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
Do peel the stems, leaving the heads of the asparagus. They can be a bit stringy.
Serves 8
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
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