Ingredients
This is delicious served as a starter salad with some grilled bread to accompany. It is also terrific as an accompaniment to grilled meats, poultry and fish.
The kale shoots themselves are not nearly as well known as they should be. Essentially they are new shoots that grow on overwintered kale. These shoots if left unpicked would eventually become the flowers which are also delicious to eat, but by the time they flower the stalk can be unpleasantly tough.
I am just thrilled by the fact that the kale throws up this second crop which in my opinion is superior to the actual leaf kale that we all know and love. I see no reason why these shoots could not be elevated on to a piece of buttered toast in the way that the frightfully grand asparagus is and cloaked with a hollandaise sauce and maybe pop on a soft poached egg as well.
As with all green vegetables, I like to cook it in plenty of boiling water with no lid and then to dress the cooked shoots while still warm but not hot. This is a subtle point as if the oil and other seasonings land on the hot kale, they will take on a cooked flavour and loose vibrancy from the heat of the vegetable. I actually want the flavour of the seasonings to be a little more aggressive yet undiminished and by waiting until the kale is warm rather than hot, that is what is achieved.
The small amount of anchovy adds a deep savoury note to the dish and the egg a delicious richness.
It is also worth saying that the parmesan here (as in any situation) is best grated straight from the piece of cheese on to the kale. It will never be more vibrant in taste than those moments immediately after it is grated. I prefer to use and old fashioned grater when rendering this cheese to a coarse powder rather than using (the undeniably brilliant) micro-plane.
The coarse grater tears the cheese in a different way from the airy super light shreds one gets from the micro-plane yielding a fine gritty texture with an astonishingly superior flavour.
- 450g sprouting kale tops or purple or white sprouting broccoli
- 2 eggs
- anchovies, finely chopped
- 1 lemon
- Parmesan for grating
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Lower the eggs into a saucepan of boiling salted water and cook for exactly 10 minutes. Remove immediately and cool in cold water.
- Remove the shells and chop the whole eggs coarsely to about ½ cm pieces. Keep the egg covered until ready to use.
- Bring a large wide saucepan of water to the boil and add a good pinch of salt. Taste the water – it should taste well salted. Add in the broccoli and cook uncovered until tender.
- Remove the broccoli and lay on a rack or a colander to cool slightly and drain off any cooking water.
- Lay the cooled but still warm to the touch broccoli out on a flat dish in a single layer. Scatter over the anchovies as evenly as possible followed by the zest of half of the lemon.
- Drizzle over the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Tease the oil and lemon juice through the broccoli with your fingers to coat the vegetables.
- Even though I like to serve this dish straight away, it will sit happily like this for a couple of hours but avoid the temptation to refrigerate it as it dulls the flavour.
- When ready to serve, scatter the chopped egg all over the kale, followed by a coarse grating of parmesan and serve as soon as possible.
