Serves 6
I’m a bit weird. I loathe regular broccoli but love tenderstem. This is my favourite way of cooking and eating it, although when in a hurry at home I’ve often chucked the bag of broccoli straight into the microwave for two minutes. It works!
2 tbsp olive oil3 garlic cloves, sliced
a knob of butter
2 x 200g packets of tenderstem broccoli
150ml water
For the hollandaise:
4 egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
a pinch of caster sugar
300g butter, melted and kept warm
To make the hollandaise, boil a saucepan of water, then put it on a kitchen towel to stabilise it. Put the egg yolks in a large-ish bowl and set the bowl on top of the saucepan, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Add the lemon juice, sugar and a pinch of salt and ground white pepper, then whisk over the pan of steaming water for 2–3 minutes, until the egg yolks start to thicken.
Slowly drizzle in the melted butter little by little, making sure it amalgamates all the while. I like to add the milk solids from the melted butter too, it’s full of flavour.
For the broccoli, put the oil and garlic in a saucepan set over a gentle heat. Be patient and wait for the garlic to turn lightly golden, then add the butter to the oil to cool it down and stop the garlic getting brown and bitter. Add the broccoli and the water to the pan, season and cover. This can all be done ahead of time.
Bring the broccoli to a rapid boil and cook for 3 minutes or so, depending on the thickness of the broccoli stalks. The water will evaporate and cook down into a garlicky emulsion that will coat the broccoli like a dream.
Transfer the broccoli to a serving platter and drizzle over the hollandaise to serve.
