Butter with the fish - asparagus time with Maître Philippe & Filles

It's asparagus time! The actual fifth season for many, measured by the euphoria that the first green and white stalks trigger everywhere... we are no exception and have actually been thinking long before which wine we should declare asparagus wine of the year: this year it became the Camaleaõ , a fabulous Vinho Verde from Portugal. Lively and light and excellent with the delicious spring vegetables.

When the wine question has been clarified, the next one arises: what should I eat with the asparagus? Melted butter, hollandaise sauce, cooked or raw ham? Egg? Pancakes? Our answer is: sardines! And butter!

Thomas Vetter from the Sardinen.Bar came up with the combination of green and white asparagus with the fine sardines for frying in barrel butter from Beillevaire with lemon from La Perle des Dieux. I visited him in his shop in Berlin Schöneberg and cooked the recipe with him.

There was also a quick hollandaise sauce and a quick little film came out of it. This shows all movements in time lapse. For those who find that too fast, there is the classic text version a little further down.

Ingredients:

• asparagus
• Sardines in butter and lemon (or with pepper ) from La Perle des Dieux
• butter
• olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• sugar
• salt and pepper
• potatoes
• eggs
• Herb essence*: 1 part water, 1 part white wine , 1 part white vinegar , 10 peppercorns, 6 shallots, 6 allspice corns, 1 clove, 1 bay leaf, parsley, tarragon, chervil
• Baked cocktail tomatoes** (optional as decoration): cocktail tomatoes, olive oil, salt & pepper , thyme, garlic, rosemary, powdered sugar.

You can find all the ingredients at a glance here .

Preparation:

The green asparagus does not have to be peeled, just cleaned a bit. However, the ends should be cut off, as these are usually a bit woody. To keep it nice and crunchy, it is blanched very briefly in boiling salted water and quenched in cold water. So it keeps its beautiful green color.

The white asparagus must be peeled and the ends removed. In the meantime, it is best to boil a pot with water, some lemon and orange zest and juice, a pinch of sugar and salt. Then turn off the fire and cook the asparagus in hot (no longer boiling) water covered with kitchen paper. The kitchen paper prevents the asparagus from swimming to the surface of the water. It stays nice and deep in the hot water and cooks evenly. The asparagus is ready when it is al dente. This is best tested with a sharp knife.

Potatoes are recommended as an accompaniment to the asparagus. The simple variant is jacket or boiled potatoes. Optionally, you can also slice the potatoes, place them on a baking sheet or ovenproof dish, sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil and then bake in the oven until lightly browned.

For the hollandaise sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan and continue cooking until it clears. Then the whey settled to the bottom of the pot and burned. This turns the butter slightly brown and gives it a fine nutty aroma. Pass the "nut butter" obtained in this way through a sieve (optionally lined with kitchen paper) to obtain only the clear butter without the burnt whey.

Separate 4 egg yolks from the egg whites and beat the yolks with a herbal essence* over a water bath until the whole thing is stiff. Then slowly stir in the clarified butter (do not beat again). Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Now the sauce is actually ready. But if you want a little more effect (and taste!), you can pour the sauce into a cream siphon. By spraying, the sauce is enriched with oxygen, which releases more aromas and thus not only ensures pretty florets on the plate, but actually also provides a more intense taste experience.

Place the closed tin of sardines in Beillevaire barrel butter and lemon (although the kind with pepper also goes very well with it!) in warm water for a short time so that the butter in it melts slightly and the sardines are easier to remove from the tin. Then open the can and pour the contents of the can into a pan. Warm up briefly over medium heat with the lid closed. In this way, the sardine is heated as gently as possible and the skin remains intact.

Fry the green asparagus briefly in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now just arrange everything nicely on a plate and don't forget to pour the good sardine butter from the can over the asparagus and sardines!

Bon Appetit!

*Preparation of the herbal essence: 1 part water, 1 part white wine (ideally the wine you intend to drink), 1 part white vinegar, 10 peppercorns, 6 peeled and finely chopped shallots, 6 allspice corns, 1 clove and 1 bay leaf, bring to the boil and reduce to a third. Add the chopped parsley, tarragon and chervil for the last 5 minutes, then pass the essence through a sieve.

** pop the tomatoes in a pan in the oven at over 200°C, remove and dust and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, rosemary and a little powdered sugar. Then cook in the oven at 180°C.

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Our wine recommendation: We always recommend Vinho Verde as a classic with asparagus. This year's new discovery is the Vinho Verde Camaleaõ , a fresh but non-floral creation of the talented young oenologist João Maria Cabral Almeida. Refreshing, mineral and light, with nice tension and low acidity, as well as notes of lime and white peach.

Vinho Verde Camaleaõ 2016: the bottle for €7.95 | The box of 6 for €44.00

A nice alternative is the Vinho Verde from Quinta do Ameal or a rosé, for example the Rosé de Provence from Château Margillière . Or – to stay in Portugal – the Dão Rosé by Álvaro Castro !

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The Sardinen.Bar is located at Grunewaldstraße 79 in 10823 Berlin Schöneberg. There you can get sardines as well as other fine delicacies from Maître Philippe & Filles: