Two egg yolks thicken Hairy Bikers asparagus soup, whisked with crème fraîche and sherry and stirred in off the heat. Under that sit 500g of asparagus, butter, a shallot and 700ml of chicken stock. Big Book of Baking publishes it as German White Asparagus Soup and serves six at about 165 calories.
They write in the book that they visited an asparagus grower in Germany, picked some stems and cooked them right there. White asparagus, or spargel, is the popular variety over there, and the soup is a must during the season that starts in mid-May.
Off the heat means off the heat, not turned down. Yolks set at around 65°C, far below boiling, so a pan still simmering will scramble them in seconds and there is no way back from that.
Hairy Bikers Asparagus Soup
Description
The tips are cut off and held back at the very start, then returned whole after blending so they keep their shape. Peeled stalks sweat in butter with a shallot before the stock goes in. Crème fraîche, egg yolks and a spoon of dry sherry finish this Hairy Bikers asparagus soup.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Peel the asparagus: Peel each stalk from just under the tip down to the cut end. Chop off the tips and set them aside, then cut the stalks into 1cm pieces.
- Sweat the shallot: Melt the butter in a saucepan and sweat the shallot for about 5 minutes until translucent, without letting it brown.
- Add the stalks: Tip in the chopped stalks, keeping the tips back, and sweat gently with the shallot for another 5 minutes.
- Simmer: Pour in the stock and simmer until the stalks are very tender, which takes 20 to 30 minutes depending on their thickness.
- Blend: Tip everything into a food processor and blitz until very smooth, then pour it back into the pan.
- Cook the tips: Bring the soup back to a simmer and add the reserved tips. Cook gently for about 5 minutes, until just tender.
- Thicken off the heat: Mix the crème fraîche, egg yolks and sherry in a small bowl. Take the pan off the heat, stir the mixture in and keep stirring gently for a couple of minutes as it thickens. Warm through over a very low heat, stirring constantly and taking care not to break up the tips.
- Serve: Season with salt and white pepper and scatter over the parsley.
FAQs
Can I use green asparagus instead?
Yes, and the recipe offers it in its own ingredient list. Two things shift, though, and the book leaves both unsaid.
Green is thinner, so cut the simmer right back, nearer 10 to 15 minutes than 30, or the stalks disappear into the pan. The flavour changes as well, because green tastes grassier and slightly bitter where white is mild, so you get a stronger soup than the delicate one they were after.
Do I really have to peel it?
With white, yes. The bottom two-thirds of a white stalk carries a woody outer layer that never softens, so unpeeled pieces stay stringy however long they simmer.
Work from just under the tip downwards with a vegetable peeler, which is what the recipe asks for. Green asparagus skips this entirely, and thin green spears are better left alone altogether.
What do I do with the peelings?
Make stock. Peeling 500g of white asparagus leaves a proper pile of trimmings, and simmering those with the woody ends gives you an asparagus stock for nothing.
The recipe wants 700ml, so that stock can replace some or all of the chicken stock. It costs you only the time it was already going to take, and it pushes the soup further towards asparagus rather than diluting it.
How do I stop the egg yolks scrambling?
Whisk them with the crème fraîche and sherry before they go anywhere near the pan. The crème fraîche buffers the yolks, which is why the recipe combines them in a separate bowl rather than adding them straight.
Then keep the heat right down for the two minutes of stirring that follow. Their golden vegetable soup avoids all of this by using no dairy or eggs at all, and thickens on vegetables alone.
When can I buy white asparagus?
Late spring, and not for long. The German season, Spargelzeit, runs from about mid-May to the end of June, and almost all white asparagus in British shops is imported.
Buy it as fresh as you can find it. White loses condition faster than green and takes on a flat, cardboard taste as it sits, which is why German growers chill it in the field the moment it is cut. Their mushroom soup is the year-round alternative, since mushrooms are never out of season.
