Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Things to do with Green Stuff (5) - Endive Hearts


When thinking of things to do with green stuff, I find it is a good idea to shamelessly rip off some of the wonderful cooking ideas of our friends across the channel - the French.

Add to that a little Dutch know-how of what to do with cheese and ham and you can come up with a really nice recipe.

I have always thought that endives were sort of fancy lettuces - but no - they are an extremely useful vegetable for roasting.

Roasted Endive Hearts with Ham and Cheese

250g of endive hearts
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 large slices of ham
100 grams of grated cheese (i.e. cheddar, gouda, emmental)

Cut the endive hearts in half, lengthways
Heat the olive oil in a baking tin in the oven at about 220 degrees C
When the oil is heated, place the endives in the hot oil flat side down, roast for about 10 minutes and turn - roast for a further 10 minutes

When the endives have a crispy, browned texture, remove them from the oven and drain off any excess oil (if you prefer to keep the oil in the tin, that is ok too).

Cover the endives with the grated cheese and place back in the oven and cook until the cheese is bubbling and slightly brown.

Place the two slices of ham on a plate, remove endives from the oven and place them and the melted cheese on top of the ham.

Eat!

I particularly like rolling the endives up in the ham!

Needless to say, other seasonings can be added - a little garlic paste can be used to give the endives a little more flavour, but I find that they have a good fresh flavour of their own.


Keetje

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