rolls, a good dish for a vegetable entremet or  a side dish. For this recipe you will need...

I'm going to start with the custard. This  is an easy custard to make. All you need  

to do is mix the ingredients together and  then cook it on the stove to thicken it.  

This is a curious recipe. I found it in Mrs  Rundell's and it's also in my Castles Dictionary.  

Those older versions use cinnamon to flavour  it but I'm going to change it. I'm going to  

add a little bit of nutmeg and cheese to make  it more suitable for a second course dish.

Now that's mixed I'm going to  give it to Mary-Ann to cook  

while I get on with the rest of the recipe.

I'm using a hard cheese. Parmesan is good.  

Now that that is nice and  thick, I'll add my cheese.

A little cayenne pepper.

Black pepper.

And some nutmeg.

I'm going to put a little bit of waxed paper  just on the top to stop a skin from forming.

I'm now going to prepare my asparagus. If  your asparagus isn't fresh, you can stand  

the ends in cold water. Then ideally immerse  it for two hours before you prepare it.  

I'm lucky: the gardeners harvested this this  morning so the ends shouldn't be too woody.

It would be different if I'd had  to buy it in a market or a shop.

I still need to trim off the dry ends.

Some people like to snap asparagus but I think  that with a knife you can be more precise.

You can only buy asparagus in the  greengrocers' between April and June.  

But here at Audley End House we like to  extend the season. You can cut it down  

and have another crop in September, oruse  the hot houses and have a crop in December.

Families of quality like to  eat asparagus out of season.  

But really it tastes best  at the right time of year.

These are now ready to boil. I'm  going to boil them standing up.

Then, the thicker stalks will cook  for longer than the more delicate

heads.

Now it's time for me to work on the bread  rolls. These are just normal milk bread  

rolls made from half milk and half water with a  little lard in the dough to keep the crust soft.

I've made them in a cake tin to keep them neat and  even and now I'm just going to take off the tops  

to make them all the same and then  

scoop out the crumb to make room  for the custard and the asparagus.

The crumb can be used for breadcrumbs for gratin  top or a fruit pudding. I don't think you need  

me to tell you just how useful breadcrumbs  are. Nobody should be throwing bread away.

Now I'm going to fill each roll  with a little bit of custard.

And the asparagus.

You could fry these in butter or lard and if  I was going to serve them hot I might do that,  

or put them in the oven. But as today  is so hot I'm going to serve them cold  

and I've asked for a little more ice  to be brought up from the ice cave.

And there you are. Asparagus rolls.