Margarita's International Recipes

Belgian



Endives au Gratin

Potato Croquettes

Endives are the great Belgian vegetable - honored and consumed throughout the country. My Belgian dinner would not have been complete without them. While in the US endives are often eaten in salads, in Belgium they are most commonly served cooked. I found several recipes for them, but this one for endives au gratin seemed particularly yummy. Unfortunately it wasn't a huge success.

The main problem was the cheese sauce, without any liquid elements, there was nothing really to make it a sauce. The cheese melted, incorporated the peppers, and solidified again. The resulting browned cheese tasted very good but wasn't very spreadable. If you decide to make it, I would suggest adding some light cream.

None of my guests had had endives before and the general consensus was that they were kind of tasteless but eatable. They all LOVED the Black Forest prosciuto that I got at Trader Joe's, however. In all, I probably wouldn't make this particularly recipe again, but you may find a better one elsewhere.



Endives au Gratin

Ingredients

Instructions

Put olive oil in a frying pan and gently saute the endives until lightly browned. Remove them from the pan and set aside. Add green and red bell peppers and lightly saute them. Remove them from the pan and set aside. Add the flour to the pan and stir until lightly browned. Add salt and pepper and blend well. Add the cheeses and blend until they melt. Return the peppers and stir. Remove from the heat.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap each endive with a slice of prosciutto. Put them in an ovenproof pan, pour cheese sauce over them and bake them for about 20 minutes. Remove, garnish with parsley (optional) and serve.

Serves 4.

Adapted from a recipe at the Belgian Endive website.


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