It’s white asparagus season, an ingredient for which the Germans and Austrians have a particular obsession. White asparagus is the same as green asparagus but grown in darkness to blanch them, like tender pink Yorkshire rhubarb or veal.
I’ve just left Venice and spied a paper wrapped bouquet of the milky white stems in a corner shop so I bought it.
I made a savoury clafoutis. Clafoutis in general are pretty flexible, I used what I had in the fridge: 3 eggs, two laden scoops of creme fraiche, a big slop of milk, some odds and ends of various cheeses. I made it in a big flat dish so it was quite a shallow clafoutis. But it’s such a forgiving recipe so you can add more eggs, more cream (of any kind), more milk, more cheese. It’ll be just fine.
White asparagus, lemon and goat's cheese clafoutis
Ingredients
- butter to grease the dish
- 3 eggs
- 150 g grated hard goat's cheese
- 100 ml creme fraiche
- 150 ml whole milk
- White pepper and salt, to season
- 1 lemon zest of
- pack white asparagus, stems peeled (leave the tips)
- grated pecorino/parmesan/goats cheese for the top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease a baking dish.
- Whisk the eggs, cheese, cream, milk and seasoning together. Add the lemon zest
- Place the asparagus in the dish and pour over the eggy mixture.
- Put in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Add some more grated cheese on top
- Serve with a green salad and a glass of white win
Leave a Reply