Ingredients
Scale
- 2 large or jumbo eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, more to taste
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar, more to taste
- ¼ tsp salt, more to taste
- Fresh ground pepper
- 8 oz. fresh asparagus, untrimmed
Instructions
- In large pot, place your steamer insert and add enough water to fill to right below the insert’s bottom. Cover and heat over high heat until boiling. While heating, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes. You’ll use this same bowl for “shocking” the asparagus.
- Place the eggs in the insert and lower the high to barely boiling (a high bowl risks cracking an egg). Cover and steam the eggs for 9 minutes. Make VERY SURE to not let the pot run dry. Add hot water to the pot if needed. When the eggs are steamed, put them in the ice bath to cool.
- Prepare the asparagus by removing the woody bottoms. Simply take one spear, holding each end with a hand, and snap it away from you to find the natural break point. Trim the remaining asparagus to this length with a knife.
- If needed, add more water to the pot with steamer insert, cover and bring to a boil. Add the asparagus. Steam until the asparagus is tender but still with a little crunch. This will depend on the thickness of the asparagus. Start checking pencil thin asparagus at 3 minutes and fat asparagus at 5 minutes.
- When the asparagus is done. Remove the eggs from the water bath and plunge in the asparagus until cool. This will “shock” them to retain the nice green color.
- Remove the asparagus from the water and carefully put on paper towels to dry. Pat the top of the asparagus with more towels to dry them well.
- Gently crack the shell of the eggs on a hard surface and peel the eggs. Give them a quick rinse in the water bath to remove any shell bits. Place in a small bowl. Using a fork, mash the eggs to the point that some pieces of the yolk and white are still visible. For starters, add 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp of red wine vinegar and ¼ tsp salt. Mixture together to form a rough paste. Taste and adjust the seasoning as you like. Finally, add a little ground black pepper. The sauce will flavor all the asparagus so it should have a good punch!
- On a serving platter, carefully arrange the dried asparagus with all the tips pointing the same way. Sprinkle some salt over all the asparagus. Then gently spoon the soft-cooked egg sauce over the asparagus as shown in the pictures.
- Serve family style with everyone taking some asparagus and sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Special equipment:
- Pot with strainer insert