Broccoli is NOT boring anymore!!

   

       I'm back in the kitchen cooking my meals and I must say it feels goood! I honestly forgot the rush I feel when I hear onions sizzling in the pan, smell the spices emanating from the pot, or best of all baked chocolate anything from the oven! All the preparing, chopping, washing, combining, mixing, stirring, seasoning, is just such a part of who I am that I'm beginning to feel whole again. 

     Preparing my meals means I really want to take care of myself, cuz let's face it, at this age, who is gonna??!

    So I finally made the "classic" Ottolenghi* recipe I've been meaning to make. 

  Simply, it's Chargrilled Broccoli with Chilli and Garlic. They say: "Customers come especially for it and always complain that their broccoli is never as exciting as ours. In all honesty, broccoli is a boring vegetable and you do need a magic touch to bring it to life." 

      So without further ado, I present to you...my dinner!

   2 heads of broccoli (abt 500g)

   115 ml of olive oil 

   4 garlic cloves thinly sliced

   2 mild red chillis thinly sliced

   toasted flaked almonds or very thin slices of lemon (with skin), to garnish (optional)

  Separate broccoli into florets aka. tear them apart into mini trees. Prepare lage sauce pan w/ water to boil broccoli. Throw them in and blanch for 2 minutes no more. Take out and place in ice cold water to stop the cooking. Drain and allow to dry completely. Toss broccoli with 45 ml olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. 

  Get a ridged grill pan and place it on high heat. Grill dem broccoli! Turn 'em around too.

 While grilling, get a small saucepan fill it up with the rest of the olive oil and cook the garlic and chilli on medium heat. Do not burn them! Just get the garlic to a golden brown then you're good. Remember they still cook after you take 'em off the heat!

  Pour the oil, garlic, and chilli over the broccoli and toss together well. Garnish w/ lemons or almonds. Gorgeous stuff!

 True story: One of my roommates hates garlic. She ate it all till the last broccoli floret and she didn't know there was any garlic despite the fact that it's in the recipe' title!! All the flavors mix marvelously in a subtle way, trust me or trust Ottolenghi. He rocks!

* Ottolenghi The Cookbook, Ebury Press, 2008.