As you can imagine, I’m not a great fan of sliced bread, But please don’t dismiss my claim that there is one thing that is better than sliced bread, and that by miles, too lightly! If the whole of Germany goes insane when the first white asparagus of the season appears in the shops and market stalls, surely, it must be massive.
My friend Chrissie posted a whole series of posts on the topic – do check out her stunning pictures of piles and bunches of the stuff, as well as her – neutral and objective – accounts of the frenzy it drives us to. But the appearance of the first crates of it does mark the arrival not just of Spring, but of the ‘asparagus season’. In case you haven’t tried it, white asparagus is like the posh brother of the green: bigger, juicier and subtler in taste, it is often described as the ‘royal’ vegetable. By continually covering the shoots with soil as they are growing, they are prevented from reacting with the light and thus remain white.
The first wave of white asparagus tends to be overpriced and imported, and it does pay off to wait a little. The most prized asparagus comes from the area around Bruchsal, in Baden-Württemberg, where the soil conditions and the average temperatures create the most suitable conditions. Regardless of the changes in temperatures and the weather, the season is invariably too short and by June 24, St John’s., it is definitely over. No wonder people get restless once the first asparagus appear.
Unfortunately, Britain is not impressed. As a result, I had to go without white asparagus for many years. But luckily, we had decided to spend Easter in the beautiful town of Aachen. Wedged between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, Aachen rose to fame as early as the Iron Age, when the Celts were drawn to its smelly hot springs. The odour of rotten eggs must have appealed to Roman tastes, too, as they built a wide range of spa-style bathing houses in the area in order to maximise the potential health benefits of the stinky hot water.
Nobody noticed, apparently. During the Middle Ages, Charlemagne made Aachen the centre of the Holy Roman Empire and gave it its impressive cathedral. In the 18th and 19th Century, Aachen became one of the most fashionable spa towns of the time: from Handel to, basically, any king, queen or celebrity of the time, they all went there. Still nobody minded the fact that the surprisingly hot springs smell of, well, rotten eggs.
The result of all this, however, is a stunning medieval city, framed by impressive fortified towers, that makes a visit well worth your time. Especially around Easter, where the scent of sulphur can easily be explained by the German tradition of hiding painted and hard-boiled eggs around the garden for the children to find. And it they are hidden too well, well …
Our poor kids had to work hard for their Easter fun: first they had to dye the eggs
and decorate them,
before looking for them all around the garden on Easter Sunday.
Thankfully, the Easter Bunny didn’t make it too difficult.
After all that hard work, the parents, too, deserved their Easter treat: white asparagus. We serve it traditionally with boiled potatoes, lightly fried in a little goose fat and parsley, and warm savoury pancakes called Flädle. But the finishing touch is the Sauce Hollandaise, an incredibly silky foam that makes it easy to forget that it is made of, well, butter. And some lemon juice, which makes it almost healthy…
White Asparagus with Sauce Hollandaise (serves 4)
For the asparagus:
- 24 shoots of white asparagus (ca. 6 per head)
- 1 tbs butter
- 1 tsp salt
For the Sauce Hollandaise:
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1 tbs cold water
- 140g unsalted butter
- salt, pepper, to taste
Before you even touch the asparagus, get your side dishes started: boil the potatoes or fry the Flädle. Keep them warm in the oven, covering them in tinfoil. Don’t forget to place a large serving plate into the oven, too, to keep the asparagus warm when they are being served.
Peeling the asparagus takes a little time: using a potato peeler or a small vegetable knife, you need to remove a thin layer, starting below the tips. Cut off 1 cm or 1/2 in off the bottom – this will give you an idea of how much of the skin you need to peel off.
Having paid a small fortune for the stuff, you will start worrying about wasting too much of it:
But don’t you worry: the peel and all will be used in due time to make the base of an equally delicious cream of asparagus soup!
Once you’re ready, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the butter and the salt. Ideally the asparagus should be boiled standing upright, only the bottom 3/4 covered in water and the tips sticking out, as they take the least time to cook.
As the asparagus is boiling (which takes around 15-20 minutes, you have time to make the sauce. To this purpose, boil a little water in a small casserole. Place a bowl or similar inside the hot water, to create a bain marie. In it, mix the egg yolks, lemon juice and water, ideally using a sick blender or hand-held mixer (the ones with the little blades). You can whisk it by hand, too, apparently, but since my trained-chef-cousin told me to use the former, I haven’t looked back.
Cut the butter into small chunks (ca. 30g each) and keep blending while adding one chunk at a time. If it gets too thick, add another 1/2 tbs cold water but keep blending. Once you’ve used up all the butter, simply season with salt and pepper. Simple.
Should, for whatever reason, the butter curdle, you can use the same trick that rescues mayonnaise to save your sauce: simply start again, using 2 egg yolks and a tbs of water, and gradually add the curdled butter, one spoonful at a time. That’ll do the trick.
The asparagus are ready when they are soft: either prick the lower ends with a fork or lift a shoot out: once the head nods slightly, the asparagus are cooked.
