Food for thought
Broccoli transformed
Simon Courtauld
While Mark Steyn was musing, a fortnight ago in these pages, on the enchiladas that President George Bush would have enjoyed for lunch last month at President Vicente Fox's Mexican hacienda, 1 was interested also to learn, from another report, that Senor Fox grows, among other vegetables on his farm, large quantities of broccoli for export to the USA. For it was Bush's father who, when asked during the 1988 election campaign to say what he most liked and disliked eating, named broccoli as the one vegetable he could definitely do without. He subsequently had to apologise to all the American broccoli growers and importers for this unwarranted slur on the good name of their industry. Had the current President Bush been asked by his Mexican host what he thought of broccoli, he might have replied that he just loved those James Bond films that he made.
The film producer in question, Mr Cubby Broccoli, used to boast that an uncle of his was responsible for first introducing the vegetable to America; but this was as much of a fantasy as were the films chronicling the life of 007. Broccoli was certainly popular in Virginia in the 18th century, before Independence, and there is no record that the first president pronounced against it as the 41st one did. When the Italians started moving across the Atlantic, no doubt they took with them the seeds of the vegetable which originated in their country, particularly Calabria, from which region calabrese takes its name.
An old gardener I knew used to speak of broccolo, which may possibly be correct when referring to a single plant. However called, there are the purple, and white, sprouting varieties, and the broccoli, properly called calabrese, which has green heads or curds (I try to avoid calling them florets). One Italian variety, Romanesco, has pale-green, pyramid-shaped heads. I used to think of sprouting broccoli as an early spring vegetable, having been sown in April/May and transplanted in June/July. But I have noticed this winter that it has been available in the shops since before Christmas — which, for those of us who prefer the purple sprouting to the green calabrese, has been very welcome these past two months.
If you are growing calabrese, side shoots will emerge in autumn after the main head has been cut. I would rather have these than the 'green tree', as my step-granddaughter calls it, which is inclined to drop some of its 'leaves' in cooking, and does not keep its colour in the larder for as long as its firmer white cousin, the cauliflower. Simply boiled, I would say that calabrese is my least favourite among the brassicas. (It may be improved slightly by cooking the stalk for longer than the head.) But it can be transformed by being differently treated. From America, I have recently tried a recipe for puréed broccoli, which was quite delicious with roast mallard. Both stalk and head should be chopped, boiled in salted water, then whisked in a food processor with crème fraiche and sour cream, plus salt and pepper, grated parmesan and nutmeg (go steady on the nutmeg: I used too much) and reheated with a little butter.
Then there is the recipe for green fish soup from the Michelin-starred Croque-enBouche restaurant at Malvern Wells. This involves combining cooked calabrese with white fish fillets, fish stock, fennel, ginger and softened onion and leek, blending all the ingredients and adding cream.
The purple sprouting stuff has been called asparagus broccoli; it goes well not only with melted butter but also a hollandaise sauce. This is the way discerning friends of ours offer it, as a first course, at their supper parties in Savernake Forest.
I am grateful to Rowley Leigh for having introduced me to one of the Italian ways with sprouting broccoli, which is to boil it, then pour over a sauce made with garlic, shallot, salted anchovies, lemon juice, olive oil and butter. It works wonderfully well. He also recommends making frittata (the Italian version of a Spanish tortilla) with broccoli as well as potatoes. Broccoli is said also to be delicious with scrambled eggs, though I have yet to try this.
The Italians, of course, mix broccoli with their pasta; and in Sicily they casserole the vegetable with black olives, anchovies, onion, red wine and stock. I expect this is the way the mafiosi enjoy it in New York and Chicago, while former President Bush sticks to steak and baked potato at his retirement home in Maine.
Lucy Vickery
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