My generous neighbours gave me some freshly picked chard and I decided to use it two ways. I decided on La trouchia, a Provencal recipe using the leaves and the stalks for an au gratin dish. In Nice you can buy slices in the streets as a snack. It is pronounced ‘troo-sha’.
This is how thick the chard mixture looks in the pan, a very thick mix
It is a flat green omelette using chard from the southern area of Provence, a close cousin of the Italian frittata. I found a good version of La trouchia in Robert Carrier’s Feasts of Provence.
I stripped the leaves and washed it well, then finely sliced and drained it well. Then I added a big bunch of chopped parsley, also another gift from our neighbours, basil from my garden. I whisked up 8 whole eggs stirred in 50g grated parmesan cheese, a generous pinch of cayenne pepper (you can detect it in the background so don’t leave out, a ground of white pepper and sea salt. I heated 4 tablespoons olive oil in my large frypan and added all the mixture at once.
Cooked one side and slid onto flat plate
At first it looks like there is too much chard but you just keep pressing it down with a slotted spatula and the egg begins to come through to the top. I put a lid on top whilst cooking so it would not dry out.
Back in the pan and the first cooked side up
When it was cooked on one side I slid it carefully on to a flat cake serving plate and then flipped it back in the pan to cook the reverse side. If you have made a Spanish potato omelette it is very similiar technique.
Turned out on the cake plate before going back in the pan.
Finally returned to the cake plate and served a slice or two.
We had it as a light dinner and the rest went into the fridge for lunch. My suggestion is to serve it with Nicoise olives. This could be wonderful in a lunch box for children and adults. I gave a piece to my tiler and he could easily eat it in between slathering cement gunk on the back of tiles.
This is the chard au gratin I cooked with the stems.
Could not resist ending with my lovely kitchen view.
#1 by Glenda on December 19, 2012 - 4:21 pm
Hi Roz. I am sure I am going to have bucket loads of silverbeet when I go back down south on Christmas Eve. Your recipe will sure come in handy.
#2 by tastetravel on December 19, 2012 - 9:42 pm
Loved it sliced cold out of the fridge, will be a picnic staple.