Ah, hello! Today I'm using one of my favourite vegetables: asparagus. I'm going to make asparagus
rolls, a good dish for a vegetable entremet or a side dish. For this recipe you will need...
I'm going to start with the custard. This is an easy custard to make. All you need
to do is mix the ingredients together and then cook it on the stove to thicken it.
This is a curious recipe. I found it in Mrs Rundell's and it's also in my Castles Dictionary.
Those older versions use cinnamon to flavour it but I'm going to change it. I'm going to
add a little bit of nutmeg and cheese to make it more suitable for a second course dish.
Now that's mixed I'm going to give it to Mary-Ann to cook
while I get on with the rest of the recipe.
I'm using a hard cheese. Parmesan is good.
Now that that is nice and thick, I'll add my cheese.
A little cayenne pepper.
Black pepper.
And some nutmeg.
I'm going to put a little bit of waxed paper just on the top to stop a skin from forming.
I'm now going to prepare my asparagus. If your asparagus isn't fresh, you can stand
the ends in cold water. Then ideally immerse it for two hours before you prepare it.
I'm lucky: the gardeners harvested this this morning so the ends shouldn't be too woody.
It would be different if I'd had to buy it in a market or a shop.
I still need to trim off the dry ends.
Some people like to snap asparagus but I think that with a knife you can be more precise.
You can only buy asparagus in the greengrocers' between April and June.
But here at Audley End House we like to extend the season. You can cut it down
and have another crop in September, oruse the hot houses and have a crop in December.
Families of quality like to eat asparagus out of season.
But really it tastes best at the right time of year.
These are now ready to boil. I'm going to boil them standing up.
Then, the thicker stalks will cook for longer than the more delicate
heads.
Now it's time for me to work on the bread rolls. These are just normal milk bread
rolls made from half milk and half water with a little lard in the dough to keep the crust soft.
I've made them in a cake tin to keep them neat and even and now I'm just going to take off the tops
to make them all the same and then
scoop out the crumb to make room for the custard and the asparagus.
The crumb can be used for breadcrumbs for gratin top or a fruit pudding. I don't think you need
me to tell you just how useful breadcrumbs are. Nobody should be throwing bread away.
Now I'm going to fill each roll with a little bit of custard.
And the asparagus.
You could fry these in butter or lard and if I was going to serve them hot I might do that,
or put them in the oven. But as today is so hot I'm going to serve them cold
and I've asked for a little more ice to be brought up from the ice cave.
And there you are. Asparagus rolls.