For 4 people: 4 ovenproof dishes 8 cm in diameter and soft butter to spread. 450 g broccoli, salt, 1 pinch sugar, 1 egg, 5 tbsp cream, white pepper, freshly ground.
Vinaigrette: 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 dashes red wine vinegar, 1 tsp boiled down dry white wine, salt, freshly ground white pepper, 2 tbsp truffle oil.
Cut the washed broccoli florets close to the stem. Cut off the bottom third of the stems, slice the top pieces. Boil 1 l of water with salt and add the sugar. First throw the stems into the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Now add the florets and boil everything for another 3 minutes. Drain the broccoli through a sieve, immediately keep in ice water in the sieve. Lift out, drain and dry on kitchen paper.
For the vinaigrette, mix all the ingredients together well and lastly whisk in the truffle oil. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Puree the cooked broccoli with the egg and cream in a blender, season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the buttered ramekins, smooth out and cover loosely with aluminium foil. Place the ramekins in a large enough dish. Pour boiling water into the dish so that the ramekins are immersed in hot water to no more than half their height. Place the bottom of the dish in the oven and cook the broccoli flans for about 40 minutes. In this time, the broccoli mixture will have about doubled in volume. Pour a drizzle of the truffle vinaigrette onto the plates, remove the flans from the oven, carefully turn them out and place them on the plates. Serve immediately.
Vegetables with a checkered history: Broccoli
When Gerhard Gros took over his parents' farm with his wife Gabi Meurer, it was clear that conventional farming could not continue. But to shift to organic vegetable cultivation did not mean the easiest way, because the harsh climate at an altitude of almost 400 m as well as the poor soils are not exactly conducive to the greens. At least unheated foil houses are needed up there; also only two and a half hectares can be planted with vegetables, the larger remainder is used for the cultivation of catch crops or lies fallow, in order to be able to carry out the sufficient crop rotation. So not only do potatoes, carrots and tomatoes turn out very well, but you can buy many other vegetables. Or have them delivered, from full-range to gentle food to mother-child boxes; more details are available by leaflet or on the phone.
The two trained farmers grow around 40 vegetable crops, expertly supported by a gardener.
Among them broccoli, which is not easy to grow. The brother of the cauliflower needs a lot of water and is also sensitive to a whole range of cabbage pests. They can burrow into the richly structured flower bud head, and when their customers discover them at home, says Gabi Meuer, trouble is inevitable. Broccoli, however, is one of the finer types of cabbage, because it does not cause flatulence, and can therefore be fed to babies at an early age, and is suitable for light meals and diets.
However, broccoli has had a chequered history in this country. Two hundred years ago, people knew it quite well, but didn't know much to do with it. Karl Friedrich von Rumohr, for example, reported in his book "Vom Geist der Kochkunst" (1822) that broccoli is excellent in Rome, but "stinks and often tastes like all kinds of crap". Maybe that's why broccoli - sometimes also called asparagus cabbage - (which again expressed appreciation) disappeared from the German menu for a long time and only reappeared there in more recent times.
The market leader didn't like it at all in the past, and even had something in common with George Bush, the former president of the USA, who liked to emphasize his disgust for broccoli frequently. After all, in most restaurants, even fine ones, it is mostly abused as a decorative material because of its beautiful green color, lying around half-cooked and unseasoned on the plates.
In contrast, broccoli, seasoned with brown butter and a pinch of anise, does represent something culinary. It is also one of the very few vegetables that Chinese cuisine has deigned to adopt from the West. So broccoli flan with truffle oil vinaigrette (based on a recipe by two-star chef Heinz Winkler) is likely to please even the Far Eastern palate.
Healthy and Lively
Hof Ardemar
65232 Taunusstein - Neuhof
from Waldemar Thomas