Queen of the Night and a lot of hot air

Image via Wikipedia

Adriaen Coorte still life of white asparagus and strawberries,

Tonight we eat from a typical Dutch Spring menu:

White Asparagus

For the main, some White Gold or Queen of the Night, the latter refers to the fact that white asparagus are grown in the dark so they don’t produce green chlorophyll.

The white asparagus season is short, about two months from mid April to June 24. St John’s Feast Day is the last day of the harvest. As the white asparagus has just arrived in the shops in The Hague, harvested and trucked from Limburg in the south of the country, I decided to have a go at cooking a traditional recipe. 
The white asparagus has to be  trimmed and peeled: how tiresome!  Once boiled, it’s traditionally served with chopped boiled eggs and ham, the drizzled with butter and lemon sauce. Despite the fact that it’s a humble vegetable it is served as a main. The white tendrils are nice and tender, but next time I will take more care with the peeling: we got a few woody bits.

White Asparagus

Haagsebluf 

Haagsebluf is a Dutch dessert consisting of stiff whipped egg whites and sugar. The egg white forms a foam as air is mixed into it, like when you make meringue and so Haagsebluf is mostly air. "Bluf" means puff or gas but also to boast or brag. And the name Haagsebluf is a reference to the prejudice that residents of the Hague put on “airs." Haagenaars are a posh and pretentious lot and their dessert is a puffed up concoction, with not much substance. The traditional recipe has red currant juice but I made mine with strawberry sauce. With 100 grams of sugar per two egg whites it is sweetness to the max but because it's mainly air it is probably low calorie.

Haagsebluf

Haagsebluf is also a shopping corner in The Hague. It’s a posh modern street with facades of replicas of historic buildings, hence another bluf in the Hague