We’ve created a recipe for you that is a “remix” of the classic Asperge Maltaise.
Flavor profile of Asparagus and Foodpairing®
Asparagus is a vegetable that offers a lot of possible pairings. Foodpairing® opens your mind and stimulates your creativity, but it is always wise to control your enthusiasm when tapping into it’s power. Take a step back and always remember your gastronomic heritage, establishments and knowledge.
In our experience quite a lot of dishes draw their strength from their simplicity. Complicated combinations with a lot of flavors tend to get difficult to grasp, losing their elegance and beauty. Breaking traditional boundaries with challenging dishes is great fun and should be encouraged, but always make sure not to over-do it. Adding small twists to established dishes or themes can have more disarming effect than the next crazy concoction.
With this philosophy in mind, we decided to design a recipe with the classic Asperge Maltaise as a starting point. In case you forgot (shame on you!), that’s asparagus in a Mousseline sauce of orange juice. As can be observed in the Foodpairing tree of Asparagus, Asperges Maltaise makes complete sense in terms of the Foodpairing® theory, all ingredients share aroma compounds with asparagus and thus can be found in the Foodpairing tree of Asparagus. This again illustrates the power of Foodpairing. Not only can Foodpairing® be utilised to create innovative recipes, but it also explains the success of some classic hits.
Foodpairing Tree
We overhauled the classic recipe and searched for that surprising yet contributing twist on the classic theme, but still keeping the essence of it. Asparagus contains some floral notes that can also be found in coffee and smoked salmon. So we decide to add these ingredients. The orange was made into a gel to preserve its freshness, providing a nice contrast with the fattiness of the smoked salmon.
Asparagus – Coffee – Orange – Salmon
- 8 white asparagus AA
- 4 slices of cold smoked salmon
- 200 g orange juice
- 1,5 g agar
- ground coffee
- lamb lettuce
- some herbs
- butter
- pepper and salt
preparations
Peel the asparagus and make diagonal slices. Braise in some butter, then add some water, season with salt and pepper. Braise until al dente. Gel of orange: Mix the orange juice with the agar (if the juice is to sour, add some sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil. Pour in a recipient and allow to gel. Blend the gel and transfer into a piping bag. Place the asparagus on a plate. Put in the slice of smoked salmon. Pipe some gel in between. Sprinkle some ground coffee on the asparagus and finish with some leafs of lettuce and other herbs of your choice.
Go easy on the coffee, you don’t want to overpower your dish with its strong flavor.
