Gratin of Endive and ham with roasted carrots

Confessions? I have never had endive. Usually when I get an ingredient when I haven't worked with, I taste it any way that I can. So I bought this endive, cut off a slice, and tried it raw......
Yeah....don't do that! It's bitter to the point I had to spit it out. When it was cooked though, it reminded me of cabbage. The taste almost reminded me of eggplant with that slight spicy kind of kick.

This dish is very rich so a little goes a long way!

If you are curious, this is what an endive looks like. The one I bought looked more like the one in the top but when making the recipe, you want endive to look like the picture in the left. If not, a more leafy endive would work just fine, promise.


This recipe serves 4

What you will need:

• 6 heads of endive
• 12 slices of ham
• 2 oz shredded Gruyere cheese
• 2 cups milk
• 1 onion
• 3tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Let's get started:

1. Trim your endive. You want as little green leafy section as you can. Once you have your endive trimmed, tear 'heads' into halves.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 
3. In a large baking dish, lay out endive. Cover with salt, pepper, and olive oil then cover with olive oil and bake for about 30 minutes. 
4. While your endive is cooking, in a medium saucepan, pour in your two cups of milk and season with pepper only on a medium low heat.
5. Without peeling, chop your onion in large pieces and add to saucepan.
6. Cook milk for about 5 minutes on medium low heat then turn down to a low temp till endive finishes cooking. 
7. In the meantime, shred your Gruyere cheese. If you want to shred some extra cause you like things cheesy, feel free. *If you haven't had Gruyere cheese, I suggest you try some out. It is very sharp and packs a surprising punch. 

1. Once your endive has finished cooking, set on a cutting board or an area you can set up an 'assembly line'.
2. Setting down 3 slices of ham at a time, place a handful of endive on one side of the ham and roll into a wrap, setting it back inside the baking dish. 

1. To finish your sauce, in a small saucepan, melt your butter. 
2. Once your butter has melted, add in your flour and cook thoroughly.
3. Strain your milk (leaving the onions out of your new sauce) into your flour/butter mixture and continue to cook on a medium low heat while you whisk.
4. You sauce should be fairly thick, but not to the consistency of gravy.
5. Pour over your endive wraps generously then top with cheese.
6. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes or until your cheese has melted. 

Easy roasted carrots:

• 5 carrots
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1.  Trim ends off carrots and wash thoroughly, leaving the outside skin on.
2. Pat dry with paper towels.
3. Cut into halves, then half through the length.
4. Make a pouch using aluminum foil.  *My suggestion is to place carrots on a flat bed of foil and make a box around them.
5. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and olive oil on carrots and cover with another piece of foil.
6. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

I served the gratin of endive with roasted carrots and sliced tomatoes. Very delicious.