Carla Makes Cheesy Broccoli Delight at Home

Okay.

I'm rolling.

You're rolling now? Yeah.

I need two minutes. No.

[laughs] We're rolling.

[upbeat music]

All right.

Sorry. Okay, bye.

All right, Bon Appetit at home.

[upbeat music]

Hey guys, it's Carla,

I'm here in my home kitchen today

and I'm gonna show you how to make broccoli delight.

Broccoli delight is a dish

that I kinda came up with on the fly one day

'cause I had some good cheddar

and I had some nice lookin' broc

and I was very hungry

and I threw everything in the pan

without really thinking about what was gonna come next

and it was just one of those dishes where

everything that happened, happened for a reason.

First thing I'm gonna do,

I have one head of broccoli, it's about a pound.

I weighed it before I got started.

One of the things that people don't realize about broccoli

is that the stem is very edible and very delicious.

So even if your broccoli stem was longer

you're just gonna cut off the very bottom,

which is, like, sometimes a little woody.

I wanna use as much of the stem as possible

so I'm not after like, just the very top little florets.

So I'm gonna peel the outer layer of this broccoli.

The other day, Easter morning actually,

I was sitting in bed and two birds alighted,

there's no other word for it, onto my window sill

and they both looked at me and then they turned around

and they perused the backyard and then they flew away.

So now I have my peels, I'm just gonna compost.

That's my little compost pile.

And now I'm gonna cut the broccoli

into like nice spears, like this.

It's got a good amount of stem on it, there's a flat edge.

Leaving the broccoli kind of bigger is gonna let me get

a really good sear on it without it getting mushy.

So if you have your bunch of broccoli that has

a nice, long stem on it, just slice those thinly.

Now do I cut?

[clap]

[finger click]

All right so this is what the broccoli

should look like when it's done.

I've got these nice, long spears.

And then the pieces of actual bottom part of the stem,

I just kinda sliced crosswise.

Take three.

[finger click]

I got a big pan here.

It's probably a 12 inch skillet, 10 inch skillet

and I'm gonna put her over medium high.

Got my trusty cruet of extra virgin olive oil.

I want enough in the bottom of the pan

to definitely coat the entire pan without any bald spots.

Can see the cabinets, it's very down angle.

Oh and I'm wearing my BA's apron.

So you can get a nice view of that, I already got oil on it.

All right, broccoli's going in.

A good sizzle.

So any loose bits left on the cutting board,

those are going in too and they'll just go

in any of the in between spots.

Everybody comes to the party.

Gonna wipe down my cutting board.

That was a very Brad way of saying cutting board.

I said cuttin' board, cuttin' board.

I've got my Kosher salt, black pepper.

I'm gonna drizzle a little more oil over.

So while the broccoli browns up,

I'm gonna get the cheese ready.

So this is an eight ounce block

so I'm just gonna cut it roughly in half.

You could really use any melting cheese,

like even mozzarella, if you'd like something more mild.

So I've always kind of done it by

just breaking the cheese into bits.

You could coarsely grate this on

the big side of a box grater if you want to.

So anything in the Brassica family

is gonna work really well here.

So definitely cauliflower,

cheesy cauliflower would be so good

but even if you had green cabbage.

You just wanna cut it in a way so that

you leave some space in between.

All right, I'm gonna give this, not exactly a toss.

Yeah, I guess I'm tossing it.

This is the color that I'm going for.

How do you do this?

We have to do the makeup thing.

Oh, that's pretty good, you can see.

Oh it dripped.

[laughs]

Nice and brown, and the broccoli

itself is turning bright green.

I feel like there's a clicking burner

also in the test kitchen and it's one of the burners

that I choose a lot and now here I am at home

and all of a sudden this burner is clicking.

It's sort of like a, if you play piano,

this would be like a, it's got a metronome vibe.

Keeping me focused, click, click, click, click.

Oh, broccoli.

Now the time has come.

My broccoli is really beautifully charred.

It feels tender, we're gonna give it another test.

Nothing's where it's supposed to be, this is my life now.

I have a little trusty, this is a very fancy cake tester.

And so it's going through the stem

with a little bit of resistance.

So it feels very crisp, tender.

I'm just making space and I'm gonna

add all of the crumbled cheese.

So I've got my four ounces of crumbled cheddar.

And while the broccoli was cooking,

the cheddar kinda came up to temperature a little bit

so it's not going in here freezing cold.

Oh my god.

And so this too, some of the cheese

is gonna land on top of the broccoli

and some of the cheese is gonna go

right away to the bottom of the pan

and that's gonna give us amazing sheets of cheese.

I just don't know another way to describe it.

Oh my god, she's melting, wow.

Steamy, charred, melty,

bubbly, oh boy.

So this is really what broccoli delight

looks like when it's done.

There's parts of the cheese that are completely

crisped up down at the bottom of the pan.

And then there's parts of the cheese

that are super melty on top so I'm gonna turn the heat off.

There is a good amount of smoke

but that's just the charred bits of the broccoli.

And the crisped up, kind of like almost queso cheese

that's happening down on the bottom of the pan.

This piece of cheese over here didn't even ever wanna melt.

Hold on, you're going down, okay.

Okie dokie people, I've got my broccoli delight.

I have a lot of beautiful, browned, crispy cheese.

I've got a lemon half.

I'm just gonna squeeze some lemon over this

and we are still sizzling.

That's just residual heat from this beautiful pan.

I've got some red chili flake too.

Oh, can she get the jar open? Yes.

And this is optional as well but I think it's really nice.

It gives it like a pepperoni pizza

broccoli slice kind of a vibe.

I haven't had lunch.

I haven't had breakfast, in fact.

So the choice bits are like

you've got a little brown cheese,

you have melty cheese on top.

Oh, this is a good bite.

And then everything sticks together

so it's one of those things where

you're sitting at the table and you're serving yourself

and you're like oh whoa, they're all stuck together.

I guess this is my portion.

And whatever cruciferous you might be rationing right now,

your broccoli, your cauliflower,

your cabbage, melt some cheese on it.

Call it a day, it is delish.

Okay.

Amazingly, the broccoli still has like great texture

but it's also got shriveled, crunchy florets.

And the cheese has double texture too

because it's really crispy where it hit the pan

but it's like queso melty on top.

Get your veggies, know what I mean?

So good for you. Also with the cheese.

Cosmo? What?

Do you want a bite of broccoli d?

No. Oh.

I'm in class. Oh you're in class.

[laughs]

Oh well, I guess I get the whole pan for myself.

I feel bad, this means, here comes someone, hi.

Hi. Oh, broccoli d?

Yeah, we can smell it.

[laughs]

Anybody want a bite of broccoli d? Leo?

Can I have my own broccoli d?

You want your own? Leo wants his own broccoli d.

I do too, I also have a call right now.

Can I just have a little side,

I'll bring you over. Great.

This is the dish that Leo said

was the best thing I ever made.

That's not true. Yes, you did.

I say that a lot. Well, you need a fork.

He says that a lot.

[laughs]

But you said about this, this is

the best thing you've ever made.

I think I said that this is

my favorite thing that you make.

You said it was the best thing I ever made.

Okay. Okay, oh, bye.

That's it? Yeah.

Okay, well, broccoli d for the road.

All right, that's it, broccoli d for the road.

[Man] Love it.

[Carla] Steamy, charred, melty, bubbly.

[upbeat music]

Oh boy, hold on.

[sizzling sounds]

[clap] Cut.