Saturday, January 23, 2010

Day 17: Vegies from Outer Space


















What are we lookin at here? Answers tomorrow.

Nachty nacht!
N2

Good Day!
On the left above we have Romanesco broccoli or Roman Cauliflower, an edible flower of the species Brassica oleracea and a variant form of cauliflower. This weird and wonderful vegetable was first documented in Italy (as broccolo romanesco) in the sixteenth century.

It is also sometimes called coral broccoli, I guess because those florets look like they will continue growing outward like a piece of a coral reef. It was just so beautiful I had to bring it home just so I could look at it in the privacy of my own home. Love that acid green color. Love the patterns that the florets form. It's like a cauliflower with a strong character. I don't know why they settled on calling it broccoli. It's a cauliflower.

In the wikipedia entry, where I got the details about this veggie, they also say its "shape could be described as fractal; each bud is composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in yet another logarithmic spiral." Fractal. Love that. Your word for the day.

In French it is call chou-fleur romaine, literal translation cabbage flower roman. In French you can still hear them use the old-fashioned phrase "mon petit chou", literally "my little cabbage", meaning +/- my sweet young thing. Language is a funny wonderful thing.

The strange vegetable on the right above is an oven roasted beet, bought already roasted at the marche′. Trust the French, read- made roasted beet! !


Which I added to warmed chevre for this lovely dinner salad. Yumm!

4 comments:

Laura Paine Carr said...

I LOVE those things! Blanched or steamed, they are crunchy and sweet, yum yum! The other one looks like a pie all folded up on itself. Should go well with a cup of frothy, dark coffee (with cream!). Now I have to go searching to see if Tierra has the green, outer space veggie... Evie will know what I mean, and probably knows the name of it, too!

Hugs, Mam'
xoxoLC

Laura Paine Carr said...

Ohmigoddess! A roasted beet!!! That is hilarious!!! It looks good in the salad, to be sure, but is hard for me to imagine purchasing a roasted beet!

Bethany said...

You are so funny, "privacy of my own home" that made me laugh out loud. I've seen these in magazines. Your photo is wonderful. Love all this. Your salad, yum yum yum.

N2 said...

B - I got three wonderful meals out of that UFC (Unidentified Flying Cauliflower =o) and a week's worth of company, and all for 2.5€

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