The European white asparagus normally comes into season in the months of May and June, and is slowly increasing in popularity in Singapore, as diners begin to appreciate the vegetable’s unique blend of tenderness and crunch. The most important thing to note about the white asparagus is that it’s highly recommended to cook it when it’s fresh because older white asparagus tends to taste bitter if left out for too long.

Personal fine dining chef Tim Meijers, who runs his own fine dining business and has had cooking experience in the kitchens of Saint Pierre, loves serving this earthy vegetable with baby potatoes, ham and hollandaise sauce.

We hope you have fun with this recipe. Do share your asparagus creations with us on our Facebook page at 
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Ingredients

Materials

Flat plate, cooking pot, whisk, knife, deep tray, chopping board, peeler, mixing bowl, clean cloth.

Preparations

Asparagus

1. Peel the asparagus (make sure you take off the skin). Do not throw the skin as we will use this to make a stock.    
2. Fill up a cooking pot with water, add the asparagus skins, and bring it to boil. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat and leave it for 20 minutes. Now, you can remove the asparagus skins from the pot of water.
3. Add 250 grams of butter to the water and bring it back to boil.    
4. Throw in the asparagus, wait for the water to boil again, reduce the fire and let it simmer for five minutes.
5. Now, switch of the heat and leave the asparagus covered with a cloth for another 20 minutes.

Hollandaise Sauce

1. Boil a small pot of water (make sure the mixing bowl fits in nicely without touching the water).
2. Melt the butter in a pan and put it aside.
3. Put in the white wine, vinegar, tarragon, and peppercorn in a cooking pot.
4. Reduce this mixture until there is about 50 ml left, then add 50 ml of water and the four egg yolks before transferring the product into the mixing bowl.
5. Whisk the mixture in the mixing bowl, which is above the boiling water, until the mixture is of yoghurt thickness.
6. Switch off the fire and continue whisking the mixture until it reaches room temperature before slowly mixing in the butter that you’ve melted.

Baby Carrots

1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly with a sponge but leave the skin on as it has a lot of flavour.
2. Put the potatoes in cold water and slowly bring the water to boil in low heat. When the water is boiling, leave the potatoes in for another 20 minutes.
3. Strain the water away from the pot, leaving just the potatoes, before melting 50 grams of butter and adding this to the potatoes.

Ham

1. Take 200 ml of asparagus water and bring it to boil.
2. Put the ham on the deep tray and add the water. Leave the ham inside for about two minutes to warm the ham up.