Kevin's Watch

lorin wrote:Just made cauliflower roasted on HIGH with olive oil, lemon and garlic.

outstanding!

Yum!

I do a whole roasted cauliflower with oil, a sprinkle of salt, and granulated garlic, roasted at 450 for an hour to an hour and a half. Then I make a dressing with oil, lemon juice, and capers to pour over at service.

THAT sounds Nice Lorin!

[edit - just seen yours Menolly; youse guys have got a handle on some good 'cauliflower ideas' there which I'm going to try real shortly. Cauliflower and capers - wow!]

What I like to do with cauliflower:
- separate the cauliflower into large florets
- blanch them in salt water with until almost al dente
- cool down quickly in ice water
- melt some butter and sweat a bit of curry powder in it
- quickly toss the florets in curry butter until its coated and all yellow
- put florets on skewers
- season with salt, pepper and a bit sugar
- grill over charcoal until done
- serve with garlic mayonnaise

Peter, personally I have difficulty with cooking without receipts. This is the one I use for cauliflower.

Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Olive Oil and Capers

1 (2-pound) head cauliflower, green leaves discarded
1/4 cup plus 2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 TBS fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1 TBS drained small capers (packed in brine)
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Lightly oil a 9-inch pie plate or square baking dish.

Core cauliflower, leaving head intact, then discard core and put cauliflower head in pan. Drizzle 2 TBS olive oil over top of cauliflower and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt. (I also sprinkle on some granulated garlic). Bake until tender, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Transfer to a serving dish.

Whisk together lemon juice, capers, pepper, and remaining 1/2 tsp salt in a small bowl, then whisk in remaining 1/4 cup oil.

Surround cauliflower with parsley sprigs and drizzle cauliflower and parsley with dressing.

Vader, now that really sounds good. Dam-sel is not a fan of curry, so I don't see me getting the opportunity to make it often. But will keep it in mind.

Thanks for sharing!

Use some nigella seeds instead. Works a treat with every kind of cabbage.

Since the Missus is a big cauliflower fan and we all love capers I will try your recipe these days.

I don't think I know nigella seeds. Will have to see if they're available around these here parts.

BTW, at SD's suggestion, I line the baking dish with parchment paper and rub that with the olive oil. When I bake the cauliflower at that temperature without the parchment paper, it takes a good 20 minutes of hard scrubbing with scouring powder to remove the baked on droplets of grease from the baking dish.

Oh! And don't try using a pizza stone to bake the cauliflower on. For some reason when I did, I cracked the one we had here.

One point Menolly (and thanks for the recipie by the way - I was going to ask for some pointers), how do you 'core a cauliflowwer? I know what the 'core' is, but I get this vision of all the florets just falling apart if I tried to remove this. Maybe you just sort of hollow the stalk out a bit - is this what you mean?

You sort of cut a cone/pyramid-ish shape in to it. I think I saw photos on a blog that showed it. Let me see if I can find it...

Here you go. Sorry the photo is so huge.

Yes - that I can do. By the way, have you seen that green colored relation to the cauliflower that is arranged into the most beautifull spirals and swirls - this would be a fantastic recipie for this vegetable by virtue of keeping the vegetables stunning appearence intact for the serving.

Good camera. It looks like a space fungus.

Menolly wrote:I don't think I know nigella seeds.

= fennel seeds.

nice guy peter wrote:Yes - that I can do. By the way, have you seen that green colored relation to the cauliflower that is arranged into the most beautifull spirals and swirls - this would be a fantastic recipie for this vegetable by virtue of keeping the vegetables stunning appearence intact for the serving.

Romanesco.

that is a truly amazing pic. The tip spirals into 2 points. So intricate, it's a piece of art.

The roasting at such a high temperature turns the white cauliflower a lovely beige. I'm not so sure how appetizing that would look on the romenesco...

Good point Menolly - also I've never eaten one of those things; I'm just assuming they are like a cauliflower in texture and taste. [Thanks for the pic btw Vader - what a beautiful image!].

I made some kind of meat sauce that came out particularly good AND healthy.

I took my tomatoes and made a basic sauce but I blended in the skins for fiber.

Added sautéed onions, peppers, garlic, turkey sausage, grated carrots, some chipolte puree (small amount), a hand full of parm cheese, a spoonful of honey, parsley and then...................my secret ingredient.......

Spoiler

lowfat creamcheese

Oh baby............amazing!

not exactly Kosher but I am about the most unKosher person you will ever meet.

Sounds yummy, lorin!

I like that you blended in the skins .. I always think its a waste not to use them

Looking at the old cauliflower discussion here, my current favorite recipe for that vegetable comes from Israeli/British chef Yotam Ottolenghi and can be found in his wonderful book (co-written by his business partner Sami Tamimi) "Jerusalem":

Roasted hazelnut - cauliflower salad.

Break down a cauliflower to small floretts and roast them in the oven with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper until they turn slightly brown. However, they still need to be very much al dente qnd crunchy.

Put in a bowl. Dry toast some hazel nuts, let cool down and coarsly chop them.

Mix nuts with the cauliflower, a large stalk of celery, chopped at an angle and some pomegrenade seeds.

Make a vinaigrette from
1/4 tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 tby ground allspice
1 tbs sherry vinegar
1 tbs maple sirup
2 tbs olive oil
salt
pepper

Dress salad.

Yumm...