Broccoli

I must confess that I am sometimes lazy to read cookbooks.
It is a lot easier to open the fridge and ask Moni. She always knows how to cook things, the dos and donts, so I trust her.
But what do you do when your Moni is not home?

This time I decided to open one of my favorite books: "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman.

This is what I did:
1. Open the fridge. I saw some broccoli.
2. Looked up "broccoli" in Bittman's book.
3. Followed Bittman's directions.

Stalks on your left and florets on your right:

I did not know anything about cooking broccoli and especially about cooking broccoli stalks. I had eaten broccoli countless times but never ever eaten the stalks. So I guess that people do not usually know they can be cooked.


According to Mark Bittman:
"Remove the bottom inch of the stalk or wherever it has dried out. Peel the tough outer skin of the stalk with a paring knife or vegetable peeler..." (P. 543)


Simmering broccoli is the easiest thing on earth. You just need to:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Salt it.
3. Boil stalks for 3 minutes.
4. Add florets and cook for 2 more minutes.

This way you get crunchy broccoli. If you like it less crunchy, boil it more minutes.

Be careful, too much boiling "melts" broccoli. You also loose its best nutritional properties.