Purple Sprouting Broccoli

[Millymollymandy]

How long do the plants normally carry on cropping for? This is only the 2nd time I've grown these but the last time, in a different climate, the plants went from dormant to seed in about 10 days! Here in Brittany it is cooler thankfully and I've had two harvests already and I can see there is lots more the come.

My favourite way of eating them, if I get the big individual spears, is to steam them then eat them dripping in melting butter with my fingers just like asparagus. Yum!

How do you eat yours?

[invisiblepiper]

Oh - you've made me hungry - but try this recipe -
You need some blue cheese - stilton here but Breton options are good
broccoli
button mushrooms
lardons of bacon
Tagliatelle
Fry the lardons and mushrooms while boiling the pasta,
Five mins before the pasta is done - toss the broccoli pieces into the water with it
When cooked - drain, add the bacon and mushrooms and stir in chopped cheese till it melts
serve
Quantities? - 125g lardons, same mushrooms, three tagliatelle 'nests' per person, broccoli to taste and cheese - loads!
This serves two very hungry or three folk - good with a bit of salad - rocket or similar.
Now - breakfast!!!!!

[Shirley]

my purple sprouting has been a complete non event - I've got two spears - they are each about the size of a fingernail. Harrumph.

[godfreyrob]

Well last year we had loads of the stuff from feb->april. This year I have only just got the first head (and its tiny). The variety is the same so I am guessing the harsh winter has really slowed them down.

I usually keep cutting heads off the plants until we get fed up of eating them - there is no real limit to how many times you can do this, although the heads get smaller after each cut.

[theabsinthefairy]

Lucky MMM, winter is too harsh here for an spring crop, but we do get lots in the autumn, and I let them form 1 relatively large sized head, - chuck that into the freezer, and then we just keep eating the spears until November, but they do get gradually smaller and smaller. But oh so yummy.

Try this recipe (not big on measuring things so its all in the eye and the tastebuds)

a couple of big handfuls of broccoli spears
splash olive oil
3 large garlic cloves
2 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes
3 anchovies (the oily salted ones from a jar)
4 tablespoons of butter
I small carton of creme entier (double cream I think)
enough pasta for 4 people
salt and pepper

Steam the broccoli for a few minutes.
Fry the chillies, anchovies and butter, mash together with the garlic in the pan to make a paste, add the broccoli and cream, and let simmer after bringing to the boil briefly. When cooked, mash up some of the broccoli heads to make more of a creamy sauce, and leave a few heads intact, serve poured over the cooked pasta and season.

Totally yummy!!!!


As we are not veggie - I normally do some roast chicken in garlic and serve with this pasta.

Oh crickey - starving now -

Monika

[red]

overwhelmed with PSB (sorry Shirley) but we like it so not a problem
fave might be stiliton and PSB quiche

[Odsox]

How long do the plants normally carry on cropping for?

Every time I've grown them MMM in a similar climate to yours, they just go on and on and on until the spears are too small to bother with and the stems get a bit wirey.
Usually they start to crop here in February (although they have started in November) and carry on till the end of May, but I usually need the space before then.
This was one of my gripes in the Crop Rotation thread

[Millymollymandy]

Invisible Piper - do you know, I'm not sure if there is any Breton cheese! If there is it isn't exactly famous!

Monika - I don't see why you shouldn't be able to grow them because I grew them in Ain at altitude with a climate like yours. The only problem is that our weather went from winter to too warm too quickly for a crop like that.

Two of my plants are half dead - no leaves left after the big freeze but I think those were the ones that had been decimated by black fly. They still have produced some sprouts though although small and I've had to pick the whole 'head'.

My last two healthy looking plants with leaves are only just starting and they seem to be producing the individual big spears that are the ones I like.

Those of you in England, how often do you see PSB for sale in shops? I remember it as a common veg in spring along with spring greens when I was young(er). Then it seemed to just disappear until one day when I discovered some in Marks & Spencers and rediscovered the joys of it. That was not long before I left England for foreign shores so this is only the 2nd time I've eaten it in about 14 years!

And also - did you stake your plants? Mine are at a 45 degree angle despite trying to hold them upright with umpteen bamboo canes.

[Mal]

MMM - PSB is making a real comeback these days - we get a veg box and it features quite frequently in season. I didn't see it at all until about 10 years ago though - completely forgotten in the (easier to grow/harvest/transport, presumably) calabrese onslaught.

theabsinthefairy - that sounds great, we have a similar recipe we do with calabrese (and half fat creme fraiche for waistband reasons), but without the anchovies and with more mashing - Mrs Mal is always trying to get me to eat more anchovies for some reason, so I'm sure she'll love this variation. We also put in a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice for sharpness in the sauce. yum yum.

[Millymollymandy]

That's good to hear about the comeback Mal.

I should have said thank you to those who posted recipes but forgot. Unfortunately I don't like either blue cheese or anchovies!

[Odsox]

Invisible Piper - do you know, I'm not sure if there is any Breton cheese!

I'm ashamed of you MMM, have you not come across any Petit Breton and Saint Paulin ?
I used to eat Petit Breton every day when I lived there and happily there is a very similar one made just up the road from me where I live now.

[Millymollymandy]

I didn't know that St Paulin was Breton! Never heard of the other one. But then again I don't like French cheese. I am counting down the days to when I get to England and can stock up on my favourite crumbly cheeses like Wensleydale and buy loads and loads of cheddar at half the price of cheese in France!

[Millymollymandy]

Have googled and it isn't a Breton cheese - it's originally a Quebecois cheese that is made in many regions of France including Brittany!

And Petit Breton doesn't come up on French google, least not as a cheese, only cheese crackers!

[Odsox]

Have googled and it isn't a Breton cheese - it's originally a Quebecois cheese that is made in many regions of France including Brittany!

And Petit Breton doesn't come up on French google, least not as a cheese, only cheese crackers!

Don't think it's from Quebec, see here ... http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... int-Paulin
and here ... http://www.frencheese.co.uk/cheeses/det ... php?id=412

As for Petit Breton, your French Google is obviously anti-Breton as is most of Paris.
I used to eat it till it came out of my ears, in fact I think I still have some in there
http://www.frencheese.co.uk/cheeses/res ... _region=39

[Green Aura]

Dunk your steamed spears in a soft boiled egg - yummy.

Not breton, but what about Bresse Bleu (I think I've spelled it right ). It's the nearest French cheese to stilton that I've tried.