This is a traditional Belgian recipe !



Ingredients (For 4 persons)

  • 1 kg endive (or 6 pieces)
  • 200 grams boiled ham cut into thin slices, the fat at the rim removed
  • 25 grams butter
  • 25 grams of flower
  • 2 dl milk
  • 2 teaspoons of mustard
  • 1 dl dry white wine
  • 250 grams grated (extra) old cheese
  • 1 egg yolk
  • white pepper and salt
  • nutmeg
Boil in a big cooking pot water with salt. Put the rinsed (entire) pieces of endive in the boiling water for 12 minutes. Scoop them out and let them drain. Keep 2 dl of the boiling liquid.

Melt the butter in saucepan and add flower. Keep stiring during 2 minutes while whisking. Add 1 dl of the boiling liquid en let cook in to get the sauce thicker. Keep stirring. Add half of the milk, let it boil up and then add the rest of the boiling water, the milk and the white wine.

Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. Stir ¾ of the grated cheese and the musterd in the sauce till you get a thick smooth sauce. Take the pan off the fire and add the eggjoke and add salt and pepper to your taste. Preheat the oven on 180 °c. Remove the foot of the endives, cut them in half on their length and wrap the ham around them. Put them in a big oven dish and add a bit of pepper. Stir the cheese sauce once more and poor it over the endive-ham rolls. Cover this with the rest of the cheese and add nutmeg and put it in the oven for 20 minutes on 180 °C. Then turn up the heat of the oven till 200 °C and let it bake for another 10 minutes or till the cheese sauce has a nice golden brown colour.

Have a nice meal!