This is the English version of Pyszna Zupa Szparagowa.
For 4-6 people you may need
- 1 kg (2lb+) of asparagus bits (cut-offs) collected over time, and a fresh bunch (as you will need fresh heads for the final garnish). I collect all the cutoff whenever I use asparagus and keep them in the freezer for this purpose.
- 1 tbsp of butter
- 1 glass of while wine
- About 1 l of water (the water in which you had cooked asparagus before would do nicely, or you may use chicken stock)
- 100 ml of milk
- 100 ml sour cream
- 20g (1 tbsp) of beure maniere
- Cut the fresh asparagus heads of and set aside. Clean the rest and cut in small chunks.
- Heat the butter in a large pot of frying pan, drop in all the available ‘cut-offs’, let them sweat a bit in heat.
- Add a glass of wine, some water if needed, cook for a while in high heat, until the asparagus is softening.
- When they are soft and almost mushy, drain (but reserve) the liquid. It may be needed if you do not have chicken stock.
- Blend the whole thing and, with wooden spoon or mallet or wand push through a sieve, to isolate the tough component (amazing how much of it will surface..).
- Add water or stock.
- Get the fresh heads ready (I nuke them in the microwave, but you may choose to quickly steam of boil..).
- Gently bring the soup to boil.
- Add milk and sour cream (this is better done when sour cream in a cup is first diluted with hot soup, then all added to the pot), continue simmering.
- Do the beure maniere thing the same way (add hot soup to it, dilute as much as possible, then back to the pot).
- Check for salt and pepper.
- Now get the heads into the soup and serve.