Rice in a crown of asparagus

• By Mark Camilleri

For 6 people, you will need:

Six tall ramekins (250ml capacity), 375g of short-grain rice, 200g of asparagus, one lemon, three litres of vegetable stock, 150ml of crème fraiche or double cream, 60g of grated Grana Padano cheese, 45g of butter, olive oil, salt.

Butter the ramekins, and cover the inside (except the base) with unbuttered baking-paper, then a layer of buttered baking-paper. You will need to use about 30g of butter. Wash the asparagus, and cut it to the height of the ramekins. Now split each one down the middle. Blanch the pieces in boiling water (just a couple of minutes), drain them and leave them to cool. Dice the short 'leftover' bits of asparagus and blanch them in the same way. Divide this diced asparagus into two lots. Keep one lot aside to be used as garnish. Put the other lot into the blender with 15g of butter and a bit of salt, and gradually add 300ml vegetable stock. The reason that you should add it bit by bit is that the consistency of the resulting sauce must be dense, so don't add all the stock if it will make the sauce too liquid. Cook the rice in the remaining stock, drain it immediately, then add the double cream/crème fraiche and the cheese. Allow it to cool. Place the split asparagus in the ramekins, head down against the sides, some distance apart from each other. Fill the ramekins with rice. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/200C and bake them for around six minutes. Remove them from the oven, turn out the moulds of rice onto individual serving-plates, and top them with the diced asparagus, which should have been tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Serve them hot.