Broccoli and Potato Kugel

Sunday 5 October
We bought a Birnam Wood of a broccoli at the Farmers' Market on Saturday. Luckily, Barbara got some good advice on what to do with it from our brother-in-law, Joel, rôtisseur extraordinaire and emerging vegetarian chef. He recommended a classic Americanized Jewish dish: broccoli potato kugel. Some of the recipes (specifically the Passover ones, made with mayonnaise and farfel; some in a crock pot!) are genuinely terrifying, but the basic idea is (with tips to reduce dirty dishes):

Fry up a onion (in oil, you heathen)
Boil a bunch of broccoli florets until just kinda done. Fish out.
Boil up about 3 or so potatoes in the broccoli water.
Drain and smash.
Then add 3 eggs and the onions to the potato mixture. . .
Along with lots of grated cheese (which sort of undoes the whole parve idea: so sue me)
Flavor all with salt, pepper and a good zotz of cayenne (which really seems to make the dish)
Mix in the broccoli.
Put into a buttered casserole.
Top with lots of breadcrumbs (which definitely undoes the whole Passover idea: so sue me again!)
Bake at 350º for 30-40 minutes until brown on top.

Though we weren't really expecting much, this was delicious and an international team of arbiters had to be called into to supervise the equal distribution of the crusty bits.