Fetuccine with green asparagus and garlic pepper butter

Before asparagus season is over I had to prepare one more favorite asparagus meal.
Tim Mälzer, Germany's Jamie Oliver once cooked this in his show.
It is very simple, but so delicious!
It's best if you use fresh pasta and not the dried one.
I'm lucky to have several markets near my apartment that have fresh pasta stands.
You do not have to use Fetuccine.
Tagliatelle is fine and might even be better since the pasta is a little thinner.

Here is what you need for two people:

300-400g (fresh) Fettuccine/Tagliatelle

750g green asparagus

250g butter

65g green pepper (in a glass/pickled?)

3-4 garlic cloves (preferably fresh)

chervil (one bunch)

salt

parmesan (grana padano/parmigiano reggiano)

Chop the garlic cloves.
Blend the green pepper corns with garlic and season the mixture with salt.
Mix in the butter until everything is evenly mixed.
Remove the dried out ends of the asparagus and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
Heat up a pan and add about two tablespoons of the garlic-pepper butter.
When melted add the asparagus.
Make sure all asparagus pieces are coated with the melted butter.
Fry it for 3-5 minutes.
Then add a little bit of water (about 100ml) and let everything cook for at least another 5 minutes.
The asparagus should neither be too hard nor too soft and mushy.
Meanwhile fill a big saucepan with water and bring the water to boil.
Then add about 1-1.5 Teaspoons of salt and the pasta to it.
If the pasta comes in a bundle make sure to disconnect and losen the pasta strings a bit from each other.
Boil for about 5 minutes or according to the cooking instructions on the package.
Better try in between to make sure the pasta stays al dente.
When al dente strain the pasta.
Then add it to the asparagus and garlic-pepper butter and mix well.
Pour into two bowls and garnish with chopped chervil and freshly grated parmesan.

Pair with a Pinot Gris or pinot Blanc.

PS: I couldn't find chervil this time. So I used parsley as garnish instead.
Chervil tastes better though.
It is finer and tastes almost sweet, a bit similar to anise...

Asparagus with easy-peasy sauce hollandaise

I'm obsessed with asparagus!
No matter if green or white asparagus, I'm the happiest person when asparagus season finally arrives.
The most popular way of eating asparagus in Germany is probably with a good hollandaise sauce.
But making hollandaise at home can be quite tricky.
You have to whisk the whole time in order to prevent the eggs from clotting.
The first time I tried to make sauce hollandaise it was a total disaster.
Yesterday however I had to try it again and this time it worked pretty well.
I also found a real easy and foolproof recipe.
Only downside was that the sauce was not very hot.
But after my first hollandaise attempt where within literally a second, the whole thing irretrievably fell apart because of getting too hot I decided to stay on the safe side.
It worked perfectly!
The sauce was perfectly thick and creamy and I was pretty proud and happy...
I served the hollandaise with green and white asparagus, rosemary ham and a bottle of Schmittges dry Riesling.

For the hollandaise
you need:

200g butter

2 eggyolks

2Tbsp of white wine

seasoning:

fresh lemon juice

salt

pepper 

sugar

Melt the butter over low heat and set aside to cool down a bit.
Whisk the eggyolks and white wine over a bowl of hot water (double-boiler method/ bain marie) until thick and fluffy.
Remove from heat. Slowly whisk in the melted butter.
Season with lemon juice, pepper, salt and sugar.
If the sauce is not hot enough you can try to carefully heat it up over the hot water bowl.
But be careful!
If you stop whisking and the sauce got too hot already (over 60 degrees) the egg yolks will start clotting!


Oh, and here is how to prepare white asparagus:

Whereas green asparagus does not need to get peeled, white asparagus has a tough and bitter peel that has to get removed unless you don't want to chew on hard and bitter tasting asparagus pieces.
The easiest way to peel the spears is to use a special asparagus peeler (a potato peeler will do as well, though). Cut off the dried out and harder ends of each spear.
Boil water in a saucepan adding a tsp of sugar and a tsp of salt.
Put the asparagus into the boiling water and let it boil for about 8-10 minutes.

Serve with hollandaise or fried butter-breadcrumbs.

Let me introduce you to Joachim Rong...

www.joachimrong.de

One thing I love about Berlin is that there are so many little wine stores.

You can find one on almost every second street in Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte.

I love wine but I rarely have a clue what wine to drink with what kind of food.

Therefore it's best to just walk into one of those stores and ask the people there.

You tell them what you are planning to cook/eat and how much you are willing  to spend and they'll figure out what wine would be best.

Joachim really likes to drink wine, as well!

One of my favorite wine stores is Joachim Rongs Weingalerie on Gaudystraße 25 in 10437 Berlin (Prenzlauer Berg).

So far every wine he recommended to us was a perfect fit.

Joachim is a super nice guy who not only likes wine but, what's most important, also loves his job.

I remember walking into wine stores before and feeling kind of intimidated because I didn't have a clue and the owners often seemed annoyed. Especially when I told them that I wasn't planning to spend more than 8 or 9 Euros on a bottle.

Joachim is pretty easy and casual about this. Neither does he make a big mystery or science about the different varietals or wine-growing districts, nor will he try to sell you something at any cost or give you the feeling of not being a member of the privileged wine club society.
For him it's more important that the wine tastes good and that he can share his knowledge and new discoveries with you.The prices for a bottle start at around 6 Euros and go up to 60-70 Euros per bottle. He regularly offers wine tastings where he opens a couple of bottles and serves some snacks.
They range between 10 and 20 Euros.
In the back of his store Joachim has a little gallery where he regularly has small exhibitions and shows work of different artists.

My favorite wines at Joachim's 

(so far) are:

Whites

Hammel Sauvignon Blanc collage

Lomond Sauvignon Blanc

Barth Kabinett Riesling, dry

  

Reds

Abadal, Crianza Cabernet

Sauvignon-Merlot-Pla de Bages DO

Taurus Tinto Roble Tinto de Toro

Lomond Conebush Syrah

Salmon and Spinach Lasagna

I always wanted to cook a lasagne with fish and spinach.
I remember eating one years ago that was so good...
At least back then I thought it was.
Looking through the internet for recipes i found this for "Dill-Licious Salmon and Spinach Lasagne".

I liked it because they are using dill and white wine and two different kinds of cheese...
All of that works pretty well with spinach and fish.
Unfortunately I didn't have a proper sized casserole.
Mine was too big.
Therefore the lasagna turned out quite thin and a bit dry.
Even though I'm not sure if that was the only reason for the dryness.
After all I can say the lasagna was ok.
But a few things were still missing.



I want lasagna to be creamy and rich.
This one wasn't.
Also the flavors were quite bland.
it mainly tasted sour because of the lemon and the wine.
Therefore next time I might put cream and eggs in the creme fraiche sauce to give it more substance.
Or just make a bechamel adding dill, onions and nutmeg and white wine.
And I will replace the mozzarella or take at least a third and stronger cheese.

Oh, and I won't cook the salmon before.
Otherwise it gets too dry.
I'll just marinate it a bit, cut it into small pieces before adding it to the other ingrediences.

It'll cook in the oven anyway...