Uses: Serves 4 to 6

Assembling the recipe:

Wash the asparagus really well and trim off the tips to about 4 -5 cm long (or 2-2 1/2 inches). Removed about 2 cm (or 1 inch) from the bottom of the stalk. Peel the bottoms of each stalk up to where the green begins. Cut the stalks into pieces about 1 cm (1/2 inch) long.

In a pot bring 1-1/2 liters of water with 2 tsk salt to a boil add the asparagus stalks and boil gently for 5 minutes. Remove the asparagus and keep the cooking water back on the heat and toss in the asparagus tips and gently boil for 6 to 8 minutes or until they are just cooked. Remove the tips and plunge them into ice water to bring back their color, when cold, drain and set aside. Keep the cooking water.

In another pot, on a medium heat place all the sliced onions and the first 2 msk. (or 2 tbls.) of butter and cook the onions for 10 minutes until they are translucent and soft. Avoid coloring them, you want them to be still white.

Now add the cooked stalks to the cooked onions and cook for a few 5 minutes uncovered.

Add the flour and cook for another minute or two. Then add the hot cooking liquid slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon, then the milk. (take care that there is no sand in the bottom of the cooking water).

Simmer this gently for about 20 minutes or until the asparagus are very tender and soft.

If the soup seems too thick you can thin it with a bit of warm water.

Remove the soup from the stove and let cool for a little while. Place the soup into the container of your food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Then pass the soup through a sieve to remove any course fibrous threads in the soup. If you do not have a food processor or if you have a food mill you can pass the soup through a food mill to accomplish the same thing all in one step.

Heat the soup gently, add the nugmeg if you are using it, mix the cream and eggs yolks together well, then whisk this into the warm soup a bit at a time to thicken and enrich the soup. With a wooden spoon stir the soup while it is heating, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot to avoid the yolks making the soup stick. Remove from the heat just before the soup comes to the boil to avoid the eggs from scrambling.

Taste and check for salt and white pepper.

The soup can be prepared up until this point.

To serve it warm: Put the soup in a pot over a medium heat and warm until it is just hot. Whisk in the butter pour into soup bowls garnish with 4 or 5 asparagus tips and serve.

To serve it cold: Don't add the final 2 msk (or 2 tbls.) of butter. After it is chilled correct for salt as cold soup usually needs a bit more seasoning. You can also add an extra msk (or tables.) of cold whipping cream for each bowl of soup you are serving.

Chilled creamed soups are the tops on hot summer days and asparagus is a classic. Whether you make it from green or white asparagus I find that guests always love it. They my not make it themselves at home but they do appreciate it when I serve it. Beside that, I personally love it and make it at least 4 or 5 times a year during the season. Only 4 or 5 times because the rest of the time I am eating it steamed whole warm with hollandaise or simply with a nice vinaigrette chilled.

This is and easy way of dealing with the mass of good and inexpensive asparagus we get in the middle of the season (last weeks in June). Classic cream of asparagus soup, either hot or cold does seem to have that old lady reputation but I haven't yet seen a "rock'n roll" version of it yet that I thought was particularly good. There are was of stripping this recipe down but it is so simple to begin with I wonder why you would want to.

2 important notes: It is important to pass the soup through a sieve to remove and fibrous threads, it also give the soup a more velvety finish you won't get if you don't. The way around this process is to use a food mill which will do both jobs at the same time.

White asparagus: If you would like, this recipe can be made using white asparagus. White asparagus is skin is tough and bitter and the so you will have to peel the asparagus from just under the tips all the way down to remove the skin. After cooking the asparagus stalks taste the cooking water if it is bitter (which it most like will be) throw it away and use the same amount of new cooking water to cook the tips and use this to make the soup.

Try decorating this with finely chopped chives or replace the white asparagus tips with green to accent the soups lovely white color.