- guardian.co.uk, Sunday May 13 2001 00.11 BST
- The Observer, Sunday May 13 2001
Serves 4 as a starter
about 12 large spears, or 24-30 thinner spears, fresh white asparagus
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsps olive oil
75g unsalted butter
200g fresh ceps, bases trimmed, sliced
2 tbsps fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Prepare the asparagus first. Trim the ends. Bring a shallow pan of salted water to the boil and add half of the lemon juice and a tablespoon of the oil. Add the asparagus spears and blanch for about 4 minutes, then drain carefully (so as not to damage the tips) and plunge into a wide shallow bowl of iced water. Leave until cold, then drain carefully again and pat lightly dry.
Make the brown butter. Heat the butter gently in a small saucepan, then turn up the heat and cook until the butter just turns brown. Watch it like a hawk! Tip it quickly into a cup to stop the browning. Set aside.
Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and tip in the brown butter, leaving the solids behind in the cup. Heat gently, then lay in the asparagus spears. Heat carefully until hot, then sprinkle over the rest of the lemon juice.
Arrange 4 asparagus spears on each plate, drizzle over any pan juices and spoon over the ceps.
· Originally, this recipe appeared as part of the feature Mad for it: Lynn Barber meets Gordon Ramsay
