Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa

Is it spring yet? It’s sure starting to feel like it. My daffodils are blooming, the chives in the garden are coming back, and my nectarine tree has started to blossom.

On the culinary front, asparagus is here! I haven’t seen any of my other springtime favorites yet, but it’s time to watch out for pea shoots and fava beans at the farmer’s market. I used my asparagus to make a salad from the Bouchon cookbook.

For this salad, asparagus stalks are blanched and dressed in a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, Dijon and olive oil. As is customary, the woody ends of the stalks are snapped off prior to cooking. When you go to cut the stalks into even lengths, save the trimmings; they’re used to make an asparagus coulis.

The plating of the salad starts with a dollop of the asparagus coulis. The asparagus stalks are piled on top and showered with hard boiled egg yolk, julienned radish and fresh chives.

I love the presentation of this salad, it’s very elegant. This was quite delicious too, the flavors worked well together. I know I’ve professed my love for root vegetables on more than one occasion, but this dish made it clear to me that I’m ready for some spring produce.


Chilled asparagus with vinaigrette and eggs mimosa
Serves 2
Adapted from Bouchon

1 bunch of asparagus
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dijon mustard
3 hard boiled egg yolks
2 radishes, julienned
1 T minced chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Snap the woody end off each asparagus stalk, discard the ends. Trim the stalks to an equal length, reserve the trimmings. Blanch the asparagus stalks for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Transfer the asparagus to a bowl of ice water. Once the asparagus has cooled, remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Place the asparagus trimmings in the pot of boiling water, cook until very tender, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the trimmings from the pot and place in the bowl of ice water.

For the coulis, transfer the trimmings to a food processor with a little bit of the cooking water. Blend until a smooth puree forms. You may need to add a bit more water to get a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil and mustard; season to taste with salt and pepper.

Press the egg yolks through the smallest holes on a cheese grater, set aside.

To assemble, toss the asparagus stalks with the vinaigrette. Spoon the coulis onto the plate, and top with the stalks. Add the egg yolks on top of the asparagus, then place the radish julienne in a pile on the egg yolks. Sprinkle with chives.

Sunday night chicken dinner

As I've mentioned before, on weeknights I don't have a lot of time and energy for cooking, so I do a lot of prep work on the weekends and try to choose weekday meals that aren't too difficult. I tend to cook more complicated and time consuming dishes on Sundays. Today it was a brined roast chicken from the Bouchon cookbook, with a couple of vegetable sides.

I don't use my Bouchon cookbook much, so I decided it was time to put it to use. The roasted chicken recipe is something that you definitely need to plan out ahead of time. The brine is flavored with garlic, rosemary, parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves, honey, lemon and thyme, and is best made a day in advance. The chicken needs to brine for 6 hours prior to cooking. The chicken roasts at 475 degrees, which gives the skin a beautiful mahogany sheen. The nice thing about brining is that it provides extra insurance that you'll end up with a moist bird even if you overcook it a little. In my case, it came out perfectly cooked.


Was it worth the extra effort to brine the chicken? I think so, I'll be doing it again in the future.

I chose two new vegetable recipes to accompany the chicken. First up is sherry vinegar and molasses glazed carrots, from the latest issue of Bon Appetit. If I was making this for a special occasion I would pay the extra money for baby carrots; this was a casual dinner so I went with larger carrots cut into sticks. The carrots are simmered in a mixture of butter, sherry vinegar, molasses and water, and then glazed with more molasses and vinegar and finished with salt, pepper and parsley. The molasses and vinegar added a nice complexity to what would otherwise be a pretty standard glazed carrot recipe. I also added a little fleur de sel at the end for some crunch.

Next up was spinach with garlic confit from the Bouchon cookbook. Garlic confit is made by slowly simmering whole cloves of garlic in canola oil. The dish combines butter, minced shallots, fresh spinach, garlic confit, salt and pepper. It's actually quite simple and quick if you make the garlic confit in advance.

Overall, the meal was a great success. I love it when I try new recipes and everything comes out the way it's supposed to.

On an unrelated note, my friend Mary Rose sent me this great link to Cooks Illustrated's grocery shopping guide. I love that Cooks Illustrated tests out all these ingredients, I don't love that I can't find a lot of the top rated brands in California!