I absolutely love the traditional German white asparagus (see Traditional German Asparagus Dish), but every now and then during the season, I still like to dabble with different uses of white asparagus. Admittedly, turning it into quiche does not seem the most innovative, but it certainly works very well. Here is the outcome.

Sanni

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 200 grams of flour
• 100 grams of cold butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• a couple of tablespoons of water

For the filling:

• 500 grams of white asparagus
• 500 grams of green asparagus
• 3 eggs
• 350 grams of crème fraîche
• freshly ground mixed pepper, salt for seasoning
• 4 to 5 stems of oregano
• 100 grams of grated parmesan
• 1 buffalo mozzarella
• 1 vine tomato

Preparation:

Preparing the dough:

1. Pass the flour through a fine mesh onto the clean kitchen counter or a baking mat. Cut the cold butter into small pieces into the flour. Rub the butter and the flour between your hands until you have a crumble.
2. Add the salt. Form a depression in the center of your flour mix and add the egg yolk. Quickly start kneading the ingredients adding tablespoons of water one by one until the dough is smooth, but not sticky. Should the dough become too sticky, add a bit more flour.
3. Form a ball, wrap it into cellophane and let the dough rest in the refrigerator for approximately 15 to 30 minutes.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan oven).
5. Butter a quiche pan and press the dough into the bottom and up the sides. If you do not use pie weights (see next step), prick the bottom with a fork all over.
6. Cut out a round piece of parchment paper the size of the bottom of your cake pan. Place over the dough on the bottom of your cake pan. Place pie weights on the top (if you do not have pie weights, you may also use dry foods such as dried chickpeas, dried peas or rice).
7. Put the quiche pan into the oven and bake only the crust for 10 minutes (blind baking). Take the crust out of the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 165 degrees Celsius (fan oven) for baking the quiche with the filling (see step 10 – Preparing the filling below).

Preparing the filling:

1. Peel the white asparagus. Wash the green asparagus and remove the woody bottom ends of the green asparagus (approx. 2 to 3 cm).
2. Fill the bottom of a larger steam pot with water and the white wine, add salt and sugar. Bring to the boil. (If you do not have a steam pot, boil the asparagus in a large pot.)
3. Add the white asparagus when the water is boiling. Depending on its size, the white asparagus will require approx. 20 to 30 minutes to become soft. Green asparagus usually has a shorter cooking time. Add approx. 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time of the white asparagus. Boil until soft, then take out of the steam pot/water and let cool down.
4. Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until foamy.
5. Beat in the crème fraîche, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Pick the oregano leaves of the stems, wash, dry and chop finely. Fold into the egg and crème fraîche mix; then fold in the grated parmesan.
7. Put 5 to 6 asparagus spears of each type to the side. Cut the rest into approx. 1 to 1.5 cm long pieces.
8. Cut one thin slice out the center of the tomato, and thinly slice the remaining halves.
9. Cut the buffalo mozzarella in half and then slice the halves into several pieces.
10. Spread the mixed asparagus pieces over the bottom of the half-baked crust (see step 7 – Preparing the dough above). Pour the egg and crème fraîche mix over the asparagus and bake in the oven at 165 degrees Celsius for approximately 10 minutes until the egg mix just starts to coagulate.
11. Take the quiche out of the oven and prepare the decoration by arranging the asparagus spears (alternating between white and green) kept aside so far in a circle with the heads pointing to the outside of the quiche (if necessary, shorten a bit from the bottom end side). Place the whole tomato slice in the middle of the quiche and the half slices between the asparagus spears. Finally, place the buffalo mozzarella slices on top of the tomato slices.
12. Put the quiche back into the oven and bake for another 25 to 35 minutes at 165 degrees Celsius.
13. Let cool down a bit before serving. Serve with a side of salad.