ffwd - garlicky crumb-coated broccoli

To be fair, I've never made broccoli like this before. It's high on my list of favorite vegetables. I'm even fine with it plain, leftover and cold. Swimming in home-made hollandaise, slathered in butter, or in a homey southern-style cheesy crumby (in a good way!) casserole - those would be terrific ways to dress up this fine vegetable. But bread crumbs? with lemon? and garlic? Never thought of that!

I really need to get back into my ffwd groove - this was more a week for making soup for a friend, dealing with carpet cleaners, and of course, the opening home game in baseball! So, I'll admit it up front, I made this at the last minute. And generally, it was dinner. But it was a good dinner. Also, I took Dorie's advice and assumed it would only be good when it was made, so cut back the recipe. I probably wasn't particularly scientific about it, so my results might not have been strictly accurate. Just sayin'. 



like many Americans, I have become uber-lazy and typically buy already-cut-up broccoli
this time, I thought I should actually buy the "real" thing, since it kind of looked like
Dorie expected the actual stalks
oh, and there's my microplane grater hiding in the picture - adding fuel
to the "grater vs zester debate"



cooked broccoli, dutifully drying off, waiting for the finishing touches



no process photos this time,
clearly not a lot of time spent on arrangement either.... hmmm...

I thought this was good. One thing - since I wasn't particularly dilligent about the whole thing, I didn't get the zest evenly incorporated into the crumbs. What that meant was that occasionally there was a burst of lemon with a forkful of broccoli - and that was really great. It was nice to have it not all taste exactly the same. I also liked the contrast of the crunch of the topping with the flavor and juciness of the vegetables. I think this treatment would be terrific with other vegetables - asparagus would be a natural choice. But others would be just as good. In my family, I'm usually the one that can be counted on for making/bringing vegetables, so it's nice to have another version.

What didn't work? My broccoli never actually got fully warmed up when I mixed it in with the crumbs. I ended up just tossing the crumbs on top, because they didn't actually cling to the broccoli. But those are easily fixed. I also think you could easily make the crumbs ahead, cook the veggies at the last minute and toss it all together.

Verdict: Tasty!