I have not paid enough attention to vegetables recently –
not in my diet, I hasten to add, but certainly in my blog. Today I want to talk
about broccoli. The first reference to broccoli listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is from John
Evelyn’s Acetaria, in which he
mentions it as coming from Naples, which is interesting in itself. The next
reference is from Bailey’s dictionary of the 1730’s in which it is defined as ‘an
Italian Plant of the Colly-Flower Kind.’
There does not seem to be any doubt that we must give the Italians the
credit for cultivating or popularising the broccoli.
The OED definition
is:
“One of the
cultivated forms of the cabbage (Brassica oleracea botrytis asparagoides),
the young inflorescence of which forms a close fleshy edible head: in its
origin a more robust and hardy variety of the cauliflower. Broccoli is
distinguished as green, purple, and white, the last hardly
distinguishable from cauliflower, except in being in season in winter or early
spring.”
Strangely, the OED does not give any alternative spellings
of the word ‘broccoli’ other than ‘brocoli’, which is an odd omission
considering that ‘brockala’ was also used, as in the following recipe from The Modern Cook and Frugal Housewife’s
Compleat Guide, by E. Spencer (‘Late Principal COOK to a Capital TAVERN in
London’), 1782. Many early recipes for broccoli suggest that the stalks can be
cooked and used like asparagus – a fine comment on our modern practice, when we
tend to throw away much of the stalk.
To dress Brockala.
Strip off
all the branches till you come to the top one, then with a knife peel off the
hard outside skin, which is on the stalks and little branches, and tie them up
as asparagus, and throw them into water; have a stew-pan of water with some
salt in, when it boils put in the brockala, and when the stalks are tender it
is enough, then send to table with butter in a cup.
P.S for nineteenth
century Broccoli and Buttered Eggs, go HERE.
Quotation for the Day.
A vegetable
garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little
it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.
Gertrude Stein.
5 comments:
"Brockala" makes me think of the Purple Peacock brockali (Frank Morton's spelling to emphasize the kale connection) that we are growing this year. It's a cross between broccoli and kale, and you can eat the whole dang thing! Frank Morton is a genius, at least I hope so. It's growing well, but we haven't eaten any of it yet.
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Oh, and Gertrude can go suck a lemon. Veggie gardens are the best gardens!
I've been slicing the stalks thin and cooking them for years since it seemed wasteful to throw out what is at least half of the head. I don't know why I never thought to peel them. There used to be bagged slivered broccali stalks good for stir frying or making slaw available at the grocery store marketed as broccali woccali but I haven't seen it for years.
Since the stems are a bit tougher then the buds, another way to go about it is to put them down in the bottom of a pot instead of a steamer basket. They're perfectly boiled right at the same time the buds resting on top(out of the water) are steamed!
Ferdzy - do let us know how the brockali turns out, it sounds great.
Les, the bagged broccoli stalks sounds like a great idea! I wonder what happended to it?
Jesse - a great idea, I guess you need a pot sust the right sizee - a bit like an asparagus pot (which I have always wanted to own)
I can't find the bagged broccoli in Oklahoma but it's possible it's a south Texas brand that isn't available here.
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