Asparagus Salad

Asparagus season is upon us, and we have let ourselves inspire by our visit to Rôtisserie this time. We haven't really copied the dish, there are several differences, but the truffle vinaigrette and the asparagus shavings are some of the similarities. Our best advice when it comes to asparagus is to buy good quality. Go to your local specialty store and pay that premium price. It's worth it. We went to Gutta på Haugen to get ours.

Ingredients
(Serves about 4 people as a starter)

4 green asparagus
4 white asparagus
a handful of ramson
1 chicory or endive salad
4 fresh figs
high quality almonds, try to get hold of Marcona or at least Valencia
extra virgin olive oil
truffle oil
balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Shock the vegetables!

The first thing you have to do is break off the hard lower tip on each asparagus. Then you peel them, and for this dish you want to save a few of the slices you peel off for decoration. Make a vinaigrette by mixing 4 parts extra virgin olive oil with 2 parts balsamic vinegar, a small teaspoon of truffle oil and salt & pepper.

We blanched almost all of the vegetables for this salad. The white asparagus was cooked for 4 minutes, the green asparagus 2 minutes, the chicory salad 1 minute and the ramson and asparagus peel 30 seconds. After cooking we transferred the vegetables directly into ice water, to shock them, and stop the boiling process. This preserves flavor and color.

The figs were cut in half and fried in a pan. As for the asparagus, they were fried in a pan too just before serving, about 1 minute per side. Cooking time depends on the size, and you want an asparagus that just barely bends if you hold it by one end.

Plate with the asparagus first, then the other vegetables. Top with asparagus peel and sprinkle roughly chopped almonds over. Spray it with vinaigrette! Yum