French Recipe: Endives Au Jambon
- Felicity Vincent
- Mar 8
- 2 min read
French home cooking classic.
Endives au jambon, or in other words endives wrapped in ham and covered in gratinated cheese sauce.
I worry this will seem weird to anyone who isn't french/grew up with this dish but, if so, please hear me out. The endives soften but keep a bite and provide bitterness and freshness to contrast with the classic comforting flavour of ham and cheesy béchamel.
Ingredients (serves 2):
Endives au jambon recipe:
2 belgian endives
45g salted butter
40g plain flour
500mL semi skinned milk
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
60g cheddar cheese (or comté for the traditionalists)
4 cooked ham slices
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cut the tail off the endives then slice them in half.
Heat up 5g of butter in a frying pan with an extra pinch of salt, when foamy add the endives cut face down. Fry for 5 minutes on medium-high heat, then flip them and cook another 2 minutes. Add 100mL of water, cover and leave to cook until all the water has evaporated (approx 5 minutes). Leave them on the side to cool down.
Grate the cheddar.
In a saucepan, melt 40g butter. Add the flour and whisk over the heat for 2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while continuously whisking. Switch to a spatula and keep stirring on the heat until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of the spatula. Remove the béchamel from the heat and add the mustard, nutmeg and cheese. Stir and give a taste to check if it needs any more seasoning.
Roll each endive half in a slice of ham.
Spoon a bit of cheesy béchamel into an oven proof dish and then lay out the endives. Cover with the rest of the sauce and put in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden on top.
Dig in and bon appétit!
More about this endives au jambon recipe:
Keys to success:
If you end up with lumps in your béchamel, do not panic and just pass it through a sieve. It'll be good as new.
My mum buys ready-made béchamel which is actually delicious and makes this a very quick and easy meal.
As always, if you have any questions about method, substitutes etc. feel free to send me a message!
Apologies for the lack of cook along video this week, I have been in bed with the flu! Please message me if you would like to have it and I’ll send it across as soon as I feel better :)
Mood Food - Happy::
Vitamin C - is involved in converting dopamine to noradrenaline - low amounts of noradrenaline are associated with depression.
Folate - is linked to low levels of serotonin (one of the good mood hormones) - being low in folate increases your chance of feeling depressed.
Kaempferol (flavanol compound found in raw endives)- studies show an association between consumption and a reduced risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Preclinical studies also show it is anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic and is neuroprotective.
Hopefully this makes you excited to try this and many other endive recipes during their season!
You can find lots of ideas on how to cook with endives in my newsletter: https://felicityvincent.substack.com/
Photos:
Comments