brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Lower the heat if necessary to prevent the artichokes from getting too dark.
Arrange the artichokes prettily on a plate, and scoop the capers, oil, and slightly crispy herbs over top. Serve straightaway or at room temperature.
TURNING ARTICHOKES
I suppose some people might find it a bother, but I quite like turning artichokes. It’s like an advanced version of shelling peas – similarly meditative and even a bit fun. Choosing artichokes whose leaves don’t move much when you pinch the tops will make your life a bit easier, because typically they have smaller chokes or sometimes none at all.
Fill a big bowl with water and squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Working with one artichoke at a time, pluck off and discard the green leaves until only the soft yellowish leaves are left. Cut off about 1cm of the stem. Use a peeler or small knife to trim away the tough green stuff at the base of the artichoke. Take a peek at the cut end of the stem. You’ll see a pale green circle surrounded by a darker border. Peel the stem, getting as close as you can to the pale green centre. Drop the artichoke into the lemony water (to prevent discolouration). Repeat with the remaining artichokes.
Cut about 2.5cm from the tip of each artichoke, then use a small spoon to scoop out and discard the feathery choke. Gently squeeze each artichoke over the bowl as you go, and set them cut sides down on kitchen paper to drain for about 5 minutes.
BOILED ASPARAGUS WITH RAMP BÉARNAISE SAUCE
Sometimes what seems like the least exciting way to cook a vegetable is the most lovely. I adore roasted and grilled asparagus, with those tempting golden-brown spots. Still, my favourite way to eat asparagus is boiled. That’s when it feels the most elegant in the mouth, fat and juicy and clean when you bite it.
The stalks require little more than a drizzle of nice olive oil and perhaps a spritz of lemon, but an even more thrilling accompaniment is a rich, bright béarnaise served alongside. It’s the sexiest thing, a béarnaise. I must’ve made this tart, rich French sauce, a sort of hot mayonnaise made with butter instead of oil, a thousand times when I worked under Rowley Leigh at the London restaurant Kensington Place. I don’t think I ever got tired of dipping vegetables in it or drizzling it over grilled fish or steak. In early spring, when ramps join bunches of asparagus at farmers’ markets, I swap the typical shallots for ramp bulbs and finish the sauce with ramp leaves instead of the more classic tarragon.
You can make béarnaise a few hours in advance, so long as you keep it somewhere warm. If you keep it somewhere too hot or chilly, it could split. To fix split béarnaise, add 1 teaspoon of warm water to a bowl, then add the béarnaise bit by bit, starting with a few drops and upping the amount as you go, whisking furiously with each addition.
serves 4 as a side
FOR THE BÉARNAISE
110ml Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
Scant 225g ramps, trimmed, green leaves separated, and everything thinly sliced (about 75g bulbs and stems and 150g leaves)
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon hot water, plus more if necessary
225g Clarified Butter (here), warm
1 teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt, or more to taste
FOR THE ASPARAGUS
Sea salt
450g asparagus (spears as thick as an index finger), woody bottoms snapped off
make the béarnaise
Combine the vinegar and the ramp bulbs and stems in a small saucepan. Bring the liquid to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat and cook, swirling occasionally, until the vinegar has fully evaporated, 5 to 8 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly.
Fill a small pot with a couple of centimetres of water and bring the water to a boil. Grab a heatproof mixing bowl that will fit in the pot without touching the water. Combine the ramp mixture, egg yolks, and the tablespoon of hot water in the bowl and whisk well. Set the bowl in the pot and whisk constantly, scraping the sides of the bowl as you do and lifting the bowl from the pot every 15 seconds or so. You want to cook the yolks as gently as possible. Keep at it just until the mixture has thickened to the texture of loose mayonnaise, about 2 minutes.
Remove the bowl from the pot and wrap a damp kitchen towel around the base of the bowl to steady it. Drizzle in the clarified butter in a very slow, steady stream, whisking constantly. (If after you’ve added half the butter, the mixture looks really thick and shiny, whisk in another tablespoon of hot water before you add the rest of the butter.) Stir in the salt and ramp leaves, taste, and season with salt to taste.
Set the béarnaise aside in a warm place.
make the asparagus
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat and season it generously with salt until it’s a little less salty than the sea.
Add the asparagus and cook just until the asparagus is cooked through but still snappy and juicy (the spears should give slightly when you give them a gentle squeeze), 2 to 3 minutes. Use tongs or a spider to gently remove the asparagus. Drain it well, pat it dry, and arrange it on a platter. Serve the béarnaise in a bowl alongside for dipping or drizzle it prettily over the top.
CLARIFIED BUTTER
When I plan to make béarnaise, hollandaise, and many other emulsified French sauces, my first step is to clarify butter, or melt the butter and cook it slowly so the milk solids rise to the surface to be skimmed off, leaving behind only the glass-clear yellow fat. Using this instead of regular melted butter is essential for achieving a sauce of the proper texture and also one that won’t readily split on you. Even if you’re not planning to make my ramp béarnaise (here), you should still give clarifying butter a go. For one, it’s good fun to have an excuse to melt a big old hunk of butter, taking plenty of sniffs as it bubbles away. Clarified butter also makes a great cooking fat, since it won’t burn at high temperatures like regular butter will.
makes about 675g
675g unsalted butter, cut into about 4cm pieces
Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set it over medium-low heat. Let it melt completely, without stirring, until it begins to bubble, then have a gentle stir. Let the butter bubble steadily, without stirring, lowering the heat if you spot any browning around the edges. Some of the whitish milk solids will rise to the surface, some will cook off, and some will settle at the bottom of the pan. Cook until the yellow liquid is nearly transparent (you’ll want to push the white solids on the surface aside to have a good look at the liquid), 10 to 12 minutes.
Use a spoon to gently skim the white stuff from
