Endive, Stewed
INGREDIENTS for dish sufficient for 6 persons.-6 heads of endive, salt and water, 1 pint of broth, thickening of butter and flour, 1 tablespoonful of lemon-juice, a small lump of sugar, AVERAGE COST, 18. for dish sufficient for 6 persons.—6 heads of endive, salt and water, 1 pint of broth, thickening of butter and flour, 1 tablespoonful of lemon-juice, a small lump of sugar, AVERAGE COST, 1s.
EXETER PUDDING.
Wash and free the endive thoroughly from insects, remove the green part of the leaves, and put it into boiling water, slightly salted. Let it remain for 10 minutes, then take it out, drain it till there is no water remaining, and chop it very fine. Put it into a stewpan with the broth; add a little salt and a lump of sugar, and boil until the endive is perfectly tender.
When done, which may be ascertained by squeezing a piece between the thumb and finger, add a thickening of butter and flour and the lemon-juice; let the sauce boil up, and serve.
TIME.-10 minutes to boil, 5 minutes to simmer in the broth.
SEASONABLE from November to March.
Epicurean Sauce (for Steaks,
A plainly written vegetable side of the sort Victorian cooks served with roast meat. Two things carry it: squeezing the water out after blanching, and a restrained hand with the thickening.
- Which endiveThis is most likely the curly-leaved endive or escarole of the winter garden, sold today as frisée or escarole, rather than the pale forced chicory sometimes labelled Belgian endive. The recipe gives no weight for the six heads; the direction to remove the green part leaves you with the paler, tenderer hearts.
- The pint of brothAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, about 2 1/2 US cups. The recipe treats it as a sauce to be thickened rather than reduced; a light chicken or veal stock suits, and a vegetable stock works if the dish is going with fish.
- Thickening of butter and flourIn effect a beurre manié, kneaded cold: try about 1 tablespoon soft butter worked into 1 tablespoon flour, dropped in a little at a time and boiled a moment to cook out the raw taste. Add less than you think you need, since chopped endive holds its own liquid.
- Timing to trustThe stated 5 minutes in the broth is optimistic for anything but the youngest hearts; work by the test given, squeezing a piece between finger and thumb, and expect 15 to 25 minutes of gentle simmering for the bitterness to soften.
- Drain hardBlanched greens carry an astonishing amount of water. Press the endive in a colander or twist it in a towel before chopping, or the finished dish will be soup with a slick of butter on top.
- Lump of sugarLoaf sugar was cut by hand and lumps varied; a modern sugar cube, about a level teaspoon, is a reasonable stand-in. It is there to take the edge off the natural bitterness, not to sweeten, and the lemon juice at the end balances it.
- YieldServes 6 as a vegetable alongside a roast; blanched and chopped endive cooks down a good deal, so it is a modest portion by modern standards.
Endive belongs to the chicory family, and its place in a November-to-March recipe explains why Victorian cooks bothered with it: before glasshouse salads and air freight, the bitter chicories were among the very few fresh green things a British kitchen garden offered through the winter. Blanching the heads under a pot or a mound of earth to pale the hearts, then discarding the coarser green outer leaves, was standard practice, which is why the recipe assumes you will throw a good part of each head away. Stewing bitter greens in broth and finishing them with butter, flour and an acid closely resembles French treatments of the same vegetables, though the resemblance is not evidence of a direct borrowing.