Warm salad of asparagus, bacon, duck egg & hazelnuts

I know what risk and living on the edge is - I ate duck eggs (should I add juicy: bitch!). Obviously I am kidding, but I have to say after I read all those stories on the internet about poisoning with duck eggs, people dying etc I had a second thought on a recipe that I have found in "Good Food", May issue. I wondered if I should swap duck eggs for hens or quail eggs, I wasn't even sure if I will be able to buy duck eggs locally. I was very tempted because I did not have duck eggs before.

I saw fresh, local, free range duck eggs in local posh delicatessen and I decided to go for it. I have changed the original recipe slightly and I waited about three weeks to publish this post to make sure nothing happened to me. What I imagined after reading all those nasty information about duck eggs was at least diarrhea but I also had a picture of my family and friends mourning at my coffin. So lets be clear: I am alive, and I found duck eggs very, very tasty. As much as this combination of flavours.


Serves 2

2 duck eggs
12-16 green asparagus spears, wooden bottoms removed
4-6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
handful of hazelnuts
little olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing:

4 tbsp mild olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt
freshly ground black pepper



Heat the oven to 180 C.

Cut the bacon into bite size pieces and place onto baking sheet.

On another sheet place asparagus, drizzle with little olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place in the oven, together with bacon. Roast until bacon is crispy and asparagus al - dente (about 15 minutes), preferably turning half way.

In the meantime dry roast hazelnuts in a frying pan, until crispy, place in the mortar and crush slightly.

Prepare dressing by mixing all of the ingredients until smooth.

Boil the duck eggs - hard boiled need some more time than hens eggs as they are slightly bigger, about 8-10 minutes. You can cook them little bit shorter for some soft centre. Remove from a pan, leave under cold running water, dry, peel and cut in half.

Arrange asparagus and eggs on the plate, add bacon crisps, hazelnuts and drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately.