In the Oven

I decided to feel the pain and do it anyway. This is the meal I had planned for yesterday.

Endives are the sort of vegetable that seem just a little bit too difficult, like plantains they have a passing resemblance to familiar foods; endives resemble lettuce hearts, but treated as their counterparts fail to achieve the same quality. This makes them less popular in the English speaking world for some reason but the French (and Belgians!) know just what to do.

The standard method for preparing endives then, if a bitter salad is not required and sometimes that's quite nice, is to cook them in butter and chicken stock and sometimes a little cream so the bitterness is ameliorated and the vegetable takes on some rich character of its own. We can't use chicken stock but this is Normandy - local cider will provide both the extra flavour and the acidic bite needed to really bring the endive into its own.

Take a few chicons, I can't tell you how many but you'll need between one and two per serving, maybe more, and halve them lengthways preserving the shape and tight folding of the leaves.

Melt a good quantity of a quality vegan margarine in a heavy pan (or use oil but I think marg. works better here) and put the endives, cut faces down, in the foaming fat. Allow them to cook gently for a few moments so that they start to take some colour.

Season well with salt and pepper, then sprinkle a good tablespoon of sugar over them. The sugar is important, don't leave it out and don't overdo it.

As this hits the heat and starts to caramelise add enough dry cider to come at least two thirds of the way up the vegetables, that is, leave one third above the liquid like an iceberg. If your cider is sweet you might like to add the juice of a lemon also, I didn't have one so can't advise but it's traditional. Cover, I used a sheet of aluminium foil, and pop in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve hot, with the juices ladled over.



To serve with them I did some roast tofu. The Bjorg tofu available here is really not very nice at all, tough as old (vegan) boots and utterly flavourless. I coated mine with a mixture of miso and pomegranate syrup but you could use teriyaki sauce or your favourite barbecue mix. A few potatoes filled the meal out.

So, the answer to yesterday's question; what gets me back in the kitchen?
It's alcohol, only joking of course, or am I?