Egg and soldiers with a twist.

Excuse the absence of my usual Monday blog post, general life and lack of back dated written entries has got the better of me. The post I've been working on has been slightly lengthier than I intended, mostly down to the amount of photos taken and needed for it. For now, here is more of a serving suggestion than a recipe but tasty nonetheless. 

I managed to aquire some duck eggs and wanted to do something other than make sexy scrambled eggs with them. 

Dippy eggs came to mind but I wanted to keep it carb free so I thought to use fresh asparagus instead. To jazz it up a bit, I wrapped the asparagus with prosciutto, turning it in to a delicious meaty soldier. Served with a peppery rocket salad it was a lovely light dinner, perfect for a warm (ha!) summers evening. 

Boiled duck eggs and asparagus soldiers. 

Serves 2 

4 duck eggs

10-14 sticks of asparagus

4-6 slices of prosciutto/Parma ham 

Handfuls of rocket dressed in olive oil

Take two pans of water, fill with water and bring to the boil. In the first, carefully drop the eggs in to the water once bubbling. Keep your eggs at room temperature and use a slotted spoon to prevent the eggs cracking, they are more fragile than regular hens eggs. Start a timer for 6 minutes (mine managed to freeze so the eggs were a little over but this should be perfectly dippy with the average duck egg.) 

Next cut the woody ends off the asparagus or simply bend it at the end and it will break off naturally. This way you know you're just getting rid of the stringy bit. Pop in the other pan of boiling water with some salt and boil until the bottoms are slightly soft when you pinch it. Don't over cook or it will be impossible to dip and you'll lose all the flavour! 

Once cooked, drain off and when it's ok to handle, wrap with the prosciutto/Parma ham. Drain off the eggs and serve in egg holders with the tops cut off. 

N.B. A nice but naughty variation would be to use streaky bacon in place of the prosciutto. Simply parboil the asparagus instead of fully cooking. Cool, wrap with the bacon and then either grill, griddle or BBQ until brown and crispy.