It all started very innocently, I swear. I have broccoli in my backyard garden that is blooming which means I need to eat it unless I want to leave it for the bees, which is a thought. When I was in the garden on Friday picking microgreens for a special luncheon salad with salmon on top, the bees were having a feast. Which I'm very glad of, but I want more of it too. A couple of weeks ago I picked my first-ever home-grown broccoli. Of course, I had to memorialize the event. So here it is.
For dinner I steamed it stuffing the flowerlets with chunks of garlic, serving it with lemon. Simple and Yummy!
But, I wanted to do something different. My best friend over at Wordstrumpet, Charlotte, suggested a casserole. Another dear friend has just given me some delicious cans of wild salmon -- so I'm thinking a salmon casserole. Only I've never made a broccoli salmon casserole. Not a problem. I hop on Google and down the rabbit hole I go on an adventure that has lasted most of the day.
Searching for a broccoli and salmon casserole, I was not disappointed. I clicked on one near the top of the page and also found a recipe for a salmon loaf which interested me as well. As I was reading it, I noticed that it had Worcestershire sauce in it. I used to like that sauce. I remember using it on burgers and steak and lots of other things when I was a kid and beyond. I know that most of the sauces one buys in the regular grocery are chocked full of things like High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and I refuse to eat that any more.
I wonder what's in Worcestershire Sauce, I wonder how you make it.
I had no idea what was in Worcestershire Sauce or where it came from or anything like that. I also wondered if I could make my own. My friend Mr. Google had answers to all my questions. First stop was Wikipedia's. Also called Worcester Sauce, it was first made in 1840 by Lea and Perrins. There are many stories about how it came into being. The best part of the tale being that they had set it aside because it was too strong, and over a year later were about to throw it away, when somebody tasted it and realized that it had fermented and mellowed. Thus, was born a million-dollar sauce many of us take for granted. Wikipedia also confirmed that the US version contains HFCS.
What about a Recipe?
There were a lot. What has to ferment is the anchovies, but I did find a recipe substituting fish sauce for anchovies and leaving out the fermentation process. No I'm not going to link to them, I'm going to explore them and make my own and then I'll share it with you. One was published in the New York Times in 1876. That recipe contains mace. I've seen mace in other recipes and may have used it in the past, and I know I can walk into most excellent groceries and buy the spice called mace, but what is it?
What is mace?
Several sites later and I now know that it is the covering of the nutmeg seed, not as sweet and a bit peppery according to what I read. I also know that I can, if necessary, substitute nutmeg for mace.
Somewhere in the mace research I came on information about other spices like Bay Laurel and Capers. Then, I thought I remembered that capers were from nasturtium seeds. But, I was not correct. You can make stand-ins for capers from the seeds of nasturtiums. Here's the recipe. I've not tried it, so if you do, write to me about it. When I try it I'll do a post.
At this point I've printed out 4 or 5 recipes for salmon and broccoli casserole, 3 recipes for Worcestershire Sauce and now I have to go on a hunt for anchovies, tamerind paste and maybe mace though I may use nutmeg instead. As a side note I found Tamerind Paste, Anchovy Paste and Anchovies at Whole Foods.
What about the broccoli?
I feel as if I've been in one of those search engine commercials, only I came out knowing a lot more than when I went in, and it's been fun. It' s now almost 8:30 in the evening, raining outside and the broccoli is still in the garden so the casserole will have to wait until tomorrow. I'll share the recipe once I actually make it. In the meantime, here's a photo of the broccoli as of Friday.
