Asparagus season is here!

Asparagus season is now in full swing here in Ontario at least, so give the Peruvian stuff the elbow and make the most of the next 6 weeks or so by eating as much as you can. To be honest I don’t buy it at other times of the year because the taste of home grown stuff beats anything that has been air freighted, so I start to keep an eye out at the end of April, start of May. My first serving depends on how eager I am.  I’m pretty happy just steaming the spears and serving them still warm with a pool of vinaigrette and a dollop of mayonnaise. I made a fantastic supper dish at the weekend by drizzling the spears in olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper and then roasting for 10-12 minutes in a hot oven (200c/400f). I fried some chorizo until crispy (pancetta or streaky bacon would work just as well), finely chopped it and soft poached a couple of eggs, and served the whole lot on top of the asparagus. For a more classic approach I like a hollandaise sauce. I’ve used a couple of recipes in the past but my favourite is Rick Stein’s fuss free approach.  I prefer to whisk by hand as I think it gives more control and I also have a bowl of ice cold water on the side just in case the mixture gets too hot.

Hollandaise Sauce

Start by preparing the clarified butter, by melting 250g unsalted butter and let it cool for 15 minutes or so. It will settle into two parts; spoon off and keep the golden yellowy stuff on the top and discard the milky white part. Now you are ready to begin. This is the point where you should have your ice cold plunge bath on standby. Get a pan of water to simmering point (don’t allow it to boil furiously), and then pop a Pyrex bowl on top, being careful to check that the water doesn't come into contact with the bottom of the bowl. Add two large egg yolks, followed by 2 tbsps of water to the bowl and start to whisk like mad. Don't whatever you do stop because you don't want scrambled eggs to form. Plunge into iced water at any point if you think it is getting away from you. The eggs will gently cook as you whisk, and what you should end up with after a good 5-10 minutes of hard whisking is a pale, slightly thick, but aerated consistency.

Once you have this, now you can start to add the clarified butter, a spoonful or two at a time. Keep whisking all the time and eventually you will see the sauce start to thicken. You can now turn off the heat and remove the bowl from the pan. The final stage is to add some flavour by squeezing in half a lemon (or more if you prefer), and then a pinch of cayenne - keep whisking! I thought the addition of cayenne sounded a bit strange at first, but I really like it. It has to be subtle, you aren't going for something to blow your head off, but it does really work. Add salt and pepper and you are ready to go. Just drizzle it over and get stuck in.