Do you like asparagus? I love them. The asparagus season is still here. And green, white and purple asparagus are everywhere around me. This time I took the green ones again and prepared beef asparagus rolls with a delicious coconut-pepper sauce. It’s just one example how to use them when preparing a meal. They are very versatile and also healthy.
Basically, you can use the asparagus in a soup, risotto, quiche, salad, tarte, frittata and in many other recipes. In this case, your imagination and creativity have no limits. When you buy them, do the freshness check. They should be firm, with a closed head. And like I mentioned in one of the previous recipes, they should squeak when you rub them together.
Ingredients for 5 beef asparagus rolls:
- 5 beef slices (ca 0,5 cm thin)
- 15 green asparagus
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp rice flour (or normal flour)
- 200-250 ml coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp of pink pepper (or more if you like)
- 100-150 ml beer
- salt
- olive oil
Start with preparing the asparagus. Wash and peel them, using a potato peeler. Remember to cut off the bottom part. There is nothing more annoying than biting into a wooden and chewy asparagus. Furthermore, place them in a pan, cover with 2 cm of water, bring to simmer and blanch them for 2 minutes. Then remove the asparagus from the pan and place them for a couple of minutes in a bowl with ice cold water. This will stop the cooking process and preserve the amazing green colour.
Moreover, prepare the coconut-pepper sauce. It’s basically a bechamel sauce. The only difference is using coconut milk instead of normal milk. I also changed the coconut milk quantity, in order to get a less thick sauce.
In a small pot melt the butter, add the flour and with a wooden spoon mix until you get a nice paste consistency. Be careful not to burn it. Then pour in the coconut milk and with a whisk mix well to amalgamate all the ingredients. Add a pinch of salt and bring to simmer. Next, reduce the heat and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Don’t forget to whisk it all the time. The sauce shouldn’t taste like flour. At the end add the pink peppercorns. I smashed them before in between my palms. Place the pot aside.
One last thing to do; the beef asparagus rolls. Take the beef slices and lightly pound them. Like that you will tenderize and thin them out. Now, they really don’t need much time to be done. Put the slices on a clean cutting board, season well, place three asparagus on each slice and roll them up. You might fix them with a toothpick and later remove it.
In a larger frying pan drizzle some olive oil. Once it gets hot, put in the beef asparagus rolls and brown them for 2 minutes on each side. I also added some beer to the pan in the final minutes of cooking. This prevents the meat from sticking and at the same time, it gives a nice colour and flavour to the beef. When the beer evaporates, cover the pan and remove from the heat. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
Serve the beef asparagus rolls topped with the delicious coconut-pepper sauce. I also sprinkled some more pink peppercorns on top. I like pink pepper because it’s slightly peppery and sweet. And it also looks great due to the pretty colour.
Enjoy!
