Seasonal Recipe of the Week – Green and white English asparagus, duck egg yolk and fried bread, by Christopher Hrushkova

Ingredients
(Serves four)
4 free-range duck eggs
14 medium green asparagus spears
10 white asparagus spears
200ml double cream
Salt
1 egg white
Baked sourdough bread (one day old, without the crust)
Virgin rapeseed oil
Chickweed

Method
Poach the duck eggs whole for 80 minutes at 58°C in a water bath, cool in iced water and separate the yolks from the whites gently with your hands.

Juice four green asparagus spears for the sauce. Peel the white asparagus and cut two into smaller pieces, then simmer them gently until tender in the double cream. Blend the asparagus and cream, season with salt and add the resulting blend to an espuma with one egg white, using two N20 cartridges. Shake well and keep at 65°C.

Slice two green asparagus into thin strips and leave in iced water. Shred a handful of bread into small pieces and pan-fry in rapeseed oil.

Pan-fry the rest of the asparagus and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Assemble the salad by placing the duck egg yolk in a bowl plate, adding the fried and raw asparagus, fried bread croutons, the white asparagus espuma, chickweed and finally the green asparagus juice.
Christopher Hruskova, chef-proprietor, North Road, London

RECOMMENDED WINE Asparagus can be tricky to match with wine and is often thought of as a wine-unfriendly food. However, by sticking to crisp, dry, young whites you can generally find something to complement most asparagus dishes. Avoid oaky "sweet" whites and wines with tannin, a particularly unhappy combination that enhances bitterness and can make the wine taste strangely metallic. The obvious choice for this dish would be a Sauvignon Blanc, which can itself taste a little asparagussy, such as cheap South African or Marlborough examples. You can also stick with a more mineral style such as Sancerre or Sauvignon de Touraine. But as it's Jubilee year, I've plumped for an English Sauvignon lookalike called Bacchus (a cross between Sylvaner and Riesling) from Camel Valley in Cornwall. It's an attractive dry wine with crisp, fresh fruit and lively acidity which will nicely slice through the fattiness of the bread and egg yolk and bring out the very best of the asparagus.
Richard Rotti, group wine buyer, Caprice Holdings