Tarteletter med Asparges og Skinke

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan, 2 litre
• •Wide saute pan for cooking the asparagus
• •Vegetable peeler
• •Whisk
• •Wooden spoon
• •Slotted spoon
• •Baking tray for warming the shells

Instructions

1. 1

   Peel the asparagus

   White asparagus must be peeled. This is not optional. The skin is woody and bitter and will ruin the sauce if you leave it on. Lay each spear flat on the counter and peel from just below the tip down to the base with a vegetable peeler, turning as you go. Snap off the dry woody end where it gives easily. Save every peel and every trimming. They're going into the cooking water and they're where half the flavor lives.

   If the spears are very thick, peel them twice. Better to be generous with the peel than to bite into a fibrous string later.
2. 2

   Cook the asparagus

   Bring a wide pan of water to a gentle simmer. Add a good pinch of salt, the teaspoon of sugar, and all the peels and trimmings. Let them infuse for five minutes. This is your stock now, and it tastes like asparagus the way nothing else does. Lift the peels out with a slotted spoon and discard them. Slide the peeled spears in and simmer gently for eight to twelve minutes, depending on thickness. They are done when a knife slides into the thickest part with no resistance. Lift them out with tongs and lay them on a clean cloth. Keep the cooking liquid. You'll need 400ml of it for the sauce.

3. 3

   Cut the asparagus

   When the spears are cool enough to handle, cut them into pieces about two centimetres long. Keep the tips whole and set them aside. The tips go in last so they stay intact. The stem pieces fold into the sauce and disappear into its texture.

4. 4

   Make the roux

   Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Once it's foaming and just starting to smell nutty, add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon. Cook this paste, the roux, for two minutes. You're not browning it. You're cooking the raw taste out of the flour. The paste should look pale and smell faintly biscuity. If it darkens, you've gone too far. Start again. White sauce wants a white roux.

5. 5

   Build the sauce

   Pour in the warm asparagus cooking liquid in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly. Lumps form when you add liquid too fast or too cold. Slow and warm, and the sauce stays smooth. Once all the asparagus liquid is in, add the milk and the cream the same way. Bring to a gentle simmer, whisking, and let it cook for five minutes. The sauce will thicken into something glossy and pourable, the consistency of double cream. Season with salt, white pepper, and a small grating of nutmeg. Taste it. Adjust. The sauce should taste of asparagus first and dairy second.

6. 6

   Warm the shells

   While the sauce simmers, slide the tartelet shells onto a baking tray and warm them in a 150C oven for five minutes. Cold shells go soggy the moment the sauce hits them. Warm shells stay crisp. This small step is the difference between tarteletter that hold their architecture and tarteletter that collapse into mush.

7. 7

   Fold in ham and asparagus

   Stir the diced ham and the cut asparagus stem pieces into the sauce. Let everything warm through gently for two minutes. Don't boil it. Boiling toughens the ham and breaks the cream. Add the lemon juice last. The lemon lifts the whole sauce and stops it from feeling heavy. Slide the asparagus tips in at the very end and stir once, just to coat them. You want the tips to keep their shape.

8. 8

   Fill and serve

   Set two warm tartelet shells on each plate. Spoon the sauce generously into each one, letting it spill a little over the rim. That's the sign of a Danish tartelet, filled past the edge, never neat. Lay an asparagus tip on top of each one so it shows. Scatter the snipped chives and a few dill fronds across the top. Serve immediately, while the shells are still crisp and the sauce still hot. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •The tartelet shells are almost always bought, even in Danish home kitchens. Look for Danish-made shells in the bakery aisle if you can find them. They are deeper, sturdier, and built to hold a generous spoonful of sauce. If you can only find smaller vol-au-vent shells, use them but plan on three per person.
• •Save the asparagus peels and ends for the cooking water. This is not optional. Stock made from the trimmings tastes more of asparagus than the spears themselves, and it's where the sauce gets its character.
• •Use a good cooked ham, the kind from a real butcher, not deli slices. You want pieces that hold their shape in the sauce and taste of something. Smoked ham works too if you prefer a deeper flavor, though it shifts the dish toward winter.
• •A glass of dry Riesling or a crisp Danish-style aquavit alongside is the right thing to drink. Both cut the cream and meet the asparagus on equal terms.

Advance Preparation

• •The asparagus stock can be made a day ahead. Cook the asparagus, cool the liquid, and refrigerate both separately. Bring back to gentle warmth before building the sauce.
• •The sauce itself is best made just before serving. It thickens as it sits and the cream can break if reheated too aggressively. If you must hold it, keep it warm in a bain-marie and whisk in a splash of warm milk to loosen it before filling the shells.
• •Never fill the shells in advance. Fifteen minutes between the sauce hitting the pastry and the plate reaching the table is the outer limit. Beyond that the shells go soft and the dish loses its point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 325g)