There's nothing like eating in an American Wild West restaurant to turn your thoughts to vegetables.
‘They are famous for their elk steaks and deep-fried rattlesnake.” That sentence alone should have been enough to put me off going to dinner at Denver’s oldest restaurant.
I had had in mind a carefully planned dinner at another restaurant, but decided to throw caution to the wind and try something different. Usually, the mere mention of snake on a menu is enough to throw me into culinary freefall.
The Buckhorn Exchange opened its doors in 1893, and probably should have closed them not long after. This food and drink emporium is in an area the local police force refer to as Sector 8; after dropping us off, the cab driver stayed only long enough to offer us a tip – “don’t stay on the streets too long” – before speeding away without waiting for his.
I should explain more about the Buckhorn. Presidents have dined here, as has Princess Anne. It was once the lusty drinking hole of Chief Sitting Bull’s nephew, as well as countless cattlemen, miners and gamblers.
I wished I had stuck to my original plan. The food is certainly not the drawcard. It’s the walls. All manner of stuffed indigenous fowl, owls and small woodland animals are on display. There is a game collection of trophy heads; moose, deer, buffalo, bison and mountain sheep peer down forlornly as you eat. There is even a zebra’s head, its dramatic black stripes long since faded to pale yellow.
This is not the place to announce you are a vegetarian. In fact, the only vegetables came in the form of a tired-looking mixed salad, complete with canned mandarins.
It got me thinking it’s time I did some vegetable dishes, and what more deserving vegetable than broccoli.
If you remove the egg from this recipe, not only will it still work, but it will also be a perfectly good vegan dish. The green-herb sauce will keep in the fridge for several weeks, and is gorgeous on its own as a dip.
Broccoli Fritters with Green Herb Sauce
2 heads of broccoli
1 large leek
1 red chilli
4 stalks of coriander, leaves only
2 cloves garlic
100g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking soda
salt and black pepper
1 egg, beaten
175ml cold water
a little vegetable oil for frying
Sauce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch basil
6 anchovies
2 tbsp capers
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 small red onion, chopped
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Finely cut the broccoli florets into small pieces – the best way is to shave bits from around the stems with a sharp knife. Cut the leek into fine strips and rinse under cold running water to remove grit or sand. Seed the chilli and chop into very fine slices. Combine these ingredients in a bowl. Shred the coriander leaves. Finely chop the garlic and toss through the vegetables. Add the flour and baking soda, then season well with salt and pepper. Beat in the egg and enough cold water to make a smooth batter.
Heat some oil in a deep frying pan and carefully drop generous tablespoons of mixture into the hot oil. Fry for 3-4 minutes until golden, then flip the fritters and cook until slightly puffed – about 3 minutes. Remove to a serving plate and serve with the sauce.
To make the sauce, blend all the ingredients, except the oil and seasonings, in a food processor until a smoothish purée forms – scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the oil in a thin stream, then season carefully with salt and pepper.
Enough for 4.
The green flecks of broccoli among the mushrooms in this risotto add just the right amount of brightness to turn this into a charming dish, discreetly scattered with long shavings of parmesan.
Broccoli with Mushroom Risotto
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion
300g small button mushrooms, wiped
2 tbsp chopped tarragon
275g arborio rice
1 litre hot chicken stock
1 head of broccoli
1 tbsp unsalted butter
salt
50g parmesan shavings
2 tbsp olive oil
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Chop the onion finely and cook in the butter until it softens and becomes translucent but without colour. Quarter the mushrooms, then add to the onion and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat in the butter. Add the tarragon and the rice, and stir for 2 minutes to coat the rice. Pour in a ladleful of hot stock and cook until it has been absorbed by the rice. Pour on all the remaining stock, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer for 13 minutes.
While the rice cooks, thinly slice the broccoli stems on the diagonal up to 1cm below the head, and break the florets into small pieces. Remove the saucepan lid and stir the rice until it becomes creamy. Add the broccoli and cook until tender – about 3 minutes. Stir in the butter and season with salt. Pour the rice into serving bowls, scatter the parmesan over the top and splash with a little olive oil.
Feeds 4.
This is the most fail-safe recipe I know for hollandaise sauce, and I doubt you will ever go back to using any other. The secret lies in using whole butter instead of melted and clarified. Trust me, you don’t need to know the science behind it, it just works. The sauce is even more scrumptious with the addition of a couple of tablespoons of crème fraîche. Serve the broccoli immediately, because no other vegetable losses its heat quite so quickly.
Steamed Broccoli with Orange Hollandaise Sauce
3 egg yolks
200g unsalted butter
juice of 1 lemon
salt
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 heads of broccoli
Make the sauce by putting the yolks in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water – the bowl should fit the pan and not touch the water. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the yolks a little at a time, whisking constantly with a wire whisk. Squeeze in a few drops of lemon juice, season with a little salt, and stir in the orange zest and parsley. Remove the saucepan from the heat, whisking occasionally to prevent the sauce from splitting.
Bring another saucepan of water to the boil. Cut the broccoli into florets and place in a steamer basket. Place the basket over the boiling water and cover with a lid. Steam until tender – about 4-5 minutes – then remove from the heat and tip into a warmed serving dish. Pour the sauce over the top.
Serves 4.