Food52 Genius Recipe #40 Broccoli Cooked Forever

I've been very excited to make this recipe since my initial read through of the book. Broccoli is definitely my go to vegetable used to round out a meal. Normally I'll mostly steam some and then roast it the rest of the way with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever spices or spice blend sounds good in the moment, depending on the dish. Cooking two bunches of it in oil for two hours with some garlic, peppers, and anchovies sounded like an absolute winner. Over cooked broccoli doesn't taste great, but pushing it past that in fat makes a magical substance that I want to put on everything.

It's pretty easy to make and only takes a few ingredients, it just takes some planning if you want to eat it that day. It's probably not something you'll want to make for a weeknight dinner, unless you eat rather late. Florets from two bunches of broccoli get removed from the stems and then the stems are peeled and cut into thick slices. All of that gets blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes and then drained. Thinly sliced garlic and oil warm up over medium heat until the garlic just starts to sizzle. Peppers (I used red pepper flakes) and anchovies (I used paste) cook until the anchovies melt. All of the broccoli gets added and stirred into the oil. Cover the pan, drop the temperature to very low, and then cook for two hours. All you have to do is turn the broccoli a few times during cooking, but don't break it up much.

What you end up with is essentially broccoli butter. You are really making broccoli confit and I absolutely love it. The stems melt and the florets hold all of the oil's rich flavor. I would suggest using a good quality olive oil for this recipe. I used my regular, relatively inexpensive olive oil and while it's great, I think it could be even better. It makes quite a bit, so I used it twice this week. First, I put it on some penne rigate pasta (pictured above) and it was so good that Christine had seconds. It did need more salt, but I didn't want to over salt it in the first place. Then I slathered it on some pizza dough and topped that with cheese and omg was it amazing (see the next post for a picture). 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cribbage with Grandpas

Image
Cribbage with Grandpas is a Cribbage app you can play on mobile devices. There are plenty of free cribbage apps out there, but I like this implementation a lot more. It's available on both  Android  and  Apple  for just a few dollars and gives you the ability to make custom Grandpa avatars to play against. Besides just the way your grandfather looks, you can also choose personality traits, the setting in which you play, and the snack that he has sitting near him. He'll tell jokes and make comments throughout the game, which makes it just that much more immersive.  Is it necessary to pay to have these things? Absolutely not. Does it add a lot to the experience? Absolutely.  As with other Cribbage apps, there are different difficulty levels so even if you've never played before you can get better and still have a challenge. One thing I really like is that you have to score your cards yourself by selecting them. If you happen to miss something, Grandpa will let you know that
Read more

Social Media Break

Image
I'm struggling right now. I'm searching for direction, trying figure out what I want to do in my life. I'm working on being a better person and want to get more fulfillment out of the work that I do. Instead of focusing and creating a plan, I spend way too much time on social media. It's easy to get lost in the lives of others, hilarious memes, constant "breaking news" updates, and the seemingly non-stop political coverage that is this time period's blood sport. So for at least the month of February, I'll be taking a break from Twitter and Facebook (they're the only platforms I use). I've already deleted the apps off of my phone in an effort to help break the chains, so to speak. The hope is that I better use the time that I used to spend just mindlessly scanning through those feeds. Other than using that time towards working out whatever it is that I'm going through right now, there are a bunch of other things that will easily fill
Read more

Buying and Selling: A Real Estate Story

Image
We've been in Delaware going on 8 years this August. Roughly a year after moving to Dover, we bought a new build townhouse in Smyrna. Our current home has served us well, but since moving in our family has more than doubled in size. We have more than enough room for everyone, but the set up of living on three floors is less than ideal. Coupled with not having a suitable yard for the kids to play and the congestion of the streets in our community, we felt the need to look for a single family home. Not only did we want a single family again, but I even suggested moving out of state for a change of scenery. After some very serious discussions and looking at the costs to leave Delaware, we ultimately decided that we'd stay...for now. Christine and I would like to move when the kids get out of school, but that's a post for another day. For the past two months we've looked at homes in Smyrna online and even went to see some in person. I wasn't really that interested
Read more