We were having friends over for dinner, ex Belgium, current Belgium and us ( also ex Belgium) so a mini gathering of friends who had all lived in Belgium. Everything was planned, except, Himself went into hospital. Ok it was a planned intervention and he insisted that it would be OK even though it was an overnighter! I was sceptical, willowy brunette was sceptical, but himself not so!

Consequently when he had not been discharged by 4 pm on the Sunday afternoon , dinner finally had to be cancelled. Of course everything had already been done, food already to go and table set. Hence, we have been eating said food this week, or what could be frozen, went into the freezer.

So what were we going to eat. Starters was Asparagus, English of course . There is always a buzz around the English Asparagus season, which traditionally runs from St. George’s day ( patron saint of England) April 23 rd to the Summer Solstice, June 21 st. Other countries also have their own traditional regarding Asparagus, for example in Southern Germany, it is white asparagus that is very popular ( the season ends on June 24 th) and in many restaurants, they insist that every dish on the menu comes with Asparagus . Belgium and Holland also have a long history of a love affair with white asparagus, but for the English it has to be green.

I decided to keep the menu fairly simple so the Asparagus was going to be served “Au Mimosa“, which is very simply, steamed asparagus with eggs and oil. I used soft boiled eggs cut into quarters and / chopped soft boiled eggs, after all mimosas are small yellow flowers. I also used some Yuzu, as garnish and some pomegranate dressing on top of the oil ( I used avocado oil) . I also steamed my asparagus in the microwave, using the Lekué container. It only took 2 1/2 minutes on high to steam my bunch of asparagus.

The main course was Bourride, which is one of the great dishes of Provence.There are of course many ways of serving it and as it is traditionally from Provence it has to be Fish, though I have made it with Chicken which works just as well, and always finished with wonderful Aioli ( basically garlic mayonnaise). The recipe for both versions will be on the next blog ( I have already frozen it).

For dessert I made a Fool! This is a very English dessert and normally made with custard ( for me that is too close for comfort to Trifle). I made mine with Rhubarb, Mascarpone and thick cream. This can be started ahead of time as the rhubarb has to cook and then cool.

To make enough for 6

• About a kilo of rhubarb, preferably thinner stalks and the redder the better.
• Zest of 2 oranges and also their juice
• 40z of caster sugar
• A sprinkle of Star Anise powder ( optional)
• 250 grm mascarpone at room temperature
• 300 mls thick cream
• Tabspoon caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 170C ( fan).

Cut the rhubarb into chunks and put onto a baking tray, along with the orange zest, orange juice, sugar and star anise. Bake for about 30 minutes until the rhubarb is soft. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Whip the cream ( do not make too stiff) , stir in the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla.

When the rhubarb is cooled stir it into the cream mixture, and let it break up into the cream, stir so that it is evenly distributed.

Put into some sort of serving dishes ( I used brandy glasses) and garnish as you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I went into one of our local Indian grocery stores the other day and found some dried orange zest always useful as it could be used on this dish or soaked to make it soft. Other goodies included ready made dried Fried Onions and Bombay Mix.

And finally, as I had a slight excess of asparagus, I made a quiche and an omelette, for both one can be creative. For the quiche I add cooked stem broccoli and defrosted frozen peas and then used the same extras for the omelette.