Broccoli and pistachio salad

As much architecture as salad, this dish puts broccoli front-and-centre atop a parmesan cream and dressed with a herb oil and broccoli crumb.

Credit: Adam Liaw

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 20 broccoli shoots, peeled
• 2 broccoli stalks
• 1 punnet micro broccoli sprouts

Parmesan cream

• 100 g Grana Padano parmesan, finely grated
• 50 g butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 80 ml (⅓ cup) thin cream
• salt, to taste

Green oil  

• 100 g flat parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 40 g chives, roughly chopped
• 2 anchovy fillets
• 1 garlic clove
• 500 ml (2 cups) extra-virgin olive oil

Broccoli crumb

• 1 head broccoli
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 French shallots, finely chopped
• 50 g pistachio slivers, chopped
• squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions

1. For the parmesan cream, place the parmesan, butter and egg yolks in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Whisk over low heat until the butter and cheese start to melt and thicken. Remove from the heat, stir in the cream and season with a little salt. Cool the mixture over ice or in the refrigerator, closely covered with plastic wrap.  
2. Meanwhile, for the green oil, place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz into a fine green oil. Season.   
3. For the broccoli crumb, remove the stalk from the head of broccoli and reserve for the salad. Using a sharp knife, finely shave the broccoli head. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the shaved broccoli and the shallot and cook until the broccoli is well coloured and almost burnt. Remove from the heat and while still hot, add the pistachios and season with a little lemon juice and salt.         
4. Drop the broccoli shoots into a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for about 30 seconds. Drain and refresh in iced water. Once completely cold, remove and drain on paper towel.
5. Peel and slice the broccoli stalk into sticks and place in the iced water to crisp up. Once crisp drain on paper towel and set aside.    
6. To serve, place a spoonful of parmesan cream in the base of each shallow serving bowl. Dress the blanched broccoli in the green oil. Place the broccoli shoots in the bowl and spoon over the warm crisp broccoli and pistachio mixture. Finish the salad with crisp raw broccoli stalks and freshly snipped broccoli sprouts.

 

Photography by Adam Liaw.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.