Creamy Broccoli Gratin with Preserved Lemon Crumb
I love to make dishes that highlight the wonderful taste of vegetables, where they can stand on their own, without the meat crutch. And when you’ve grown it yourself, why wouldn’t you want to taste every delicious mouthful of such amazing veggies? I popped out into the garden at the beginning of November and found my broccoli patch going crazy! A quick harvest had me bringing in a HUGE basket of broccoli stems, leaves and flowers. On the menu for lunch today - Creamy Broccoli Gratin with Preserved Lemon Crumb.
What you do:
Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large pan and put onto med/high heat. Roughly chop the broccoli stems, leaves and/or flowers into smallish pieces (about 1cm). Add to the pan and stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick.
Chop a couple of spring onions, including the green tops, (or half a brown onion, or any type of onion - I’m not an onionist) and add to the pan. Add another drizzle of olive oil if you feel like it’s catching on the bottom.
Next up is two cloves of garlic. You can peel and finely chop if you like the long version. I prefer not to die of boredom so I like my super-fast method. Using a zester or micro plane, hold an unpeeled garlic clove by the flat end and, pressing firmly, grate the garlic clove straight into the pan. Mix it in gently.
After about 3-4 minutes of cooking, the greens should start to feel soft and become a bright, vibrant green. At this stage, add about 1 teaspoon of Vegeta stock powder and half a cup of cream. Stir gently and add just enough water to come just under the broccoli. Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (my not-so-secret ingredient) which you can learn how to make yourself as it’s a game changer to all recipes as it’s in my Fall In Love with Preserving Book, and let it bubble away for a few minutes while you make the topping.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
Finely chop 3-4 preserved lemon quarters. Place in a food processor along with a couple of cups of breadcrumbs (enough to cover the top of the broccoli mix). You can also add herbs at this stage; any type you like, roughly chopped, or even garlic flowers/chive flowers - yum! Pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil and blitz for about 20 seconds or until combined. You’ll want the texture to be like damp sand, so you may need to add a little bit more olive oil. There’s no need to salt the crumb mix, as the preserved lemons are already quite salty.
The broccoli mix should still be quite juicy and be blipping away. Have a taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to. Top with the crumb mix and spread to cover, lightly pressing down. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Zest your unpeeled garlic cloves straight into the pot. Avoid stinky fingers and tiresome peeling.
Swap out broccoli for other vegetables such as cauliflower, any leafy vegetable or even kale. Sweet corn would be lovely mixed in with other veg. Experiment and enjoy!
When making the topping, if you don’t have breadcrumbs, you can roughly chop bread slices and place in the food processor along with herbs, preserved lemon and olive oil and blitz to crumb all at once. You can also use frozen breadcrumbs; there’s no need to thaw first. Breadcrumbs are great to have in the freezer. Perfect to pull out and make arancini, schnitzels and to top gratins.
If you have meat lovers to please, you can add bacon, ham, or chorizo.
Preserved lemon is not just for Morrocan cooking. Finely chop the lemon skins and add to any dish where you’d like a salty, lemony kick! Green veggies are perfect.
Vegetable flowers are delicious. Add chive flowers, garlic flowers, spring onion flowers, broccoli flowers, pea flowers etc. They taste AMAZING.