Paz Padilla, cream for four with 6 cheeses: “You only need 3 jars of asparagus and two hard-boiled eggs per jar”
Paz Padilla shared a white asparagus cream soup recipe on her Instagram profile, made with 3 cans of asparagus, 6 eggs, and 6 cheese wedges, yielding four servings.
“It’s very easy to make, you only need three jars of asparagus and two hard-boiled eggs per jar,” explains the presenter from Cádiz. She sums it up in three words: “super easy, quick, and delicious.” As for cooking, the bare minimum is 10 minutes to boil the eggs, and no more.
The recipe comes during a busy week for her. Her daughter, Anna Ferrer Padilla, married Mario Cristóbal on Saturday, September 19th, in a civil ceremony held in El Palmar de Vejer (Cádiz), and it was Padilla who walked her down the aisle. This isn't the first time she's shared her recipe collection: she's already revealed how to make her mother's potatoes with sea bass.
The cheese does the job that the cream does in other creams.
The cheese portions are processed cheese, and they contain emulsifying salts that keep the fat evenly distributed. That's why they blend smoothly when cold without curdling or leaving lumps. In a cream that doesn't contain roux, potato, or heavy cream, it's the only ingredient that adds richness: two portions per jar.
The yolk of the hard-boiled egg contributes in the same direction, playing a different role. It adds body rather than fat: when mashed, it breaks down into very fine particles that thicken the dish. Six eggs for four servings works out to one and a half eggs per person, a quantity that makes the dish more of a full dinner than an appetizer.
The liquid in the jar dictates the texture and also the salt
Here's the tricky part. The brine from canned asparagus contains salt, and it's the same brine used to loosen the mixture. The more salt you add, the thinner and saltier the cream will be. That's why it's best to add salt at the end, never before blending.
The method is always the same. Drain the three jars well, reserve the liquid in a separate glass, and add it in short bursts. Thinning a thick cream takes a second; salvaging one that has become watery requires adding more cheese and more egg, and then completely rebaking it.
Step by step: 10 minutes of cooking and just one blender
The 6 eggs go into the saucepan covered with cold water. Once it comes to a boil, time 10 minutes, the time the yolk needs to fully set, and then transfer them to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. This brief cooling also makes peeling easier.
Peeled and chopped, the eggs go into the blender with the drained asparagus and the 6 cheese wedges. Add a little of the reserved liquid and blend until completely smooth. Finish with freshly ground black pepper and salt. For a creamier texture, add another cheese wedge and blend again.
The cream is served cold or at room temperature and improves with half an hour in the refrigerator. Since it contains cooked egg and dairy, and isn't heated again, it shouldn't be kept for more than two days in the refrigerator, always in a sealed container. Any bits that come out of the jar whole can be reserved for garnish, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.
It's the logic behind pantry creams that solve a dinner without turning on the stove, like the cold tomato and chickpea cream: a jar, a blender and four servings solved.
