Broccoli Au Gratin

A very impressive, tasty starter for a large family meal.  It can be done ahead of time and heated at the last minute.
You will need:
- 2 kg of  beautifully green, fresh and firm broccoli boiled crisp, and drained. Cut into medium sized florets. If the broccoli is with its stalk, cut off, peel, then cut into two 5 cm long sticks.  The stalks must be boiled as well.
- 200 gms of thick bacon cut in small cubes.
- 150 gms of Cheddar, Gouda or Emmental (or a mixture of the three)
- 50 gms of fresh butter.
- 50 gms  flour.
- 1 liter of milk boiled and and kept hot.
- 1/2 liter heavy cream at room temperature.
- Salt, freshly grated pepper and nutmeg.
Method:
-  Preheat oven to maximum.
-  Butter a 5 cm deep by 35 cm by 30 cm rectangular oven proof dish.
-  Prepare the béchamel sauce using all the butter, the flour, the milk and the cream. The consistency should be fluid to heavy.
  •  Melt the butter. Add the flour and mix to make a roux. A roux is when you mix melted butter and flour and stir it until the flour cooks and gets a slightly off white color.
  • Start adding the milk slowly until the roux is dissolved and the mixture thickens without balling.
  • When all the milk has been added, add the cream. Stir to the desired consistency 
-  Fry the bacon in its own fat, until it is golden. Strain the fat. Put the bacon on absorbent kitchen paper.
-  Arrange the broccoli florets lying down beside each other in rows. One row could overlap over the other.
-  Sprinkle the bacon evenly.
-  Sprinkle the cheese evenly.
-  Spread the béchamel sauce evenly to fill dish. Put some pieces of butter on the surface.
-  Bake for 30 minutes or until the surface has taken a nice color.
Cool and serve.
Enjoy!
Stelio

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - 
Read more

First Post (after a long time) January14th 2020 Pommes Dauphinoise

Image
A  most delicious common side dish for the Christmas Holidays, where fresh cream may be consumed without too much worry, is baked dish of sliced cream potatoes or culinarily the French would call  Pommes Dauphinoise. Please bear with me as it has been over 3 years I haven't blogged or used this program. Ingredient: - 1.4 kg of potatoes. - 500 ml full cream 35% - 500 ml full fat milk. - 2 cloves of garlic very finely cut. - some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Procedure: - Buy the potatoes as clean as possible. Peel and slice without washing into half inch slices. -  Mix sliced potatoes into a pan which can withstand the fire of the hob,all the milk and all the cream. Mix well. - Add the garlic. - Season with salt. pepper and nutmeg to taste. - Boil the potato mix till the potatoes are nearly soft. - At this point scatter a few pieces of butter around the pan and immediately transfer the pan into the oven till a nice color is obtained. 40 to 60 minutes. Carefu
Read more

Brandade de Morue - Cod / Potato Mash Gratin.

Image
T his recipe is based on Jacques Pepin's with a slight twist from myself to suit Greek taste. This recipe is for 4 persons as a starter. Ingredients : - 1 kg of salted cod fillet. - 1 kg of potatoes skinned. - 1.5 cups full fat milk. - At least 6 large cloves of garlic - 2 tsp. grated lemon zest. - 4 tsp, lemon juice. - Cayenne pepper to taste. - 1 cup of olive oil. - Freshly ground black pepper to taste - Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Procedure : - Preheat oven to 200 deg. C. - Skin the cod fillet and immerse into cold water and refrigerate. - Change water as many times as possible over the next 24 hours to desalinate. - Meanwhile boil the potatoes till tender (fork easily pearces potato).Peel and cut into pieces when cool. - When the cod is desalinated, cook in water by lightly simmering water until fork easily pearces the fish. Do not over cook the fish lest it becomes too hard. - Once cooled, make sure to the best of your ability to omit all the bon
Read more