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Speaker 1: Ruthie's Table four presented by Sky. So here we are

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Speaker 1: tomorrow is the first of May, and we can see

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Speaker 1: it already. The sun is shining. People are sitting outside.

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Speaker 1: I think more people are sitting outside than inside. It

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Speaker 1: does feel so different to be here, the light and

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Speaker 1: the beauty of spring. And so with that, of course,

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Speaker 1: we have all the different new vegetables that are coming

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Speaker 1: in and the one we're going to start with the

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Speaker 1: first letter of the alphabet, I will start with the

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Speaker 1: letter A, and we have asparagus. So I'm here with

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Speaker 1: Sean Wenoen and Joseph Travelli, who are the executive chefs

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Speaker 1: of the River Cafe, and we're going to talk about asparagus.

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Speaker 2: Last week we had the first box of asparagus and

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Speaker 2: Sean come over to me and she said to me,

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Speaker 2: this is it. It's begun. I'm going to have asparagus

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Speaker 2: every day than you. So you know, she's eating asparagus

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Speaker 2: every day, which I really like.

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Speaker 3: Because the season is so short. We've had the Italian

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Speaker 3: asparagus has been here for about three weeks, so we've

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Speaker 3: had Italian asparagus. Then we've had the purple asparagus from Italy.

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Speaker 2: Haven't we not as keen on the purpose sparagus. What

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Speaker 2: do you think, I.

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Speaker 3: Mean, I like all asparagus fair enough, then you're going

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Speaker 3: into white asparagus from France, and then when you get

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Speaker 3: to now May, we're getting right into English asparagus season,

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Speaker 3: which is it is literally a reason why it.

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Speaker 1: Is one of the most.

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Speaker 2: I always thought growing up in the southeast of England,

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Speaker 2: there was a few seasons that you know, you seem

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Speaker 2: to really stick by, you know, like I mean even

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Speaker 2: in the supermarket, really sticks by. And one is this

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Speaker 2: and obviously everyone knows you get asparagus from a Peru

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Speaker 2: all year round, but there was like when it was

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Speaker 2: British asparagus season, you could really tell. And it was

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Speaker 2: the same with strawberries, and we just kind of like

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Speaker 2: whatever else was happening. There were the things that we

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Speaker 2: only had in the season because they're just so much better.

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Speaker 1: So why don't we tell people who are listening what

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Speaker 1: to look for if they are buying asparagus, if they're

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Speaker 1: going to the shop or they're going to a market.

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Speaker 1: What would you look for when you're choosing asparagus?

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I do when I go to

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Speaker 2: the supermarket to buy asparagus. I always just rummaged to

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Speaker 2: the bottom and get the packet at the bottom because

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Speaker 2: I assume they put the one that you know, what

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Speaker 2: you want is the newest one, the freshest one, you know,

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Speaker 2: the snappiest one.

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Speaker 3: Ideally you want the spears to be fun, not to bendy.

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Speaker 1: You want that noise. I was thinking, when you do

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Speaker 1: it with your hands, you hear that little snap, and

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Speaker 1: as there isn't that snap, and so they know that

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Speaker 1: they're not. Let's talk about peeling them the white yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, all the way from the top, and quite a lot,

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Speaker 2: because the skin is really bitter. Like sometimes I come

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Speaker 2: in and the new chef save me all the skins

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Speaker 2: to put in a stock or something. And I wouldn't

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Speaker 2: put them in a stock. They don't taste good, you know.

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Speaker 2: And you don't have to snap them because they're because

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Speaker 2: they've been grown, you know, in the dark or whatever,

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Speaker 2: so you can pretty much each the whole thing. So

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Speaker 2: I just peel them really careful all the way down

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Speaker 2: and just cut the very end off.

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Speaker 3: I think white asparagus is a bit of an a

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Speaker 3: quiet taste though.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely if I lived in Paris, you know, we

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Speaker 1: just I remember a friend of mine's birthday was on

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Speaker 1: May twelfth, and it was like, well, they get here

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Speaker 1: by May twelfth, because we always wanted them for his birthday,

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Speaker 1: and you know that I remember, so I always had

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Speaker 1: that date in my mind, twelfth as having it white asparagus.

