Polish-style asparagus or asperges à la polonaise is a delightful preparation for both white and green asparagus that you should know. It is also extremely simple.
Every year we long for the short white asparagus season, which gives us a kick-start to spring. We have already explained some dishes with asparagus here – just use the blog’s search function.
We have described in the recipe linked here how we cook white asparagus, namely not by boiling it in water (which only washes out the flavour), but in the oven. We strongly advise you not to do it any other way.
Historically, polonaise is a garnish originating from Polish cuisine that consists of breadcrumbs browned in butter, hard-boiled, chopped egg and chopped parsley.
You can make your own breadcrumbs and that’s how we like to use leftover bread.
Bring plenty of butter to a foam over a medium heat…
…then stir in breadcrumbs. They soak up the butter immediately and the whole thing seems too dry at first.
Now patiently toast the breadcrumbs, stirring occasionally. They will gradually darken and release some of the butter.
The aim is a bronze-colored, fragrant roast. If it appears sufficient, the pot must be removed from the heat IMMEDIATELY, as this mixture is extremely hot and will continue to cook. So don’t try to taste it. It won’t end well (which reminds us of this dish).
We have explained how to cook eggs perfectly here.
We don’t spare the parsley in this preparation.
The rest is easy. The asparagus, perfectly cooked in the oven, is generously sprinkled with the polonaise and basted with melted butter. Many people use brown butter at this point, which is always delicious. But to our taste, the polonaise doesn’t need any more such reinforcement because of the toasted breadcrumbs. The star of the show is also the asparagus, whose delicate flavor we don’t want to mask. As we prepare the asparagus in sachets in the oven, we simply baste them at the end with the jus that forms inside.
Bild fertig
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients ( for 2 people):
For the asparagus:
1 kg white asparagus
1 teaspoon each of sugar and salt, a pinch each of pepper and nutmeg
80 g butter
For the polonaise:
2 eggs, hard-boiled
80 g butter
80 g breadcrumbs
Leaves from 1 bunch of parsley
