Cajun ham with asparagus on a bed of lettuce

hen you have to cook a romantic dinner, inspiration comes easy. Whether it is down to the serotonin rush or the years spent practising the art of cookery, I am so glad I can whip up perfect dishes in almost no time.

This is what I came up with just fridge leftovers: Cajun ham with asparagus on a bed of lettuce with mustard and honey dressing.

1. First, I marinated ham slices in Cajun mix and aceto balsamico bianco.
   
2. Then I boiled asparagus. The trick is to make them soft enough to chew but still crunchy. Once out of the boiling water, cool down the asparagus with cold water to stop the cooking process, otherwise it will come out overcooked and lame.
   
3. Now down to the dressing: a dash of salt, a dash of freshly ground black pepper, a dash of garlic granules, a glog of aceto balsamico bianco, same quantity of extra virgin olive oil, a tbsp of mustard, a tbsp of honey. The exact proportions really depend on what taste you want to achieve. Ideally, it should well balanced sweet-sour. Shake all well until homogeneous.
   
4. Sear the ham on a very hot skillet with butter: basically it is the Cajun noirci technique.
5. Now arrange the asparagus and ham on a bed of lettuce and sprinkle with the dressing!
   

This was just the starter. The main dish turned out infinitely better but that has nothing with the culinary topic of this blog.