Perks Of The Job #3: Thai White Asparagus Soup, Lobster & Curry Salt

It's been a while since I was last given something to take home from work - a little too long if you ask me. You see I've not been as quick to put my name on certain items that were up for grabs recently, and more often than not the waiters get their grubby mits on our precious 'meez' before we get the chance to claim them. So was it worth the wait this time? I'll let you be the judge of that...

Last night's mix and match dinner was created from the rescued mis en place of two of my dishes at work - the much loved 'Lobster & Avocado Maki' I wrote about not so long ago, and my new dish 'Almejas Esparragos Bangkok' (more of which soon). This soup is essentially white asparagus that's been cooked very gently in salty water, allowed to cool in said cooking water and then puréed together with the cooking water. This method of preparation ensures that every single drop of flavour and nutrition from the asparagus is kept within the soup and nothing is lost in cooking.

Once chilled, the soup is left to infuse with lemongrass, coriander, bird's eye chillies, lime and roughly grated ginger. Seeing as this soup is intended to be served with almejas (clams) at work, I thought it only reasonable that it might work with lobster too. So not much preparation was necessary for me to turn this into my dinner, seeing as the soup was already made and the lobster already cooked. All that was left to me was to decide on a third element to add to the dish and, of course, how to present it.

At work we sprinkle a little curry powder over the garnishing white asparagus tips in this new dish, so I already knew the combination was a winning formula. But to develop the idea slightly further, I created a 'curry salt' by gently grinding some Maldon salt with a little curry powder in a pestle and mortar. I wouldn't really count the sesame seeds as an element in this dish. They were only used to accent the colour contrast between the black of the plate and white of the soup, but I suppose they did add a little crunchiness to the proceedings.

All in all a very satisfying dish, when you consider that it was knocked together from leftovers.