![]() ![]() ![]() Cook the peas for 3 or 4 minutes, then remove with a draining spoon. Fill the empty pan with water and bring to the boil. When the leaves have relaxed (they cook in their own steam) drain, then gently squeeze most of the moisture out and set aside. Wash the spinach and pile the leaves, still wet, into a pan, cover tightly with a lid and cook for a minute or two over a high heat. Shake the bowl from side to side until you get a good mixture of crumbs of different size, then set aside. Add the breadcrumbs, the thyme leaves and 1 tbsp of water. Make the crumble: put the flour in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips (or give it a quick blast in a food processor) until it resembles the texture of coarse fresh breadcrumbs. Should the sauce be lumpy, then beat with a whisk until smooth. Keep the sauce at a low to moderate heat, stirring regularly, and let it cook for a good 20-25 minutes. When you have a thick, biscuit-coloured paste, let it cook for a minute or two, stirring regularly, then pour in the milk, slowly, stirring constantly, holding the aromatics back in the pan (you can discard them, they have done their work). In a nonstick saucepan, melt the butter over a moderate heat, then stir in the flour. Watch carefully, then just as the milk is reaching boiling point, remove from the heat and set aside for 20 minutes to infuse. Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the bay leaves and the onion, peeled and cut in half, then add the cloves and whole peppercorns. It is worth mentioning that the crumble can be assembled the day before and baked as needed. Green vegetable crumbleĪ calming dish of gentle summer flavours. The microgreens were more than purely cosmetic they carry peppery notes that make their inclusion worthwhile. The contrasts of cool, crisp and hot made for a better cucumber salad than I can remember, one that I must bring out more often. The crumble came to the table with a crunchy salad: cool cucumber and microgreens (radish sprouts, broccoli and alfalfa) and the punch of wasabi paste. You could add a handful of finely grated cheese to the crumble if you fancied, but I’m not sure it is necessary. The sauce will happily take some fat, cooked butter beans, nuggets of crisp bacon or a spoonful of fried onions. A béchamel, thoughtfully seasoned and given a good 25 minutes or longer over a very low heat with scarcely a bubble to be heard, is a cook’s time well spent. The crucial point is to make a seriously good sauce, using cloves, bay leaves and onion, but also to give your sauce the baptism of time. Blanched asparagus may go in, too, especially now the price of homegrown spears has come down. The filling was then covered with a rubble of butter crumbs and baked until the green-freckled sauce bubbled up around the edges and the crumble was lightly crisp.ĭeeper into summer, I will make this recipe with lightly cooked runner beans and shredded summer cabbage. This week, I stuffed great handfuls of spinach – thick stemmed, leaves as pointed as an arrow – into a deep saucepan, letting them cook for a minute or two in their own steam, then tossed them with young broad beans into a classic, aromatic white sauce. T hese days of early summer with crisp young greens at the market and the garden fizzing with new growth are glorious.
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