BBQ Green Asparagus with lemon-pepper butter sauce
served with new potatoes, lemon pickles and toasted pine nuts
Yeah baby, asparagus season is here. And so is the BBQ season, we think. So here is a lovely recipe which is perfect for a sunny evening dinner this spring. Go and find your local asparagus farmer, cause that’s where you’ll find the best ones. You could definately choose to use white asparagus for this recipe too, you might just need to grill them a little bit longer or pop them in the oven for a few extra minutes.
Ingredients
1 kg new potatoes
5 cloves of garlic
Few sprigs of rosemary or thyme
500 gr green asparagus
2 shallots
1 bay leaf
200 ml white wine
1 lemon
50 ml white wine vinegar
250 ml organic cream
250 ml organic butter
2 teaspoons lemon-pepper
1 preserved lemon (in a jar)
A large handful of pine nuts (or a mixture of different seeds)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 ‘C. Spread the new potatoes on a baking tray and mix with some oil, salt, 3 crushed cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of the fresh herbs. Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until beautifully golden.
To make the butter sauce, start by chopping the shallots and garlic roughly (you can leave the skins on). Then sauté them in a saucepan with some oil together with the bay leaf and a few strips of the lemon skin. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, the juice of the lemon and white wine vinegar. Then bring it to a boil and let it reduce until about half of the liquid is left. Add the cream, bring back up the heat. Bit by bit, add small cubes of cold butter while using a stick blender to emulsify everything. The sauce should be nice and creamy. Season with the lemon-pepper and salt.
Heat up your BBQ or griddle pan. In the meantime shortly toast your pine nuts in a bit of oil. Also finely shop the preserved lemon and mix with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Slice off the tough end of the green asparagus. Mix the asparagus with some oil and bang them on the BBQ. Grill them on both sides for 3 minutes or until nicely charred. Then season with some salt and pepper.
Time to serve up! Do whatever you feel like and get creative. Enjoy and big love.