New Things: Broccoli Raab

I don't believe I've ever eaten this before, and I grew it entirely on a whim and a passing reference from Esther. A small handful of seeds into a cinderblock and WHOOM! This stuff has shot up like some green, leafy bat out of compost hell. I keep expecting it to notice that it's entirely too many stalks of green for such a small space, but it keeps insisting that it's doing just fine. Fussy, this plant is not.

I don't think I even knew what it was supposed to look like at harvest stage, and was entirely surprised this afternoon when I went on the net to research and oh look! My broccoli raab is easily that big already! So I decided to harvest a handful of it this evening and taste it, because really, it only needs to be barely edible to be worth the absolute lack of effort it apparently requires.

I sauteed it with sesame oil and kecap manis, and the result was... well... edible. Tasty, sure. A bit odd. This stuff has more bite than I'm used to in my Random Green Things, but it's the sort of taste that made me scrunch up my face at the first bite then sigh sadly when it was all gone. A little bit addictive, in fact, although you wouldn't want to serve it to unsuspecting guests without some warning first.

So, broccoli raab stays, and I will find it a place in my cooking repertoire. I've put a moratorium on planting new things til I come back from New Years (wouldn't be fair to leave fragile-stage seedlings all alone for those midsummer weeks) but next year for I'll definitely give it a bit more space than one measly little cinder-block.