Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

Asparagus, you wait what seems an eternity for it to arrive, you first start to eat it and the season is already over.

Asparagus for me is one of my favourite vegetables, when it arrives it really feels like you have turned the corner of winter and the new menu is here to stay. Over the month or so that Asparagus is in season I try to eat as much of it as is humanly possible including it or serving Asparagus with every meal. You can add Asparagus to most dishes but the best way to eat Asparagus is simply – steamed Asparagus for me is enough, but as I had a few friends coming over for my St George’s day dinner party menu I thought I would glam it up a little and combine it with a few other fantastic flavours.

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

So simple, can be prepared in advance and looks impressive what else could you ask for in an appetiser or starter?

Ingredients:

25 spears of English Asparagus

25 rashers of British cured streaky bacon smoked

Maldon Salt

Black Pepper

7 duck eggs (pick out the blue ones for a better effect!)

I made this dish for 7, but you can easily scale it down you’ll need 3 Asparagus spears, 3 Rashers of Bacon and a Duck egg per serving.

On a chopping board take a rasher of bacon and place on the chopping board, using a knife stroke the bacon with the flat side of the knife and run it along the rasher. This will flatten the rasher and make it longer. Now grind a little Black Pepper onto the rasher (you won’t need salt as the Bacon will season the Asparagus). Place the Asparagus spear on the rasher – the bottom of the spear level with the bottom edge of the bacon and then roll the Asparagus until it has a perfect little coat of bacon and only the Asparagus tip is exposed. Repeat with the remaining Asparagus and bacon until you have 25 snuggly wrapped Asparagus Spears in the beautiful smoky bacon. Now, it was a warm day and evening on St George’s day so I had the Barbecue out however, you could cook these just as easily on a griddle pan or even in the oven.

On the hob place a large saucepan, fill and get the water to a rolling boil.

It’s now all about the timing, get some plates warmed with an egg cup for each and place the Asparagus on the Barbecue (griddle or however you are cooking them); when they are nearly cooked and crispy place the duck eggs in the boiling water. If you are cooking one or two eggs they will take 3 minutes to soft boil, I was cooking 7 so I left them for an additional minute.

Take the top of the duck egg off for your guests and sprinkle in a little Salt and Pepper, serve the Asparagus on the side of warm plate and the egg and its top also on the plate.

Grown up dippy eggs!! Warm duck yoke with crispy bacon and the fantastic flavours of Asparagus and for those who are lucky enough to cook it on a Barbecue a rounded Smokey’ ness too!!

So simple, so delicious!! Try it!

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