asparagus@gratin.ca

Simca's Cuisine by Simone "Simca" Beck is organized by menus. One to the spring menus offers a dish of asparagus purée with cheese. The purée is cooked in butter and thickened with flour before being placed in a baking dish and covered with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Here are the instructions for the thickening of the pur&eactue;e:

Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet, add the asparagus pur&eacatue;e, and cook over medium heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the flour [1 1/2 tablespoon], and cook, still stirring, for about 2 minutes longer. Gradually stir in the cream and season very highly with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.