Asparagus season is here! No sooner does the first asparagus stick its tender tips out of the earth than it is already on its way onto our dinner plates.
Bavaria’s asparagus season is officially inaugurated with the symbolic asparagus cut on Munich’s Viktualienmarkt in mid-April. There are many ways to enjoy asparagus: with oil and vinegar as a salad, warm with sauce hollandaise, wrapped in ham or as a soup. Chef de cuisine Patrick Schädlich of the angelo by Vienna House Munich Leuchtenbergring shows you how to serve this fine vegetable in a somewhat different way while making a delicious appetizer and gift to bring along when invited to someone’s home.
Wild garlic and lemon cup cakes with fried asparagus and rhubarb-blueberry chutney
Ingredients (serves 4)
Wild garlic lemon cup cakes with quark cream
60 g wheat flour
10 g maize starch
40 g parmesan
1 egg
50 ml milk
1 tsp. baking powder
30 ml walnut oil
½ bunch wild garlic
Rind of 2 lemons
grated Salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg
10 g quark
35 g mascarpone
10 ml raspberry vinegar
Pepper, salt, sugar
Fried asparagus:
12 stalks white asparagus
8 stalks green asparagus
300 g breadcrumbs
75 g flour
4 eggs
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1 lemon
2 l water
Vegetable oil
Rhubarb-blueberry chutney:
250 g rhubarb
50 g shallots
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch cayenne pepper
80 ml raspberry vinegar
140 g brown cane sugar
150 g blueberries
Salt, pepper
Preparation
Purée the wild garlic with the eggs, milk and walnut oil. Sieve the flour and maize starch into a bowl, add the puréed mixture and stir to make a smooth batter. Add baking powder and the grated rind of 3 lemons. Now finely grate the parmesan and fold into the mixture. Season to taste.
Fill the batter into the cake moulds and bake for about 15 minutes at 175°C. Take out of the oven and set aside to cool.
Mix together the quark, mascarpone and raspberry vinegar until smooth, then season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar. Place the quark mixture into an icing bag and decorate the cup cakes with a star-shaped nozzle.
Peel the white asparagus and cut off the last 2 cm of the tips. Peel the lower third of the green asparagus and cut off the last 2 cm.
Add water into a pot and bring to the boil, then add salt and pepper. Cut a lemon in half and add to the boiling water with the white asparagus. Bring back to the boil and then let the asparagus simmer for about 15 minutes. Rinse the asparagus in ice water.
Add the green asparagus to the hot water, bring to the boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes until firm but just tender. Rinse the green asparagus in ice water.
Tip: Save the peels and the tips and add to the asparagus water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. Drain and use as a base for asparagus soup.
Now beat the eggs. Toss the asparagus in flour and egg. Let the egg drip off slightly and toss in the breadcrumbs. Fry the asparagus in hot vegetable oil until golden yellow and let drip dry on a kitchen towel.
Cut off the leaves and the lower leaf stalks from the rhubarb. Completely peel off the thin skin and the tough fibres. Cut the rhubarb in small pieces. Peel and finely dice the shallots. Add the rhubarb, shallots, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and vinegar in a pot and bring to the boil. Mix in the cane sugar and let simmer at reduced heat for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly, until the chutney has the consistency of a preserve. Wash the blueberries and add to the chutney. Let cool before serving.
Gift tip: Fill the chutney in a glass while hot, close immediately and stand on its head to cool. Decorate. Voilà! .
To serve
Place the fried asparagus in the middle of the plate so that the tips point towards the guest. Add the rhubarb-blueberry chutney parallel to the asparagus and position the wild garlic and lemon cup cakes in the upper right corner of the plate. Decorate with shiso cress and blueberries.
A spring delight – Bon appétit!