Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
Serves 4
- 8 yellow endives cut in half lengthwise
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey (or brown sugar)
- 4 large slices smoked salmon (cut in half)
For the mushroom béchamel sauce
- 40g (3 tbsp) butter
- 40g (⅓ cup) sifted flour
- 1L (4 cups) milk
- A pinch of nutmeg
- Pepper
Wash and cut the endives in half lengthwise and remove the slightly tough core (it becomes bitter when cooked). Place them in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil, then braise (brown) them. Add enough water to cover them halfway and a tablespoon of honey (this will also help remove the bitterness from the endives). Continue cooking for about fifteen minutes - your endives should be quite tender.
Meanwhile, make the béchamel. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and stir well to form a roux - the flour should blend with the butter to form a fairly smooth golden mass. Add the milk gradually while continuing to stir so the béchamel thickens. Add the sliced mushrooms and continue cooking until they cook a bit and infuse the béchamel. For this recipe, you want a somewhat loose béchamel so the whole dish doesn’t become too compact when you add the mushrooms and doesn’t dry out in the oven. As soon as the right consistency is reached, turn off the heat.
When the endives are tender, turn off the heat, remove the endives, drain them gently and wrap each half with a half-slice of smoked salmon cut lengthwise.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F) on broil setting. Arrange the salmon-wrapped endives in a baking dish and coat with béchamel. Place the dish on a rack in the middle of the oven for about fifteen minutes. I deliberately use quite a bit of béchamel so I can serve extra in a gravy boat and have enough for the side dish.
Serve with rice, braised leeks, quinoa or pasta.
Tips and variations
- You can omit the mushrooms.
- If serving these baked endives as a starter, you can halve the amount of béchamel and count one endive per person instead of two, serve with a bowl of green salad.