Asparagus, chilli butter & dukka with wild garlic focaccia for mopping up

A convivial sharing plate to calm my asparagus (and wild garlic) anxiety.

I have asparagus anxiety.

There’s only a couple more weeks before the season ends, and I am panicky about not having had my fill. What if I miss an opportunity to eat it? A boiled egg without a spear for dipping? A quick puff pastry tart with something besides asparagus to top the creamy, cheesy base? I want to be almost relieved when mid-summer comes and the asparagus harvest finishes. I want to have gorged on it. To have had my fill, and more. Much like I do every short-seasoned veg.

It's the same with the wild garlic.

Which really is nearly over, and which I have definitely failed to worship with full fervour this year. I try to make up for lost time by picking a huge basket of it whilst out on a dog walk. (Ok, I’ll admit, I mean two doggy poo-bags full. Come on, find me a dog-owning cook who hasn’t used a poo bag for collecting blackberries, cobnuts, wild garlic, nettles and other foragings. But a basket sounds so much more romantic, don’t you think?)

As ever, nature dictates the menu.

My agitation about using these fleeting treasures becomes conflated with an idea to recreate a dish I ate at The Riverford Field Kitchen a couple of weeks ago which involved drowning asparagus in chilli butter and showering it with dukka. It all finds its way into this dish, which I serve to friends one joyful evening in the garden. Sunshine, rosé, greasy fingers and butter dribbling down our chins. Perfect.

Asparagus, chilli butter & dukka with wild garlic focaccia

I love messy, sharing platters for a gathering. Bring them to the table, invite friends to tuck in and watch as helping of selves, passings rounds and topping up of wine glasses, already marked with greasy fingers, leads to joyful conviviality and the start of a great evening. This dish is just that. Prepare it all ahead then warm the butter before plating up. No bother.

Serves 8

For the focaccia (based on River Cottage’s basic recipe):

• 500g strong white bread flour

• 5g dried yeast

• 10g fine salt

• 325ml warm water

• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil