This autumn side dish ranks right up there with the best French Fridays with Dorie recipes thus far in cooking our way through Around My French Table. It was one I debated about even bothering with tonight, but the three gorgeous ingredients, and its uniqueness, simplicity, and rustic look won me over. I prepared it as a side dish (it could also be a first course), paired with a pan-roasted chicken breast, and I polished off the entire plate, right down to the last grape. Well, Trapper did help with a few bites of chicken and apple.
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| endives, apples and grapes |
I used small Fuji apples and substituted red grapes instead of green and thyme in place of rosemary. I halved one apple and quartered the other. The fruits and endive are cooked slowly in salted butter, and turned once halfway through, until they are soft and caramelized. The endive tastes amazing after it cooks and retains just a hint of bitterness. The apples and grapes are sweet and soft, but not mushy. I really encourage you to try this with roasted chicken or duck.
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| Gorgeous colors |
Dorie features the recipe on her blog, here, as a Thanksgiving side dish. She offers another variation, called Thanksgiving Squash and Apples, with wedges of pumpkin or squash, chestnuts, apple, grapes, and sage, drizzled warm maple syrup and topped with toasted pecans. I may try that version sometime, but I'm definitely adding tonight's version to my fall and winter specialties and I will never look at endive the same way again.
If you've never put cooked endive at the top of your favorites list,
or if you've never even cooked endive,
it's probably because you didn't have this recipe to turn to.
-Dorie Greenspan
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| Thursday night never tasted so good! |
The dark grapes add a nice visual contrast on your dish.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I don't remember reading the squash version - but that sounds really good too.
Have a nice weekend!
I came darn close to making Dorie's Bonne Idee with the squash. It just sounds so good and I am curious to see if anyone makes it. But I'm very happy that I stuck to the original recipe because it turned out to be much better than I had expected. Like you, I paired it with chicken and I found that the flavors were really perfect with each other.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else used Thyme, great substituted. Yes, I would like to try the other version of this recipe too. Nice looking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Dorie's blog, I went back in and inserted it in my post as well. Oh, I like the idea of trying this with those purple grapes, too. I was thinking before I read this that it would be great to try it with sage or squash...thyme lovely. So many choice. Nice photo!
ReplyDeleteYour dish looks beautiful. I like the color the dark grapes add to the dish. Next time I make this dish I am going to serve it with chicken as you suggested. I hope you have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeleteI like the look of red grapes. Since I couldn't find endive I used squash and chestnuts and it was amazing. Absolutely one of our favorite french friday dishes and perfect for Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteNext time I make this recipe, I'm serving it with roasted chicken, that looks so good in the pan;-)
ReplyDeleteI made the Thanksgiving version and it was delish! I need to find some endives and try it again.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful pictures in you pan! And I love the dark grapes which make this so rick looking!
ReplyDeleteI'd never cooked endive before (just put it salad raw), but this won't be the last time. I loved the caramelizing. I agree this was a wonderful fall discovery.
ReplyDeleteThe red grapes look gorgeous. Beautiful composition! I could paint it...actually I would if you would like to give me permission :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend!
Love the pic of everything in the pan - yum! I did the squash version because I couldn't find endives around here and I would highly recommend it. It was delicious!
ReplyDeleteLove the way it looks in that cast iron pan. So pretty!
ReplyDeletelovely presentation. I also used red grapes which put a little blush on the other ingredients and looked pretty. I wonder if your's did not because you kept the grapes on their stems, which I like too.
ReplyDeleteYour dish looks delish! Love the dark grapes, makes it more dramatic!!!
ReplyDeleteI almost skipped making this one too but I just couldnt resist the simplicity either! At least it was a great one to pop in a pan on low and have it cooking away while I got the rest of dinner cooked! ;) Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour version looks beautiful. I love the way the red grapes look with this and thyme would work well, too. I may be trying the bonne idée version on Monday, which is Thanksgiving here in Canada.
ReplyDelete