The Broccoli/Calabrese thread
 

It finally happened.

I'm in my 30s and I've finally got round to loving broccoli having hated it for much of my life.

The door was opened for me last Spring when I had a batch of beautifully fresh purple sprouting broccoli delivered. Lightly stir fried (with a little anchovy) the result was gorgeous and we ate it as often as possible within its all too brief season.

But I still wasn't ready for the monster Calabrese version of this loathed vegetable.

And then I came across this method of preparing broccoli from Heston Blumenthal where the florets don't dissolve into vile vegetable roe (:() and the taste is sensational.

Cut off all the florets from the stalk so that they are little more than 1 inch across. Peel the stalk if necessary and slice into discs no more than 1/4 inch thick.

For about 14oz of broccoli heat 2 tblspns olive oil in a heavy based pan (with lid) over medium heat until oil starts to smoke. Throw in prepared broccoli (i throw some garlic in here too), clamp on lid and leave to cook for 2 minutes - this lets steam build up and the florets brown a little.

Remove lid and shake pan so florets get coating of oil - season with salt & pepper (you'll likely need more salt than seems proper), add 1oz of butter, clamp down lid again and give broccoli another 1-2 minutes. Check to see if it's done to your liking, if you prefer it softer, give it another shake, replace lid and give it another 1-2 minutes.

You can add chilli to this or you might like to try stirring in some lemon zest at the end.

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It's a fantastic recipe and has turned a reviled vegetable into a much loved one.

Sounds tasty.

That said, I love broccoli. My own preference for it is pretty minimally cooked - just steamed to the point of starting to lose the gray/white cast to the green (but still fairly crunchy) and add a little season salt (or salt and pepper.) Yum.

:):):):):)

LapLap:

Take that same receipe and add some Italian sausage (crumbled, without the caseing). From there you can use it as a side dish, mix it with pasta and olive oil (I usually add some wilted spinach to that) or add it to beef or chicken broth to make an interesting 'soup'.

Extra garlic always helps everything. ;)

Fancy! I like broccoli a lot, preferably drenched in butter. Classy, I know.

itsu in London have started doing a broccoli 'sushi' - the tenderstem stuff, with sesame sauce. It's rather lovely.

NO meat (other than some fish) for me thanks! And not in soup - I'd go back to hating broccoli if it wilted further (the florets would mush into that 'vegetable roe' texture I detest :()

Mind you, you've given me an idea. I can add a light dusting of smoked Spanish paprika (pimenton) to calabrese to give it an authentic chorizo sausage taste. I'm definitely up for giving that a go.

I've tried the florets (seasoned with grated lemon peel) with pasta coated in gently fried garlic and anchovy with lemon juice and chilli (with a sprinkling of panko breadcrumbs browned with some garlic) and it was beautiful.
I've already discovered that sesame and broccoli is a winning combination (goes fabulously with asparagus too!)

This evening it'll be time to start my calabrese broccoli with Korean gochujang experiments (sesame oil will no doubt feature in these too)

have anyone tried broccoli+ cheese baked?
-whichever way you like it cook *90% of time
-oven it over w cheese.

Almost anything tastes good if you put enough butter on it :)

I love having broccolis included in the steamed vegetables accompanying my steaks. I make my own steaks more often than eating the ones at restaurants and include steamed broccolis most of the time.

Get out your recipes and get more broccoli into your kitchen:

This sounds good, thanks. I'll give it a shot

I'm in my early 30's, and have been enjoying broccoli for years now, after first having somewhat of an aversion like the OP. It is stupidly easy to prepare, always available, and cheap.

Got a question for you LapLap (if you see this thread after all these months): why do you smoke the olive oil?

I'm curious about your reasoning. If you tried that in my kitchen, I'd send you off tout de suite.

You'd have to ask Heston Blumenthal, I think he knows what he's doing :).

Good quality olive oil has a relatively low burning point, it starts smoking at a lower temperature than, say, refined groundnut or canola/rapeseed oil. As this dish cooks very quickly and requires a reasonably hot pan, it's natural for the olive oil to smoke. Heston suggests you look out for this as it's a visual guide to when the pan IS hot enough.

Doesn't smoke that much though.

I can't imagine how anyone can regularly cook with olive oil and never have it get to a smoking point :confused:

Broccoli in the wok. Sesame oil and heavy on the garlic. It just doesn't get any better than that.

OTOH, I hate raw broccoli. I will eat nothing that squeaks on my teeth.