Strange but Great: Caramelized Endive w/ Serrano Ham
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Who thinks of Belgium endive when making a salad or side dish?
Not me.
I serve it only as appetizers with a smoked fish spread inside. It is usually bitter tasting and only serves the purpose of little vehicles or boats to carry the dip.
Or so I thought.
This recipe will change your mind about endive forever.
We LOVED this. This is my new side dish for grilled meats and makes a lovely presentation.
It is another unusual, but fantastic recipe from the British cookbook Ottolenghi.
The recipe measurements are all in metric. Grams, ml, blah blah, and I didn't have the patience to look each ingredient up on the metric conversion chart and change it to ounces and cups, so I winged it and it came out terrific.
Ottolenghi's Caramelized Endive w/ Serrano Ham & Breadcrumbs:
4 Belgium endives (buy the freshest you can, without any brown edges), cut in half
4 tbsp butter
2 tsp sugar
2/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs (from a brioche or baguette)
3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
sea salt & pepper
3-4 tbsp heavy cream (don't use milk or half & half, use the real stuff)
4 slices of Serrano Spanish ham (or good Prosciutto), each slice cut in half
Make your breadcrumbs. In a food processor pulse the bread slices until you get coarse crumbs. Add the cheese and thyme and combine.
Add the cream a little at a time, until it gets to be like a paste (not too wet).
Set the creamy crumb mixture aside.
Let's caramelize some endive spears!
Slice the endive into halves. In a heavy skillet or ridged grill pan, heat the butter with the sugar until bubbling.
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Lay the endive halves cut side down and let cook about 3 minutes. Carefully lift them out of the pan and transfer to a baking dish. They should be shiny and have nice grill marks o them.
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Spoon some of the cream breadcrumb mixture onto each endive spear and drape with a half slice of Serrano ham (a whole slice is probably too big to drape over the endive half).
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Drizzle with olive oil and roast at 425F for 20 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Use a knife and fork and enjoy. Really yummy.
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Comments
Does grilling it make it less bitter?
SUes
i love endives... braise with honey or even café... bake it with jambon blanc and comté... or make a salad with walnuts, pear and comté ...