What Is This Interesting Vegetable

My wife brought this odd looking vegetable home from the farmers market they have at her workplace. I had never seen one before but it certainly looked interesting so I steamed it up and served it as a side dish with our meal that night. It was delicious. Tasted more like cauliflower but only more tender.

I don’t think you will find it in many supermarkets but if you can find it, try it. This relative of the cauliflower family is lime green and has cone-shaped florets.  You want to select heads that are very dense and bright in color and stay away from any with bruised florets. This can stay in the refrigerator for about a week, but I promise, it won’t last that long once you taste it.

Only Martha Stewart

My wife happened to be looking at her Martha Stewart November 2007 Living Magazine and what did she find? A recipe featuring Broccoli Romanesco and Parmesan Puree.  Only Martha would have a recipe for an esoteric vegetable only found in local farmers’ markets. And, it looks like a great one I can’t wait to try this Thanksgiving.

If you can’t find Broccoli Romanesco, you can substitute a head of broccoli and a head of cauliflower instead.

Broccoli Romanesco and Parmesan Puree
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ½ pounds broccoli Romanesco (about two heads), cut into ¾ inch pieces
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
½ cup water
Coarse salt (Kosher or sea)
½ cup whole milk
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus more for adding at the end
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

How to Make at Home

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the broccoli Romanesco and sliced garlic cook until brightly colored and starting to turn golden brown. This should take about 8 – 10 minutes.  Remove and reserve a few pieces for garnishing but leave the rest.

Add water and 1 teaspoon of salt to the skillet. Cover and cook until the broccoli Romanesco until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain any remaining liquid from the skillet.

In your food processor or blender, puree half the broccoli Romanesco and transfer to a large bowl. Puree the remaining broccoli Romanesco.

In a separate saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a gentle simmer. Add the milk and cream mixture to the food processor with the second batch and pulse to combine. Add this mixture to the first batch in the bowl and mix gently together.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano, season with salt and pepper and mix together. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Garnish with the reserved broccoli Romanesco and a little more of the Parmigiano cheese.

Serve as a side dish.

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds?

It’s pumpkin carving time and we all know what we get when we carve pumpkins with the kids? No, not a big mess. Pumpkin Seeds! Don’t throw them out. Here’s how to make a delicious and nutritious snack with those slippery little seeds.

Ingredients

Freshly plucked pumpkin seeds
Butter – about 2 ounces of butter per cup of seeds
Salt, to taste

Start by preheating the oven to 400º F

Separate the seeds from the pumpkin flesh. We use a colander under running water to make the job a little easier. It takes a little effort but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. Be sure to remove all the flesh and the strings so they don’t burn in the oven.

Dry them with layers of paper towels or dishtowels.

Some people will tell you to soak the seeds in salted water for a day and that may make them taste better, but we don’t have time for that. We want immediate gratification.

Put the butter onto a baking sheet and place it in the oven. As soon as the butter melts, add the pumpkins seeds to the pan, season with salt, mix everything together and put the pan back into the oven.

Roast for 15 to 30 minutes until the pumpkin seeds are golden brown. Be sure to shake the pan every once in a while so the seeds don’t burn.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the seeds cool. Have some control and don’t start snacking on them right away or you may burn your mouth.

Alternatives:

Some people get very creative with their pumpkin seeds and season with various herbs and spices. You may want to try mixing in some garlic powder, celery powder, Cajun seasoning, Old Bay seasoning, hot sauce, red pepper flakes (be careful) or even some Worchestershire sauce.

Another event brought me back to Harriton House last weekend. This time it was the Harriton Plantation Fair and featured horseback rides, sheep herding, Pennsylvania Dutch barbecue, music, log cutting and the infamous Stinging Nettle Eating Contest.

Rose Bochansky, the assistant to Curator Bruce Gill, thought up this event and was one of the 5 contestants. Being a vegetarian, I think Rose thought she was a lock to win, but Rose had no idea that my friend Barbecue Bob, that meat-eating gourmand was going to show her how to wolf down a pile of stinging nettles and win the first place prize, a case of beer. (Photo is of Rose and Bob extracting honey from honey bee combs back at the end of July.)

Stinging nettle (or should I say Urtica dioica) is an herbaceous flowering plant that can be found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is covered with tiny little hairs that act as needles that release a toxin when penetrating the skin. The toxin is harmless but burns at first and causes a nasty itch afterwards.

Why Eat Stinging Nettles

Not that I’m recommending you eat them raw, but stinging nettle has been used by many cultures as an herbal medicine. Because they are rich in calcium and iron, nettle is often used to make soups. (See http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/stinging-nettle-000275.htm) Supposedly, when you cook the leaves, the stinging hairs are disabled.

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