Endive - Culinary File

 

Nutritional values per 100 g

• Calories: 20-25, great for diets
• Carbohydrates: 2%
• Water: 90%
• Protein: 2%
• Rich in potassium, vitamins A, B1, B2 and C, and cellulose

Buying endive
Choose fleshy, white endive with firm, unblemished, tightly-closed leaves; avoid any with green marks or green edges, a sign of bitterness and lower quality. Endive can be classified in four groups:

1. small, very even, white and firm
2. longer and more bulbous, but still white and firm
3. slightly irregular shape with the occasional green strip along the edges of the leaves
4. irregular shape, slightly open with the leaves green at their tips.

Allow 125 g (4 oz.) per person for endive salad and about 250-300 g (8 to 10 oz.) when preparing cooked endive.

Storing
Unwashed endive can be kept for several days, or even up to a week, in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator. Produced in dark conditions, it shows its dislike of the light by quickly becoming bitter when exposed to it.

Cooking tips

• Remove the wilted outer leaves if necessary
• raw, in salads, accompanied by beets, diced potato and pine nuts
• steamed - pierce with a knife to check for doneness
• braised: steam, blot and dry well; roll in flour and roast in a pan with a knob of butter until the outer leaves are nice and brown
• gratinéed
• creamed
• stuffed

A Marriage of Heart and Mind
Endive is a perfect accompaniment to meats and fish; it adores butter, mild vinaigrettes, apples, walnuts, or even better, the refinement of pine nuts.

Hints and Tricks
To get rid of endive's bitterness, make an incision in the stem end by cutting out a small cone;

if you boil endive, you will have to let it drain for several hours or else gently squeeze it to extract all the water; therefore, it is better to steam them;

use the leaves for an appetizer with a dip or as bases for hors-d'oeuvres, filled with a blue cheese cream or crab salad