Serve alongside potatoes, lightly browned in butter or goose fat and sprinkled with a little parsley, and some rolled-up Flädle pankakes, if you had the time to prepare them. Sadly, we got a bit carried away and forgot all about them…
Ginger&Bread 
What a beautiful spring post!
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Thank you! It was such a lovely and warm day today – perfect to feel all positive again!
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Looks wonderful, as do the potatoes! I haven’t had white asparagus in years, but you’ve inspired me to seek it out. My Dutch grandmother was crazy about it.
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It must be a Central European thing …
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Oh Ginger I am so jealous! The white asparagus we can find here just doesn’t compare with the German-Dutch varieties! What a wonderful post and recipe. Njust wish I could jump through my screen to your table. I made a white asparagus deep dish quiche last year and my German friends said it just wasn’t as good as if made with the real white asparagus. Had it once in Belgium and I will never forget it. On the bucket list!!
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You might have to travel to Europe again! Just check you do it during the season … 😉
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Interesting fact about how th write asparagus is created, thank you for sharing!!
I’ll pick up some this weekend now ☺☺
Happy belated Easter my love!
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Lucky you – I have to travel across the seas to get some! Looking forward to the Dana treatment!
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I had a similar white asparagus dish when I was travelling in Switzerland and it was delicious! I think it’s hard to get white asparagus here in Singapore but if I do find it one day, will definitely give this recipe a try! 🙂
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It is amazing – and the less you do to it, the better!
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So this was your Easter in the end- I can see you had some fun girl! French are crazy about white aspargus- enough to say once the season starts it’s a must for lunch! I love that picture with the kids and the eggs- brings really good memories back 😀 xx
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Pity we couldn’t meet up – had some lovely Polish potato dumplings, too! As for the Easter egg hunt, that led to a minor diplomatic stand-off as to whether to have it on the Sunday (German tradition) or the Monday (Polish)…
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Well, at my place that would be Sunday too but we live 50km from the German border 😉 and the kids would not wait until Monday anyway!
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Ha ha, that argument won us German Christmas! My son did want to fit in with his friends a few years back, waiting for Santa instead of the Christkind, but the thought of another 12-hour-wait …
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What a great post, thank you! Your trip sounds wonderful, the asparagus looks fab and the shots of the children is lovely xx
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It was so much fun – it’s nice to hunt for eggs without rain or snow, so we felt very privileged this year!
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Lovely xx
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Ooooh, white asparagus! Yummy yummy. This is a lovely post, Ginger, from the explanations on how white asparagus grows to the pictures of Aachen and Easter. Happy spring!
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I do think they are different varieties, white and green, for as far as I remember both are quite tricky to pick as you need to almost dig them up individually to cut them!
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The photos are lovely as usual. Living in France, I can buy locally grown white asparagus, which I like to serve with a mousseline sauce that I was introduced to by French friends. It’s a simple mayonnaise with the egg whites beaten until stiff and then folded in. Last week, my cousin made white asparagus soup from a recipe by the Hairy Bikers, it was delicious.
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I’ll have to check that out – both the sauce and the soup! Thanks for mentioning it, Gill!
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Absolutely beautiful – we get white asparagus in Spain (both fresh and the not quite so good but ok, tinned). Never seen it in England though 😦
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You see, I can’t bear the tinned version! But fresh … OMG … Thank God we still have the peel left for the soup today!
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Ginger
This is such a rustic recipe!
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Great plant-based meal here!
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I knew I could do it 😉
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Oooh nom nom nom 😜
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Eeee I’m excited about our first lot of Spargel! I’m away tomorrow when the market’s on so I’m going to have to instruct my husband to inspect the prices and see if it’s worth it yet. Thank you very much for all the linking – and the reminder about just how much butter’s in the Hollandaise 😉
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You can put in more butter if you want – simply add a little water when it gets too stiff LOL
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Simply stunning
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We had exactly this on Thursday night for tea… Sadly a lot of the crops were damaged in the hurricane so I see a huge price hike in the near future…
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Oh noooooooo!!!!
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Pingback: Spargel Season in Germany – LEATHER & ABEL
Totally missed this post! I love white asparagus too and miss them here in the UK. Luckily I found a few places now where to buy them, a few farmshops relatively nearby me sometimes sell (Dutch) ones but more reliable the German Deli in London imports them weekly from Germany during the season. And sells them online!
Too late for this year but maybe next year?
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I have to check out the German Deli! Where is it? I only know of the bakery in Windsor!
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Just realised your also in London area!
The German deli is on the Southbank very near to Borough Market. It’s tiny but as said …. they import white aspargaus from Germany every year during the season… If you google German deli London you can find it.
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Just googled it. Its http://www.germandeli.co.uk. They also have a stall on Borough Market (selling mainly bratwurst if I recall correctly) but the shop itself is in Park Street next to Borough Market (see bottom website about us/our shops). Plus they sell online.
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I’ll have to pay them a visit sometime – Borough Market and Bratwurst already sound quite promising 😉
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