• 1lb cooked asparagus.
• 1lb cooked pink prawns.
• ½ pint whipping cream beaten stiff.
• 6 tablespoons tomato ketchup.
• 1 tablespoon each of lemon and orange juice.
• salt pepper and cayanne.
• a selection of chopped salad, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, celery etc. depending on how hungry you are, dressed with vinaigrette.

METHOD:

• Mix together cream, juices and ketchup,
• season with salt and pepper.
• Put the dressed salad in large wine glasses or on small plates, sprinkle with the prawns and asparagus.
• top with the cream mix and sprinkle with cayanne.

THE BASICS To prepare, trim off any woody base with a very sharp knife, a swivel peeler or a dedicated asparagus trimmer. You can leave the base on if you prefer to pick the spears up with your fingers chomp away at the tip, chew down to the stringy part and leave the end, sucked clean on the side of the plate. All the trimmings can be used to make a delicious soup or a stock base both of which can be frozen.

Lots of theories abound about the best way to cook asparagus, You may steam the fully trimmed spears or with the whole spear pack bundles in a large pan and pour in boiling water to first cook the base then top it up with more boiling water to tenderise the tips, Drain off all the water and run a gentle stream of cold water over them until chilled. To reheat drop into a large pan of rapidly boiling water for a few minutes, fish out and drain on a kitchen cloth.

The spears can also be roasted . . . wonderful with chopped red peppers, peeled tomatoes, garlic and olive oil, cooked until just charred, serve with lots of crusty bread to soak up the juices.