Cream of asparagus soup with Morels

From: r.gagnaux@chnet.ch (Rene Gagnaux)

Dat e: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 12:00:00 +0100

Fredy Girardet: 'I like to serve a light little soup at the start of a

meal. In a menu of four or fives courses, this is one of the best soups for

sharpening the appetite'.

Servings: 4

Thin green asparagus spears

Fat green asparagus spears,

-- about 10 cm (4 in) long

Shallot, medium-sized

100 g Fresh morels (3 1/2 oz) or

-- 15 g (1/2 oz) dried ones

100 g Unsalted butter (3 1/2 oz)

200 ml Double cream (scant 1/2 pint

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne

Preparation

Clean the asparagus spears and cook the thin ones for about 5 minutes and

the fat ones for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain both

kinds and reserve the water in which they cooked. Cut off the tips of the

eight thin spears and set them aside for the garnish.

Peel and chop the shallot finely. Wash the morels CAREFULLY and cut them

into quarters (if you are using dried ones, soak them in water for at

least half an hour before this step).

Heat half the butter in a saucepan. Add two-thirds of the chopped shallot

and colour in the butter. Add the six fat asparagus spears and 200 ml (a

scant 1/2 pint) of their reserved cooking water. Bring to the boil.

Add the cream and reduce it by boiling fast for 2 minutes. Liquidise the

soup with 30g (1 oz) of the remaining butter. Wash out the saucepan.

Strain the liquidized soup through a fine sieve. Season with salt, pepper

and cayenne, and return it to the cleaned saucepan. Set it aside.

Finishing

Reheat the thin asparagus tips by warming them through in a little of

their cooking liquid. Reheat the asparagus soup.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/soup/cream-of/cream-asp.html (1 of 2) [12/17/1999 12:01:55 PM]

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