As asparagus is in season, Season’s Eatings has decided to make the most of this delicious ingredients with aphrodisiac properties and produce three simple, tasty yet elegant dishes. This trio of recipes begins with something surprisingly easy to make: foaming hollandaise sauce.

The hollandaise sauce recipe makes ample for 4 people (with the usual spare for leftovers). It can be made by hand, but to reduce the chances of splitting, I would definitely recommend the convenience of a stick blender.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 fillet of salmon (per person)
• a handful of fresh, tender asparagus shoots (approx. 180g per person)
• 2 large eggs (yolks and whites separated)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 110g butter
• 1 tsp salt
• A few twists of pepper

Recipes:

1.  Start by making the hollandaise sauce. In a bowl mix the egg yolks with the salt and pepper seasonings.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the acids (lemon juice and white wine vinegar) over a medium heat. As soon as it starts bubbling around the edges, take the acid of the heat and add to the egg yolks. Start mixing straight away. I use a hand blender to ensure the sauce is well mixed.
3. In the same saucepan, add the butter and melt until just foaming, then turn the heat off to ensure that the butter doesn’t burn.
4. As slowly as possible gently pour in the butter into egg mixture, mixing/blending the whole time. If you add it too quickly, you risk splitting the sauce. If you do it slowly, the sauce will be one coherent, buttery, smooth sauce. At this point the sauce can be kept in a sealed container in the fridge or even frozen for a future dish.
5. To steam the salmon, I cheat. Place it in a bowl, drizzle of salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice. Place a saucer over the top and put it in the microwave. Each fillet should only take 1 minute 30 seconds.
6. For the asparagus, place in a (clean) saucepan and add boiling water until just covered. Cook for 4 – 5 minutes until al dente, then remove and pat dry with a tea towel.
7. To make the hollandaise foaming, whisk together the egg whites that you set aside earlier until they form soft peaks. Fold this into the hollandaise sauce. This will make the sauce light and go further.
8. Assemble the ingredients on a plate, drizzling the foaming hollandaise ver the asparagus.