Roasted Asparagus with Poached Egg and Lemon-Mustard Sauce

Sticking with the theme of yesterday’s savory fennel and apple tart, I’m back today with another dish that would be great for Easter brunch, or even as a fancy side dish to Easter dinner. I love roasted asparagus, and I’m ready to eat massive amounts of it as soon as it comes back into season each spring. And you know what I love just as much as roasted asparagus? Poached eggs.

It’s my sincere belief that any meal or dish can be improved upon if a poached egg is placed on top. But it wasn’t until recently that I feel like I mastered poached eggs in the oh-yeah-I-can-get-this-right-every-time way. The secret? I stopped swirling the freakin’ water. I’d been trained to get the water simmering, then put a spoon in and swirl vigorously until you have a tornado working in the pot.



Well, the swirl method just really didn’t work for me. I never got a nicely-shaped egg in the end. There were always, like, egg tendrils that escaped and got lost in the pot. Once I stopped swirling the water and instead just started sliding the eggs (slowwwwwllllly) into completely still water, my poached egg win-to-fail ratio improved greatly.

The sauce here can sort of be thought of as a lazy-man’s hollandaise, without the massive amounts of butter. So maybe it’s not like hollandaise at all. But, it’s lemony and has a mustard kick to it, and the tarragon adds a little herbal note. The thing about this sauce is that it seems like it was way harder to make than it actually was. And doesn’t everybody like to impress their relatives at brunch?

Update: On 4/14/14, this recipe was chosen as a Wildcard Community Pick at Food52 and professionally photographed by James Ransom: