Asparagus Mimosa

I was so excited to see the fresh asparagus show up at the Farmer's Market last week. I am an absolute nut about asparagus and will eat it pretty much every chance I get: steamed, grilled, pureed into soups, added to stir-frys, even shaved with a vegetable peeler and used as a substitute for pasta. Farm fresh asparagus is a huge treat given how short the growing season is this far north and how labour intensive hand-picking asparagus can be. When I can get it this fresh I don't particularly want to obscure or minimize its flavour, which leads to simple preparations like this Asparagus Mimosa from Plenty.

I highly recommend this recipe - it's really quick to throw together (fifteen minutes or less), and has a surprisingly complex flavour for how few ingredients comprise the list. If you have a chance, salt-packed capers tend to have a superior flavour, although you may want to soak them for a few minutes in cold water to reduce their punch. If you have the more common brine-packed capers, that is not a disadvantage here - the brine droplets seemed to mix a bit with the drizzle of olive oil and the flavour combination was lovely. I also recommend using the best quality eggs you can come across, as their flavour is very prominent in this dish. Really, I advocate eating the best quality everything you can afford, because flavour is kinda the point. ^_~

Asparagus Mimosa 
(p. 182, Plenty)

Serves 4 as a starter
(Serves 2 as a light lunch if you add a little something else)

2 eggs
2 bunches of medium thickness asparagus
2 tbsp good-quality olive oil
2 tsp small capers, drained
1 tsp Maldon sea salt (or other large flake sea salt if you can't find Maldon)
fresh ground black pepper

Assemble your ingredients:

Put a small pot of water on to boil. When it is boiling, gently lower your eggs into it and simmer for 9 minutes.

While your eggs are cooking, snap the ends off your asparagus (I ended up doing this while waiting for the water to boil):

You can cook the asparagus submerged in a separate pot of boiling water for 3-4 minutes or until tender, or, if you dislike doing dishes as much as I do, you can set the spears (thick end down) into the same pot of boiling water as currently houses your eggs. I can't remember where I learned this trick but it's my favourite way to cook asparagus now - the thick ends get all the tenderizing heat, and the delicate tips steam-cook without getting limp and soggy. I threw my asparagus in after the eggs had cooked for 3 minutes as they were rather thick stalks and that worked out quite well.

Once your eggs are cooked, remove them from the pot and place them in a bowl of cold water to cool down.

Once your asparagus has finished cooking, remove it from the pot and arrange it on a plate. Let it cool just a bit until it's warm but not hot. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the spears, then grate the egg over them with the large holes of a box grater. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and capers over the grated egg and enjoy.