Tickets: White Asparagus with Parmesan Cream

Most readers here will know that after El Bulli closed Albert Adria (and to a lesser extent Ferran)  created a group of restaurants in Barcelona. Tickets, the tapas bar, is the most El Bulli like of them and indeed many of the dishes are nearly identical to ones served at that restaurant: spherified olives, watermelon cubes impregnated with booze, and so forth. There's even a sugar cane item.

A couple weeks back I scored a reasonably priced copy of Albert Adria's "Tapas La Cocina del Tickets" and this being asparagus season decided to make the White Asparagus with Parmesan Cream. It's a cousin to a number of El Bulli originals including the Duo of Asparagus Tips I did a while back. Unlike that recipe, this one is extremely easy to make...

The Asparagus

Cut the asparagus into 4 inch pieces, peel, and toss them in a liter of water with some ascorbic acid (aka vitamin C) to inhibit browning.

Then bring another liter of water to a boil add salt and cook the asparagus until it's just tender. Let the asparagus cool in the cooking liquid and then cover and refrigerate.

The Parmesan Cream

I chopped the Parmigiano into small pieces and dumped it into the Thermomix with the milk at 70° C, Speed 7 for 2 minutes.  I adjusted the seasoning with salt and ground black pepper and strain the mixture into a bowl.

Whisk in a tiny bit of xanthan gum and it goes into the 'fridge as well.

I also made some black olive puree and zested an orange.

Serving

Ready to plate...

The first step is to get everything back to room temperature. A few seconds in the microwave will take care of that. The Parmesan cream may have some congealed foam on top that will need to be spooned off.

Pour a line of the Parmesan cream down the middle of a plate.

Drain the asparagus pieces on paper towels. Then arrange them on the cream.

Microplane some Parmigiano on the asparagus.

Put a spot of olive puree on the asparagus tips and a spot of the orange zest at the base.

A line of olive oil and you're done!

How it tastes: Really good. Hey it's white asparagus with loads of Parmigiano. The little spots of orange and olive puree are awfully fiddly - they really just take come practice. It would make a terrific cold appetizer.

Equipment and Ingredients

Citric Acid
Xanthan Gum

Thermomix


A scale that measures in grams