The Cookery Clubs Spring Meet.

It was the last day in April, it started off quite nice, but as the morning wore in it clouded over.

We loaded up the camper with all the necessary cooking utensils and the pre-prepared part of the meal, I was doing a soup and Linda the Asparagus and two different Hollandaise sauces.

We set off at 09:30 which would give us plenty of time to get to Kiel get parked up on Willhelmplatz and meet our friend Kalle at the market. we were not far on the road when it started to rain, just a few spots at first but within a few minutes it was a steady rain, so we drove to Kiel with Klassik Musik and the swish of windscreen wipers.

We got parked up with no bother and then walked the short distance to the market, it wasn't raining hard, but steadily. They had moved a few stalls around and we had a problem finding the coffee stall where we had agreed to meet Kalle, but first I had a matjes brötchen from the fish stall, I think that the Kiel Fish stands are magnificent, when Linda lived here, we would always buy our fish here, it is the freshest and if you want something exotic, you just need to tell one of the stall holders (we always used Frank on the Matjes Lange stand). We then popped along to say hello to Anker on the vegetable stall that we use and bought some new potatoes. It was still raining and so we wandered around looking at the food and plant stalls, it was cold and wet. After a bit of difficulty we found the coffee stand, it had been moved to the outer limits of the market. Kalle had just arrived, so Linda and Kalle had a coffee and I went to the next stall and had a Currywurst, I must say not the best I have had but then I was spoiled with living in Berlin, the home of the true Currywurst.

We then headed out to Carolyn where we would be feasting in the evening, we set up at the rear of the village local (that is being totally renovated so closed).

We had arrived early, but Linda read the Stern and I made do with the crossword from the Lübecker Nachrichten and dozed. Carolyn phoned and said if we wished we could come around, so we did and kept her company (along with a nice glass of white wine) as she got her main course ready for the oven (veal rump).

The rest of the crew arrived, which sounded the start of the evening, with the pop of the cock of the sparkling wine this set the wheels in motion. Marianne made the cocktail (I helped her, I put the ice cubes into the glasses). The cocktail had a very nice Apirol base, it is such a pretty colour and has that nice bitter/sweet taste.

We adjourned to the wonderfully decorated table (lilac themed) in the living room.

 Martin Started us off with his very tasty amuse bouch, served in a glass, it was a Green Asparagus, crayfish tails in a smashing cocktail sauce.

Next was my Cream of Asparagus soup with brown shrimps.

Serves six

2kg of white asparagus (peeled and cut into pieces)
500g of green asparagus
The peelings of all the aspargus
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 shallot, diced

1 large potato, diced

2 ltrs of good vegetable stock (this was used to cook asparagus over 3days)

A piece of lemon skin (outer only)

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

2 bottles of catering cream (less chance of it splitting)

150g of brown shrimps

A handful of wild garlic leaves shredded

A few fresh basil leaves shredded

I had made the soup base in the morning before setting off, this consisted of an Asparagus stock, that had been made over the previous week, each time we had asparagus I would boil the peelings up and then strain, before cooking the asparagus in the stock. I had started off with a vegetable stock from Knorr (those little plastic pots as advertised by Markus Pierre White).

Over the week t

his became more and more concentrated, until I had the final stock and the house smelling of asparagus

.

I added the final asparagus peelings, a crushed clove of garlic, a couple of slithers of lemon peel and the juice of half a lemon.

This was boiled for 30 minutes, strained through a sieve and the diced white asparagus added, plus a diced potato and a teaspoon of sugar.

When the asparagus and potato were soft I pureed them and passed through a sieve to remove any lumps and fibres.

I next cooked the green asparagus; this would form a puree to drizzle into the finished soup. I pureed the green, adjusted the seasoning and transferred into a piping tube.

Everything was ready, I transferred it to a container for transporting, all that was required at Carolyn’s was to bring the soup just below boiling point, adjust seasoning, stir in the cream and pour over brown shrimps in the soup plate, squeeze over the green asparagus puree and decorating with shredded wild garlic leaves and basil.

Served with some nice stone oven baked bread bought that morning at the market.

After the soup came the main course.

This was Carolyn’s haunch of veal with a butter and herb crust, slow roasted in the oven with carrots and shallots. Served with boiled potatoes and Linda’s white and green asparagus served with two different sauces Hollandaise. One was orange flavoured  and the other a mousseline (whipped cream added at the end to lighten it up)

To finish off the meal was one of Kalle’s desert creations, a trio of rhubarbs, a rhubarb tartlet, a rhubarb crumble and a rhubarb drink, all quite exquisite.

We sat and chatted, before it was time for us to retire to our mobile home and the rest headed back to Kiel and beddy byes.  The end of another wonderful Kikoklu evening long may they continue, the next one is a Summer BBQ at Stodo.