Serves four
8 eggs, poached
1⁄4 cup white wine vinegar
8 trimmed slices smoked salmon
4 tablespoons butter
1⁄2 lemon, juiced
20 asparagus spears, blanched
salt and freshly ground pepper
Poach the eggs in a deep pot of simmering water with a quarter cup vinegar until the whites are set but the yolk is runny. (See secret of poaching, above.) After removing the eggs from the water, trim the tail of cooked whites to give the egg a more rounded shape. Wrap the smoked salmon around the poached egg to make a parcel and place on the plate. (Serve two for each person.) Heat the butter in a saucepan, allowing it to bubble up and turn brown. Remove the butter from the heat when the bubbles subside, and season with salt and some drops of lemon juice. Toss the asparagus in the brown butter and place in piles of 5 on each plate.
