Name: How to prepare endives
Prep time: 23 min
Cook time: 3 min
Total time: 26 min
Yield: 4 endives
Cuisine: french
Ingredients: 5 endives (head of chicory); coarse salt; water

Step by step recipe:

10 min.
Trim a little from the base of 5 endives (head of chicory), remove and discard any untidy leaves, then wash endives.
3 min.
Boil a large pan of salted water.

With a small sharp knife, remove a small cone from the bottom and discard it. The cone size depends on endive size, usually about half an inch is fine.

This reduces the endive's bitter taste.

Note:If endive are medium or big size, think to cut them in two, from top to bottom, to reduce cooking and blenching time.
3 min.
Put endives in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes...
5 min.
... then remove them using a skimmer, put into very cold water.

You've just blanched endives, and we do that to reduce the bitterness still further.
5 min.
Leave endives in cold water for five minutes, then drain and dry them. The best way is to use a salad spinner, and then leave on a tea-towel.

Remarks:

In this recipe I say "reduce bitterness" because we don't want to suppress it entirely: it's part of the endive taste, its character, that we should keep.

Source:

Home made

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