Pouké’s kitchen: gratin de cotes de blettes-Swiss chard stems gratin

First let me give you a little bit of personal history before I move to the recipe itself. A lot of you know of my childhood summers spent in Switzerland, a place of deep nostalgia for a time of bliss, freedom, close to nature,with time for never ending pleasures. Close to the "heidi house" where we lived for 3 months every year , was a small dairy farm where the farmer's wife would have a bountiful vegetable garden. Periodically, my grand mother would put an order for, guess what :SWISS chard. The leaves were elephantines, and the stems gargantuans. The interesting bit is that growing up, I never ate green leaf vegetables. The beets were sold already boiled and without their leaves, spinach was seldom seen on the market stalls,and it was not the tender baby kind we know now , but actually, now, I remember that my mother would cook some escarole in the winter and drop it in a soup, but that was all. When we would get the famous order of chard, it would be stripped of leaves. I guess that was the way it was expected to be sold, may be they knew we were making a gratin, may be they knew better and cooked the leaves for themselves.....

which brings me to the recipe, one of my total favorites of all times.

Of course, the day before, use the leaves for a nice italian style saute with garlic and pepper flakes and olive oil. But the next day, instead of composting the stems, use them to make this delicious dish that would go well with a grain, or whole grain pasta.

I only knew the white stem chard, but now, look at this beautiful display of vibrant colors !

-cut the stems in 2 " pieces

-blanch them in salted water. They lose their vibrancy but gain a soft pastel

-make a simple bechamel.I love that word. As you say it, the tongue seems to wrap around the word in a gentle caress.

1oz butter, melted,add 1 tbsp flour all at once, and wisk to get a nice golden ribbon.out of the heat, add all at once 1/3 cup of cold milk, keep wisking and put back under low heat until desired consistency. be liberal with good pepper and salt.

-put bechamel on top of cooled chard