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Long-cooked broccoli is a delicious thing; forget all your prejudices about overcooked, soggy vegetables. Not all vegetables have to be crisp-tender!
SOFT BROCCOLI
Roughly chop one smallish onion and cook it very very slowly in a fair bit (3-4 T.) of olive oil. While it's cooking, peel and slice at least three cloves of garlic. Add them to the pot, and then cut up one bunch of broccoli. Peel the stems and cut them in medium-sized chunks and then cut the tops into pieces about twice the size of the stem pieces. When the onion and garlic are nice and soft, put in the broccoli, add some salt, and give the whole thing a stir so that the broccoli gets coated with oil. Add a few tablespoons of water (or chicken stock is even better), put a lid on the pot, and then make whatever else you're making for dinner. (It was sautéed boneless chicken thighs for us tonight.)
Once in while, check the broccoli and make sure it's not sticking to the bottom. Add a little more water or chicken stock from time to time. Cook for 15 or 20 minutes. It will get very very soft. This is OK. The tops may even start to fall apart a little bit. This is also OK.
If I'm eating by myself, I like to have this broccoli in a bowl with a couple of poached eggs on top, maybe sprinkled with a little romano cheese. It can go next to or underneath just about anything. Tonight, since Catherine does NOT like broccoli, I added a big handful of grated fontina cheese, and stirred it all up until the cheese melted. (Dairy products - cheese, butter, cream - are a great way to bribe anyone into eating any kind of vegetable.)
A nice bowl of cheesy, warm, soft, comforting broccoli, topped with a crispy-skinned piece of chicken. What a very nice thing to have on a very cold winter evening.
VARIATIONS:
In the summer, you can cook zucchini the same way, or combine broccoli & zucchini. A few olives, or goat cheese, or both, are also good.
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