Smoked haddock with asparagus and apple salad

Serves 4

750g white asparagus

250g green asparagus

4 x 200g smoked haddock fillet

2 apples (e.g. Braeburn / Golden Delicious)

250ml milk

1tbsp wholegrain mustard

100ml double cream or crème fraîche

40g butter

2 shallots, chopped

125ml white wine

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1. Skin and trim the haddock into 4 equal sized fillets, keeping the skin and trimmings. Place the fillets in a saucepan with the milk to just cover the fish, topping up with water if necessary and cook on a low heat.

2. In a second pan, add the fish skin and trimmings, the shallot and wine and reduce by half.

3. Trim the asparagus and peel the white from just below the buds to the base and the green, just the lower 2 centimetres. Put the white asparagus in a pan of cold water with a little salt and boil for 8 mins (cook the green asparagus for 5mins .

4. Add the cream or crème fraîche to the reduced shallot and fish trimmings and reduce by half again before passing through a sieve and keeping warm.

5. Peel the apples and finely slice to matchsticks. Add lemon juice to prevent browning and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Add the mustard and mix.

6. Add a knob of butter to the sieved sauce and stir well. Plate out with a large spoon of the sauce, worked into a circle, add the asparagus, alternating the green and white stalks, top with the poached fish and a small handful of the apple salad.

(Laurent Kher, Hotel de la Paix, La Rochelle)