Broccoli Fantasia - Fabulous Broccoli

In keeping with a bit of a trend here, I've yet again selected a recipe based on the massive claims its title has made. Fabulous is no understatement, that's a big claim. And considering my disastrous previous broccoli recipe from SS, I was a bit skeptical.

However, this recipe was indeed fabulous. So fabulous, I've actually been craving more of it. Even just writing about it now really makes me want to eat some more of it. Sadly, I cooked this about a week ago, and don't have any leftovers or any more broccoli in the house, and am feeling a bit lazy.

For starters, the Fabulous Broccoli has presented an interesting work around to the SSVTR (last mentioned here): after a brief parboil of the chopped 2 1/4 pounds of broccoli, draining, and cooling, it is baked in the oven with a sauce. This is quite different from the other overboiled veggie problems. It seems that when you bake the veggies with a sauce, they're nowhere near as offensive and quite a bit more flavourful. Or at least, that's what happened in this case.

I heated two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan, added four garlic cloves (that's two more than requested by the recipe) and two trimmed and sliced leeks. I sautéed the lot for about five minutes or so, until softened, then refused obstinately to remove and throw out the perfectly good garlic cloves.

I stirred in a tablespoon of flour, and cooked for about two minutes until it was lightly browned. I then added a scant half cup of half and half, seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed well. The recipe called for heavy cream, but I opted to use half and half partly because I'm still fighting the good fight and trying to trim down a bit, and partly because I misread the recipe before I went shopping and didn't buy any heavy cream.

I then added the broccoli, a half cup of dry-ish white wine (needed dry, ended up with something not so dry... I can't remember what it was, but the fact that Gewürztraminer was one of the grapes should have been a giveaway.) I simmered the mixture for about 10 minutes, then poured it into a greased oven-proof dish, sprinkled it with about 6 tablespoons of grated parmesan, a couple of dabs of butter and baked it in a preheated 400º oven till bubbling.

So much for that effort to trim down. It was fabulous. Sooooo tasty and creamy and rich and delicious and comforting. I can't rave enough about it. I loved it. Yum!

Tasty Factor: A+ Ease of Preparation: B+ Modifications: Yes. Doubled the garlic, left it in, & replaced the heavy cream with half and half.