Curly Endive aux lardons

Still working my way through a bunch of curly endive (see Curly Endive pear blue cheese salad)

This is a tres simple salad.

Make some lardons.  I used some salted port belly but pancetta or regular bacon works also.
Cut your pig into little rectangular sticks and fry them up.
Wash your endive and tear up into bite sized pieces.
Use about twice as much as you think you need.
Toss the endive into the hot pork fat with the lardons.
Put on a plate and eat.  Damn that's good.  Bitter greens in pork fat.  The pork is already really salty so you don't need to add any.

Curly Endive, Pear and Blue Cheese salad

As I sauntered through the fruit and vegetable store.... there's a place near Pape subway that allegedly is a 24hr fruit and veg store (I say allegedly 'cause I've never tried to procure a carrot at 3 a.m.)... Regardless, I was in that store and I saw a bunch of endive. 

It looked like this





Now this is curly endive

not belgian endive

nor frisée

(now frisée is just baby curly endive)

Anyway, I bought it to make a salad.  Which salad you may ask...

Endive, Pear, Blue cheese salad.

• Tear up your curly endive into bite-sized pieces
• Wash thoroughly and sprinkly with salt and a little bit of sugar (it's a bit bitter but the sweetness from a little sugar and the pear really work on it)
• Slice up your pear and either leave in slices or chop down to matchsticks
• Sprinkle pear on endive
• Crumble up some blue cheese
• Sprinkle on salad
• Drizzle some olive oil
• Take a fork, use chopsticks, fingers work also and eat it

Damn, this is so good.  The endive is a bitter green when it's raw but with the sweetness of the pear and the sharpness of the blue cheese and it's held by the olive oil.  Damn this is good.  Go get some.

Roasted Broccoli

What you need

• broccoli
• olive oil
• grated parmesan
• chipotle - dried, ground
• salt and pepper

I used a whole bunch for two people.
Break/cut florets off in large bite sized pieces
Peel the stems and chop into large bite sized pieces too
Toss in olive oil
Then toss in chipotle, salt, pepper, parmesan
Throw on a cookie sheet and jiggle it into a single layer
Toss it into an oven at 425
Let em turn nice and brown

Whole Head of Cauliflower

What you need

• whole head of cauliflower (Duh!)
• can of diced tomatoes (or you can chop them yourself)
• some chopped onion, celery, carrots - yes, mirepoix
• anchovies
• a little bit of heat - cayenne, chopped hot pepper, tobasco, you pick
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• shredded cheese - cheddar, provolone, mozzarella, or all of them
• if you need some more liquid to get it to the right level add some water (boring) or some chicken stock (acceptable) or some home-made duck stock (ding-ding-ding we have a winner)

In a pot that's a little bit bigger than the cauliflower, saute the mirepoix in some olive oil
Add the tomatoes, anchovies, little bit of heat, salt and pepper and let that simmer for a while
Now you only want the pot to be between 1/3 and 1/2 full
Take the culiflower, trim the leaves and most of the woody stem but leave the florets attached
Place the whole cauliflower in the sauce - it should rise to about halfway up the head
Put a lid on it and let it simmer
When the florets are nice and soft, take the lid off and put the whole pot under the broiler - this will carmalize the cauliflower
Once it's getting nice and brown, cover with cheese and put back under the broiler
Once the cheese is nice and brown, take it out, let it cool a bit and serve in the pot

After you've eaten all the cauliflower (and you will), if there's sauce left over (and you're tired of just spooning it into each other's mouths) save it.  You can pour it on some gnocchi tomorrow.

This is such a delicious way to eat cauliflower.  Anne, who hates this wonderful vegetable, loves this dish.

Espinacas a la Catalan

I had this in a tapas restaurant and it was so dammed good I had to make it myself.  It's spinach and lots of it reduced down to this dense flavourful dish

What you need

• spinach
• pine nuts
• garlic
• rasins (or dried cranberries, dates)
• olive oil
• cider vinegar (or balsamic)
• salt and pepper

To do this in a single pot
Put some olive oil in a pot and sautee the finely chopped garlic.  Toss in the pine nuts too.
Add all the spinach... a whole bag... if the leaves are too large, chop them up a bit... fill the pot and put a lid on it
The spinach will reduce down to about 1/5 it's size when cooked
Stir in the dried fruit with a spash of vinegar and olive oil (if needed) some salt and pepper
Serve warm

Fried Endive

I made this last night to go with some veal chops

What you need

• endives
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• bit of sugar

Turn the heat on high under your big cast iron skillet
Pour in some olive oil
Slice endives lengthwise and rub with a bit of olive oil
Sprinkle salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar over them
Place cut side down into the frying pan and let them sizzle away
Let them carmalize away, checking occasonally until the cooked side turns dark brown
When they're brown enough for you, flip them over to do the backs a bit
Serve warm

Pancetta Asparagus or Brussel Sprouts

What you need

• Pancetta
• Asparagus or Bussel Sprouts

This couldn't be easier.

Chop up your pancetta into little pieces and toss into a hot skillet.

Clean your asparagus anyway you feel comfortable.  I've snapped, cut, peeled with little difference.  Cutting is quicker but peeling gets you more product - you choose.

If you're doing brussel sprouts, trim the bottoms and either cut into quarters or peel all the leaves off if you want a more delicate presentation and have nothing better to do with your life.

Once the fat has rendered out a bit, toss in your veg to enjoy the hot oil bath.

Don't overcook the veg - it just needs a bit to add flavour.

Serve covered with the little meaty bits scraped from the pan. OMG.

Since Pancetta is already salted and spiced, you don't need to add more but you can if you want.