Asparagus à la Livar
Asparagus à la Livar: A new take on asparagus à la Flamande with the classic components like ham, egg, potatoes and butter. To match the dish even better with our special white beer Livar White Gold the traditional components are used slightly differently to achieve the most beautiful beer-food combination. While maintaining culinary tradition, of course.
Ingredients (for 4 persons)
For the asparagus
- 12 white Limburg AA1 asparagus
- 200 ml of cooking cream
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 mace leaf
For the asparagus beurre blanc
- 500 ml Noilly Prat (vermouth)
- 3 shallots, sliced
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- Sliced 2 x 2 cm piece of fresh ginger
- 200 ml asparagus cooking liquid
- 100 g cold butter
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- Knife tip xanthan gum or other good binder
For the oil of wild garlic and chives
- 1 large bunch of fresh wild garlic
- 1 large bunch of fresh chives
- Grape seed oil
For the potato mousseline
- 500 g floury potatoes
- 100 ml milk
- 50 ml of cooking cream
- 50 g Livar lard
- Pinch of salt
- Nutmeg
For the béarnaise
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
- 100 g cold butter
- 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise from a jar
- Small bunch of fresh tarragon
Other trimmings
- 12 slices of Livar ham
- Deep-fried potato crackers
- nasturtium
- 4 bottles of Livar White Gold
- For the potato mousseline, boil the crumbly potatoes (without skin) in water until tender. Push them through a bulb sieve with a scraper or ladle. Meanwhile, warm the milk, cooking cream and lard in a pan and stir well. Then add the mixture to the potatoes. Season the mousseline with a little salt and nutmeg.
- Peel the asparagus, put all the ingredients in a vacuum bag and cook the asparagus sous vide at 88 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. Remove the asparagus from the bag and save the liquid for the sauce. No sous vide machine? Then cook the white asparagus al dente in 10 minutes with the peels and other ingredients added in the kettle. For the asparagus cooking liquid, mix 100 grams of asparagus cooking water with 100 grams of cooking cream. With either method, immediately chill the asparagus back in the fridge. Before serving, warm in a knob of butter with a little water.
- Put the Noilly Prat, shallot, lemongrass and ginger in a saucepan and reduce to one-fourth over medium-high heat. Pass through a sieve and add the asparagus cooking liquid. Also add a very small amount of water. Bring to the boil once over medium-high heat and remove from the heat. Using a hand blender, blend the sauce with the binder and cold butter until you have a nice emulsion. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Warm up in a saucepan before use, but do not let boil any more! The sauce may then separate due to the acids in it.
- Blanch the scallions and chives for half a minute and immediately cool back on ice water. Pat completely dry. In a blender, put the chives, chives and grapeseed oil together and pass through a sieve with kitchen paper or a coffee filter. Warm the asparagus beurre blanc and mix with the green oil (ratio 80% sauce, 20% oil) for a nice flaked white-green sauce. Do not mix too long, as the oil will dissolve completely in the sauce and you will lose the zest.
- Make the béarnaise. Refer to this clip. Instead of gastrique, use tarragon vinegar. Finally, add some freshly chopped tarragon and put away covered in a warm place.
- Warm up all components, dress the dish with the remaining garnishes and serve with a delicious ice-cold glass of Livar White Gold.