🥘 Spanish style ham and eggs

Spring brings longer sunny days and new life in the garden. Its time to be outside and enjoying new season vegetables.

Steamed asparagus simply served with free range eggs and jamón is hard to beat. Use freshly picked herbs (chives are ideal) finely chopped and sprinkled over with paprika or a few chilli flakes and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches new-season asparagus (about 500g)
• 75ml olive oil
• 4 eggs, free-range for preference
• 75g sliced jamón
• A good drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, to finish
• Flaked salt and black pepper
• Chilli flakes (optional)
• 1 handful fresh chives, snipped, to finish
• Leftover basmati rice and bacon (optional)

Step by step:

1. Trim the woody ends of the asparagus and steam the spears for three to four minutes, until tender to the tip of a knife.
2. Meanwhile, put the oil in a nonstick pan on a medium-high heat, until it starts to shimmer. Add the eggs and fry until the whites are bubbly and crisp at the edges but the yolks are still runny. Remove with a spatula and pat their bottoms dry on a sheet of kitchen roll.
3. Arrange the asparagus on four warmed plates, top each portion with an egg and the slices of jamón, then drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and scatter with flaky sea salt and black pepper and paprika or chilli flakes (if using). Sprinkle over the chives and serve. We had some leftover rice and chopped bacon to use up.

We shopped at Aldi 15th May 2023. Asparagus £2.80 (20 spears), Jamón £1.99 (100g), Eggs £1.30 (4)