Wild Asparagus Souffle
A recipe from one of our executive cheffs to make sure you make the most out of the wild asparagus season.
In the early spring it’s common in the Dubrovnik countryside to see older couples, or a little group of friends, slowly walking along the sides of the road, picking wild asparagus. Thought they usually know where to go and what to look for, “Asparagus hunting” can sometimes be a true “Where’s Waldo experience”.
If you don’t feel like wandering about in the woods, scouting the local market for local asparagus is always a „safe„ option. In Dubrovnik your options are the green market in the Old Town (Gundulićeva poljana) or the main market in Gruž .
Besides a most common version of serving wild asparagus in the region (shorty boiled, then cooled down and mixed with hard boiled eggs in to a delicious vinaigrette salad) here is our chef’s recommendation for the most delicious Asparagus Soufflé.
All you need is:
- 150 g. asparagus tops
- 150 g. butter
- 150 g. fine flour
- 1 dcl milk
- 50 g. grana padano cheese
- 3 egg whites
- Cut the asparagus tops to the length of 1cm and boil briefly for about 2 minutes. Take out the tops and put them into ice cold water to preserve the colour and stop the process of cooking. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add flour. When the mixture becomes light brown, add cold milk and stir to prevent lumps.
- Put the mixture of flour, butter and milk in a mixer/blender and add boiled asparagus, which you removed from the cold water. Mix together until you make a compact light green mix.
Place the mix into another bowl and add grated cheese and fine salt. - In another bowl, beat the egg whites into foam.
- Stir half of the snow white’s lightly into the asparagus mix until the mix is even (do not mix with a wire frother). Then add the other half of the snow whites and stir, but this time the mix doesn’t have to be mixed thoroughly, it may leave traces of colour.
- Grease a baking mould with butter and pour in the mix (soufflé), to fill the ¾ of the bowl.
- Bake it at 180 °C for 20-23 minutes.
Tastefully yours, Executive chef, Vapor restaurant, Hotel Bellevue
Visit us on Instagram