Three cheers for the start of the English asparagus season!

When I was a kid I can remember my father looking forward to the asparagus season all year. When it arrived, he'd tuck into a plateful of steamed asparagus (usually served with melted butter) every day for about six weeks, before the asparagus disappeared from the greengrocer's shelves for another year.

We've forgotten about seasonality in recent years, thanks to our ability to ship produce around the world whatever the season, but to my mind nothing tastes quite as good as local produce that's allowed to ripen properly. So I, too, yearn for the English asparagus season (I rarely cheat, although I sometimes succumb to the odd bunch of European asparagus in spring).

Once it arrives, I eat it as often as possible, although not every day – and I don't think I could eat it steamed with butter every time either (diet aside, I'd get bored).

The picture above is another idea of something to do with asparagus, inspired by a dish Mark ate at Chez Bruce when we went there for my mother's birthday dinner. He'd had delicate morilles with his asparagus and poached duck egg, but I got seduced into buying some chicken of the woods mushrooms instead – a mistake, I think: next time I'll try the morilles instead. The chicken of the woods took ages to cook and didn't really have that earthy flavour that I was looking for.

I also substituted scrambled eggs for the poached eggs, partly because my poached eggs always look a bit weird and scraggy, and partly because I really like scrambled eggs. It's not as easy as you might think to make good scrambled eggs, but these were delicious, so I'm including the method below. Please excuse me if I'm teaching granny to suck (duck) eggs.

Scrambled duck egg for three (Mark's mum has been staying with us):

4 duck eggs (one each is just too few, two each is a pretty large portion unless scrambled egg is all you're having)
50ml semi-skimmed milk
2 tbsp half-fat crème fraiche
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a small knob of butter

Break the eggs into a bowl and add all the other ingredients apart from the butter. Beat with an egg, but not so thoroughly that you end up with a homogenous yellow liquid.

I think it's important to use a good, heavy non-stick pan for this as you're not using much fat to cook with. Melt the butter in the pan over a medium-low heat, and tip in the egg mixture.

Stir it around, and keep scraping round the edges and at the bottom of the pan as this is where the egg tends to set first.

When the eggs are nearly set, turn off the pan as they keep cooking for a little while. You're looking to end up with a texture that hasn't quite set firm – there should be a little wobble in your scramble when you tip it onto the plate.

Serve with asparagus (steamed) and mushrooms, as I did, or with a slice of wholegrain toast.