White Asparagus with Toffee and Tarragon with Yogurt, Served with White Asparagus Soup

This is Part 3 in a 974-part series entitled "I Am the Smartest Person Alive", which explores the food of legendary chef, Ferran Adria. His restaurant, El Bulli, just got voted the Best Restaurant in the World for the fourth year in a row recently.

I am saddened by the fact that my original photo did not save properly. I can say that, actually, it DID look just like this, except without all of the mirrors and stuff.

We had never tried white asparagus and were dying to try some. We were in London and hit the Borough Street Market, which is awesome, and picked some up. The combination of the toffee with the little bit of salt and the tarragon powder was a revelation. Chef Adria does a lot of mind-bender sweet/savory stuff, and this one hit the mark just right. The soup was light and springy, with a nice lemony undertone running through it. This was pretty easy by El Bulli standards - no special equipment or funky techniques here - give it a try!

For the boiled white asparagus tips
8 white 2 cm diameter asparagus
water
salt

For the white asparagus soup
270 g boiled white asparagus spears (ready prepared)
7 g lemon juice
3 g lemon zest
200 g asparagus cooking water (ready prepared)
45 g olive oil
5 g extra virgin olive oil
salt

For the toffee
100 g sugar
100 g single cream 35% fat

For the dry tarragon powder
40 g fresh tarragon

For the yogurt
100 g yogurt

Other
Maldon salt

BOILED WHITE ASPARAGUS TIPS
1. Peel the asparagus leaving the buds on.
2. Trim the asparagus tips to 6 cm.
3. Slice off the tough, woody part of the stalk that remains and discard it.
4. Boil the asparagus tips for 4 minutes in salt water, drain then cool in iced salt water.
5. Cool the cooking water down and keep the boiled asparagus tips in it.
6. Boil the asparagus spears, without the woody part, in salt water for 7 minutes.
7. Drain and chill in iced salt water.
8. Cool the cooking water down and keep the boiled asparagus spears in it.

WHITE ASPARAGUS SOUP
1. Process the asparagus spears in the blender with the cooking water, lemon juice and lemon zest.
2. Once a smooth mixture has been made, gradually add the oils and emulsify.
3. Strain the soup made through a strainer and salt to taste.
4. Keep refrigerated.

TOFFEE
1. Dry-cook the sugar to a dark caramel.
2. Then add the hot cream to the caramel and cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat so the sugar dissolves into the cream properly.
3. Leave the toffee to cool down at room temperature then put it into a squeeze bottle.

DRY TARRAGON POWDER
1. Pick the leaves off the tarragon and discard the stems.
2. Microwave the tarragon leaves on medium power until they are dry.
3. Process the dry tarragon leaves to a powder in the blender.
4. Keep in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

YOGURT
1. Beat the yogurt, strain it then put it into a squeeze bottle.
2. Keep refrigerated.

TO FINISH
1. Brush toffee over half of the white asparagus tips.
2. Arrange 2 asparagus brushed in toffee at right angles on a rectangular serving dish, with a 2 cm gap between them.
3. Add an obvious touch of tarragon powder at the end of the asparagus tip that is not coated in toffee.
4. Drizzle a line of yogurt between the asparagus, it should be as long as the asparagus are.
5. Garnish the top of each asparagus tip with two Maldon salt crystals.
6. Serve the cold white asparagus soup in a glass.