise you to learn that I don’t eat beautiful home cooked food all the time, I aspire to but, if I’m stressed, tired, busy, anxious etc my diet goes to pot. I’m coming to realise that, left to my own devices (which IS going to happen, I’m told, Horatio is hatching a plan to leave), I may not look after myself that well. I, like many, have my fair share of takeaways, I eat bread and butter, or, rarely, cereal - if it’s not a takeaway, my diet goes almost completely beige. Except for Heinz Cream of Tomato soup or Baked Beans.
I weighed up a bowl of cereal versus…a bowl of cereal and came to the conclusion that it was time to cook something. We happened to have a bunch of asparagus and a pack of proscuitto - perfecto, that’d be champion. But…hang on a mo, we also had eggs! And, we always have eggs, various vinegars, oils, capers, parsley….”what ho”* I had the makings of something very delicious, eggs mimosa!
I turned the oven on, snapped the ends off the asparagus, and got to work, washing, boiling, cooling, wrapping - before long I was completely in the flow, wrapping each spear in proscuitto before placing on a baking tray. I thought to myself “Why, WHY, don’t you do more of this, it’s SO relaxing” - honestly, taking the time out of your day to chop and stir and watch and listen as raw ingredients transform into gorgeous dishes is the best self-care - I highly recommend it.
Normally one would do one or the other, asparagus mimosa or asparagus wrapped in some sort of salty cured meat, I had proscuitto so that’s what I used. But, my oh my, is this good!
This would make a beautiful lunch with a chunk of bread or, a nice starter for three or four, or, a supper for one with leftovers for breakfast.
*Not entirely sure why I’m speaking like a public school boy, think it must be because I’ve just finished the INCREDIBLE “In Memoriam” by Alice Winn - has anyone read it? What did you think?
Proscuitto wrapped asparagus mimosa
Ingredients
For the asparagus wrapped in proscuitto
1 to 2 bunches asparagus
1 pack proscuitto or parma ham
Olive oil
Black pepper
For the mimosa
2 eggs
1 heaped teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 generous tablespoons capers (or more, if you like - I did more) coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon sherry/red or white wine vinegar
A handful of flat leaf parsley coarsely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of salt
A good glug of olive oil plus more for drizzling
Method
Firstly, read this method the whole way through (something I hate doing) as you’re going to prepare two dishes in tandem and simultaneously to get your finished decadent dish.
Start by making the egg mimosa.
Place two eggs in boiling salted water and continue to boil for eight minutes, ten if they’re quite large.
Pour the boiling water out of the pan and replace with cold water, or remove the eggs into a bowl of cold water.
Allow the eggs to cool completely.
While the eggs are cooling prepare the dressing by mixing together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
Once cool, shell the eggs and then cut in half to so that you can separate the yolk from the white.
Grate, yes grate (on the wide side of a grater) the egg white and then egg yolk into a bowl. You can chop the egg if you prefer but, if so, chop quite finely and sort of uniformly.
Set everything aside while you prepare the asparagus.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6
Hold the asparagus spear roughly halfway down and at the cut end pressing down so that the end of the asparagus snaps off.
Wash the spears in cold water and put in the pan of boiling water.
Boil for four minutes and then drain and replace with cold water or, like with the eggs, remove the spears from the boiling water and place in a bowl of (iced) water. I don’t worry so much as we’re going to go on to wrap the spears in proscuitto and then roast them so, it’s not so important to retain their colour.
Allow the spears to cool slightly and then wrap each spear in half a slice of proscuitto or parma ham.
Place on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and grate over some pepper.
Roast in the oven for 20 minutes turning once or, just give the tray a little shake, they’ll turn.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes or so - this are also good completely cold).
Whilst the asparagus is cooling add your dressing, the capers and the parsley to your grated egg and stir to coat all the pieces of egg. Reserve a handful of the parsley for garnishing.
Put a few spears of the asparagus on a plate, spoon over some of the egg mimosa, a glug of olive oil and a sprinkle of parsley.
And enjoy a devilishly decadent dish.
Tell me, what’s the most decadent breakfast you have ever had? Are you a fan of asparagus? I absolutely love it but, I don’t love the ensuing asparagus pee!! TMI perhaps as not everyone gets it/can smell it but, hey ho, most of us do/can.