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Speaker 1: It's someone about a recipe for asparagus, which one do

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Speaker 1: we want to give everyone?

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Speaker 3: Because you've got the band New Chouders. So sometimes we

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Speaker 3: do asparagus with like an anchovy and butter sauce, which

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Speaker 3: can have either nebiola or prosecco in it, which is

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Speaker 3: really like buttery, alcoholic and salty, so it kind of

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Speaker 3: ticks a lot of boxes. Well, you can do an anchovy.

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Speaker 2: Butter, Yeah, that's nice.

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Speaker 3: We beat anchovies the soft butter and I love that.

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Speaker 1: Yeahah well, I love butter. And you know when you

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Speaker 1: think about how traditionally they put melted butter on you

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Speaker 1: know whatever butter sauce and then you add you heat

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Speaker 1: the asparagus and then you have this lump butter which

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Speaker 1: just melts as you're eating it, or maybe it doesn't melt,

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Speaker 1: you know. I like to get it before it actually

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Speaker 1: melts and just have the butter the target butter.

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Speaker 3: Soft butter with grated potaga, a little tiny bit of

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Speaker 3: lemon juice.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you need a lot of botaga. It's very fancy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really good.

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Speaker 3: Very fancy. And then the other one, which is because

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Speaker 3: we all cook together so much, we all go in

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Speaker 3: and out of things that we love. And but the

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Speaker 3: asparagus with fonduita. So the fonduta is a sauce. The

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Speaker 3: cool thing about the recipe that's in the River Cafe

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Speaker 3: Green cookbook is it's actually a recipe for past the sauce,

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Speaker 3: isn't it. And it's called fonduta. It's made out of

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Speaker 3: crumb fresh and parmesan and egg yolks.

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Speaker 1: And I think.

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Speaker 3: In the recipe it actually said to rub the bowl

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Speaker 3: with one garlic cloth, doesn't it, And then you cook

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Speaker 3: out this eggy, creamy mixture over hot water to t

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Speaker 3: lip thickens. And then what I think is really nice

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Speaker 3: is just put a bit of that on the plate

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Speaker 3: with the asparagus spears on top, nothing else, and it's

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Speaker 3: just so elegant.

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Speaker 1: Green and you know, the asparagus and the yellow but

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Speaker 1: it is it's very Italian.

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Speaker 3: Well, but in the book we have the asparagus, and

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Speaker 3: we cut the asparagus into pieces, small, very thin pieces

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Speaker 3: that we mix that with taglia telly and then the

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Speaker 3: fond duty, which is a cheesy sauce that.

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Speaker 2: Is also ra It's also really good. Yeah, not to

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Speaker 2: be overlooked. And there's that other asparagus pasta sauce that

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Speaker 2: I think the originally the recipe came from the wild

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Speaker 2: asparagus in the book. It's called a La boscola and

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Speaker 2: this kind of the idea and it's got all the

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Speaker 2: herbs and the idea of walking through the woods, you know,

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Speaker 2: Tuscany or something and finding wild asparagus, you know, and

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Speaker 2: the herbs around and just chopping them all up and

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Speaker 2: just cooking them very simply and putting with pastas also

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Speaker 2: really delicious.

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Speaker 1: I think you did over soult today with white asparagus?

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Speaker 1: Did you.

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Speaker 3: Just a plain over sold with some oregano and lemon,

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Speaker 3: just wood roasted, just simple on a plate and then

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Speaker 3: on a side plate. Have some white asparagus simply just

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Speaker 3: boiled before service, and then roast it with not within

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Speaker 3: the same panis soul, but roast would roast it and

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Speaker 3: on a side plate so you can just eat too.

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Speaker 3: Really things, but you don't have to like can eating

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Speaker 3: separately or together?

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, we are welcome to asparagus, welcome to May,

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Speaker 1: and thank you. Ruthie's Table four presented by Sky