Instructions: John opened the discussion by stating that this is NOT a Lenten meal ;-)

(He recommended it for breakfast in bed on Sunday mornings in fact.)

Allow 6 or 7 spears per person. Not too thin and not too old.

Trim bottom 1" of the asparagus spears and peel the lower part if necessary

(shouldnt be required if youve selected the bunches correctly and trimmed off the bottoms) then poach them gently - get about 1" of water boiling in a flat pan and lay the spears in it to cook for about 7 minutes (or use a European-style tall asparagus boiler if you must).

Cut the oysters into thin strips rather than serving them as lumps.

Reserve the juice from the oyster shells - should get about 2 tablespoon from 6 oysters. Mix this with the dry white wine and reduce over heat by about 2/3rds (i.e. youll have about 1 1/2 tablespoon left).

Add this liquor and about 4 tablespoon of the poaching water slowly to the egg yolks and whisk them over very low heat until light and frothy (note: do not have the liquor or the other fluid too hot when adding to the eggs - you dont want to curdle them).

Add seasoning. Then draw the sauce together by adding 20 gram of
*cold*

diced butter and stirring it in gently. Add the oyster strips and fold through.

Lay the freshly cooked asparagus spears on the serving plates and pour the oyster sauce over them (fairly now ;-).

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