Cooking with Barry
Beetroot hummus, crispy egg, pan-fried asparagus for four.
400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4-5 fresh garlic cloves crushed
Juice of 1 lemon teaspoon of cumin
200g peeled cooked beetroots
150ml olive oil
Salt and pepper
5 free-range eggs
75g plain flour
75g panko or light coloured breadcrumbs
300ml vegetable oil
2 packs fresh British asparagus
Olive oil and Maldon salt
Add chickpeas, lemon, garlic, cumin and salt and pepper to a food processor.
Pulse to combine. Slowly start adding olive oil until combined (add more if you prefer runny and dip-like). Remove from processor, put into a bowl, add beets to processor and a couple tbsps of cold water. Blitz until smooth (for extra smooth pass through a sieve). Combine beets with puréed chickpea, mix thoroughly. Cover and leave for a few hours or overnight for flavour to develop. Half an hour ahead of eating take hummus out of the fridge.
You can prepare the rest of the dish by bringing a pan of water to a gentle simmer. Place four eggs (at room temperature) into the water. Simmer for 4 and a half mins. Turn off heat. Let them sit in the water for 30 secs. Drain and run eggs under cold water for a few minutes. Allow to cool. Carefully shell them and place into a fridge to “firm” for a few mins. Make the crumb. Place the flour, final beaten egg and crumbs into 3 separate bowls, passing soft boiled egg through them in that order. You now have 4 nicely coated eggs. Begin to heat veg oil until it’s hot. Sprinkle a few crumbs into the oil. If they sizzle it’s ready. Prepare asparagus: Snap the fibrous part off. Give them a quick wash, add olive oil to a non-stick pan. Heat gently. Add one egg at a time into the hot veg oil and baste until golden (it will take under 20 secs) and lift out carefully with a slotted spoon. Add the asparagus to the non-stick pan and sauté for a couple of minutes and season. You can now plate up, the hummus first then adding the crispy runny-middle egg and hot asparagus, enjoy. PS you can embellish this dish even more by adding a sprinkling of dried chillies and finely chopped white anchovy over the top.