White asparagus with Béchamel sauce, salted cashew nuts and bread with fried onion – the power of white

Again a plate from the Vintage Bazaar, this time with white asparagus, white sauce and white cheese.

White asparagus with Béchamel sauce, salted cashew nuts and bread with fried onion

- 500 g white asparagus

- salted, roasted cashew nuts

- mold-ripened goat’s milk cheese (e.g. Picodon)

For the Béchamel sauce (based on The Cook’s Book):

- 1 small onion (cut into halves)

- 4 cloves

- 600 ml milk

- 1 bay-leaf

- 45 g butter

- 45 g flour

- nutmeg (freshly ground)

For the bread with fried onion (based on the blog “Nem vagyok mesterszakács” – I am no professional chef – of course her version is the authentic one):

- 500 g bread flour

- half-a-day old “sourdough” (2 tbsp. fresh yoghurt, 4 tbsp. flour, 3 ½ tbsp. cold water – leave at room temperature for half a day)

- 10 g yeast

- 350 ml lukewarm water

- 1 onion (cut into rings and separated)

- oil (for frying)

Preparation:

1. Grill the asparagus spears for a few minutes in a ribbed bottom grill pan.

2. Boil the milk with the cloves, bay-leaf and onion halves for 5 minutes for the Béchamel sauce.

3. Melt the butter, add the flour and toast it to a golden brown colour stirring continuously. Pour the strained milk to the mixture and whisk it vigorously with a balloon whisk until the sauce thickens.

4. Fry the onion rings to a golden brown colour in the oil. Add the other ingredients of the bread, knead the dough, let it rise, form, sprinkle with flour, twist, let rise again, and then bake the bread in the hot oven to a golden brown colour.

5. Serve the asparagus with the sauce, with roughly chopped cashew nuts, crumbled goat’s milk cheese and bread.