Cooking In:Stir up a January treat - these bitter leaves turn silky soft when baked
I'm having a detox month, sort of. The exercise requires the frequent use of my oven. Having spent so much time in the kitchen over the past few weeks, this way of cooking is providing much-needed release. A bit of preparation, some idle chopping, and my oval earthenware dish - already crusted with over-use - is wheeled out once more. Vegetables and cheese are my current favourites - cauliflower with Mossfield, broccoli with Cashel Blue. Who said detox needed to be tough?
The idea of a dish of hot, bubbling comfort food on the table seems just right for these short, dark nights. A bowl of salad and a baked potato or two is all that is needed alongside. The tradition of using brassicas is a fine one, yet the likes of chicory, or endive as they call it in France, brings the role of bitterness to the fore.
We have an over-fondness for sweet food. This is not just in manufactured food, but also in our keenness for simply cooked protein such as grilled steak, roast chicken and fried fish. Bitter is good, particularly when partnered with dairy products such as cream and cheese.
This unassuming, tightly wrapped, yellow leaf delivers much in the way of flavour. It is elegant, crisp and ever so slightly bitter when raw, and it becomes silky and soft when baked. Chicory is a good source of vitamins and, contrary to what you might think, given its bright colour and constant appearance in salads, it is a winter vegetable. The season lasts from October through to May. And if you tire of the yellow there is a red/pinkish version which tastes much the same.
Chicory can be tossed in a mustard-rich dressing and served with walnuts and crispy bacon, or blanched in salted boiling water until tender, cooled, and served with chopped, hard-boiled egg and a dusting of butter-fried crispy breadcrumbs. Seasonal delights, even in January, are welcome.
Recipes
Recipes serve four
BAKED CHICORY
4 heads chicory
olive oil
60g butter, plus a little extra
40g flour
450-500ml full fat milk
nutmeg
4 tbsp grated Parmesan
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas four. Trim and slice the chicory lengthways, toss it in three tablespoons of olive oil and then bake it, covered with tin foil, for 20-30 minutes, until it has wilted. Make a bechamel sauce by heating the butter with the flour in a saucepan, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the milk and continue to cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until it is the consistency of double cream. You may need more or less milk. Add the juices from the chicory. Season the bechamel and grate in nutmeg, to taste. Add the Parmesan, stir and remove from the heat. Pour the sauce over the chicory, scatter with breadcrumbs and dot with a tablespoon of butter. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
BLACK PUDDING, CHICORY AND SAUCE GRIBICHE
2 eggs
150ml vegetable oil
lemon juice
1 dessert spoon finely chopped gherkins
1 dessert spoon capers
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
2 heads chicory, trimmed and leaves separated
12 slices of black pudding
Hard boil the eggs. When they are cool, remove the yolk, and set the whites to one side. Mash the yolks into a bowl and add the oil, initially drop by drop and then in a steady stream, as you would for mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper and lemon juice to taste. Stir in the gherkins, capers and parsley. Scatter the chicory on four plates and spoon the gribiche over the top. Saute the black pudding slices in two tablespoons of vegetable oil until cooked. Lay this on top of the chicory. Grate the egg whites on the largest setting of your grater. Scatter this over the leaves and serve.
CHICORY SALAD WITH POMMERY MUSTARD DRESSING
4 heads chicory
2 tbsp Pommery mustard (if Pommery is not available, use any wholegrain mustard)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
dash of Tabasco
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
half tsp sugar
250ml light olive oil
Trim the chicory and separate into leaves. As you get towards the core, slice it thinly.
In a bowl combine the mustards, Tabasco, vinegar and sugar. While continually stirring, add the olive oil, as you would for mayonnaise, drop by drop at first, so the dressing becomes an emulsion. If the mixture is too thick, add a dessert spoon or two of warm water. Toss the leaves in the dressing and mould into neat piles on four plates. Season generously with salt and pepper and serve.
SPAGHETTI WITH CHICORY SAUCE
400g spaghetti
2 heads chicory, preferably the pink variety
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, halved
100ml white wine
6 dark anchovy fillets (not the pale cured ones)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Trim the core from the base of the chicory and then shred it thinly. Heat four tablespoons of olive oil and lay the garlic, cut side down, in the oil over a low heat. Allow the garlic to colour and when it is golden brown remove and discard it.
Add the chicory to the hot oil and cook over a moderate heat so it wilts down; this will take about three minutes. Add the white wine and reduce till it is almost gone. Remove from the heat and stir in the anchovies, which will melt in the hot oil. Cook the spaghetti and toss it with the chicory mixture. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the Parmesan over the top. u harnold@irish-times.ie