This isn’t exactly dinner, but we quite enjoyed it last night. I wanted to buy as little new groceries this week and make my leftovers from last week stretch, like cheese, and basics I have in the pantry. I bought some asparagus for $4.00 and used half of it for this dish. Last week I took another class at The Astor Center and learned how to make my own mayo so I wanted to practice that as well. And who doesn’t love a toasted baguette with a poached egg and cheese? I also roasted some garlic for another layer of flavor and made an aioli, which just means mayo with roasted garlic - fancy I know… Here’s how I made it:

Serves 2

1/2 lb apsaragus

1 head of garlic, top cut off

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 cup veg or canola oil

1/2 cup melty cheese ( I used fontina, you could cheddar, gruyére, whatever you have on hand)

2 slices leftover baguette

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Drizzle garlic with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in tin foil and place in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until cloves are soft.

2. In a large bowl that won’t slip (I put my stainless mixing bowl on top of a pot so it won’t move while whisking) put in your egg yolks, dijon, lemon juice, and 2 cloves of the roasted garlic. Whisk until emulsified (everything is mixed together). In a dripping stream, while constantly whisking, dribble in your oil. This is the tricky part, this is where you know whether your mayo will come together or not. Keep whisking and adding oil until you get your desired consistency. I used about 1/2 cup of the oil because I wanted mine a bit looser and less like a spread. Add salt to taste. You’ve just made mayo without all the junk from store bought!

3. Bring a pot of water to boil and drop in asparagus for 2-3 minutes. Remove and immediately place in an ice bath (this is called blanching). Remove from cold water and dry on a paper towel. Bring a second pot of water to boil and add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar for poaching your eggs. Drop your eggs one or two at time into the vinegar water. I break mine into a ladle and put the ladle in the water, it helps keep the egg white from floating everywhere. Remove eggs after about 3 minutes or when the white is cooked.

4. Spread one roasted garlic clove over each piece of bread. Top with cheese and broil in the oven for about 3 minutes or until the cheese is melty. Top bread with poached egg, asparagus, and drizzle with aioli.

You can use any white fish fillets for this dish - whatever is on sale, or in my case, what the fishmonger had at the farmer’s market. I actually had rather thin fillets, so I folded them in half so they didn’t cook too fast, and they look prettier. You can adjust this recipe to serve as many as you want - I just had it for Johnathan and I. Here’s how it goes:

2-6 white fish fillets, cut 1 inch thick, skinned and pinboned

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and very finely chopped

zest and juice of 2 lemons

fresh ground pepper

3-4 slices of thinly sliced bacon or pancetta for each fillet

4 tablespoons of mayo

2 bunches of asparagus, trimmed

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Season the fillets with the rosemary, finely grated lemon zest and pepper -you don’t need to use salt because of the salty bacon. Lay your slices of bacon or pancetta together, slightly overlapping, put a fish fillet on top and wrap the bacon around it.

2. Lightly heat a large ovenproof frying pan, add a splash of olive oil and lay your fish, prettiest side facing up, in the pan. Fry for a minute, then place the pan in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, depending on the thickenss of the fish, until the bacon is crisp and golden.

3. While the fish is cooking, you can make your lemon mayo. Add enough lemon juice to make the flavor slightly too zingy. When you eat it with asparagus and the fish, it will lessen slightly in intensity. It’s ok if the mayo looks a little thin, it should be delicate.

4. Boil or steam the asparagus. Once its cooked, toss it in the juices from the fish pan. Serve asparagus next to fish fillets with a bit of lemon mayo drizzled on top.