Baked cauliflower with cauliflower puree

We try to have some vegetable dishes on hand which we can tap into during work weekdays. During the weekend, I usually blanch broccoli and green beans so that we can use them during the week, either as is or by quickly sautéing them in butter as a side. The challenge is always to find new and interesting ways to prepare the veggies. For example we have cooked cauliflower many different ways. But, even so, we were getting into a rut.  (The Japanese expression would be "manmeri" マンネリwhich is reportedly derived from the English word "mannerism". Certainly "mannerrism" does not have the same usage or meaning as the Japanese word "manmeri".) So my wife went hunting on the internet to find some inspiration and a different way to prepare cauliflower. She perused many different recipes and came up with her own recipe inspired by several of those she found. It is really good but very visually white. She said she would make some improvements to further perfect this recipe. It is essentially au gratin dish made out of baked cauliflower and onion and instead of béchamel sauce, she used cauliflower puree. She also added panko crumbs with olive oil and chopped parsley on the top.

The Panko crust gave nice crunchy layer which contrasted with creamy puree underneath. The cauliflower florets were a bit too soft and we will improve on this next time.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower, one large head, separated into florets (#1).
Onion, two medium, cut into thin (1/4 inch) rings.
Garlic, several cloves skin still intact
Milk, 1-2 cups (see direction below).
Butter, 1 tbs
Red pepper flakes
Juice of one lemon

Direction:
1. Place a bit more than half of the cauliflower florets, the onion, and garlic on a cookie sheet, add several tablespoons of olive oil, and salt and coat all vegetables well (#2) and bake it in a 375F preheated oven for 30 minutes mixing once during the baking until some brown spots appear on the cauliflower.
2. Place the remaining cauliflower in a sauce pan and add milk to cover, pepper flakes and the butter. Simmer until the cauliflower is soft (#4) (yes we noticed picture 3 is missing but for various reasons it will stay that way).
3. Strain the cauliflower (#5) reserving the liquid (#5).
4. Add some of the baked onion and garlic (skin removed) (#7) to the strained milk cauliflower (#6).

5.  Add 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid and the vegetables into the blending cup and puree using an immersion blender. Add more reserved liquid until the consistency of béchamel sauce is reached(#8). Taste and season with salt and white pepper.

6. In a small ramekin, place the baked cauliflower, onion, and any remaining roasted garlic (#9) and cover them with the puree (#10). Drizzle on some lemon juice if desired. 

7. Cover the surface with a mixture of Panko bred crumbs with olive oil (mix well using finger tips) and bake it in 400F oven until brown (#11).

The cauliflower puree is really silky and luscious. It tasted like a very rich béchamel. I can envision many other uses for this concoction. The combination of texture and flavor in this dish is really good. This time, the baked cauliflower was a bit over done but next time, my wife said she would bake it at a higher temperature (400F) and for shorter time to make the cauliflower more crisp with brown spots. The baked onions gave it rich sweetness and the garlic was done perfectly adding another flavor dimension.  

Savory cauliflower and spinach Panna cotta カリフラワーとほうれん草のパンナコッタ

My wife came up with this dish. How this dish evolved is kind of interesting. It all started when my wife spotted a recipe for English pea panna cotta . She really wanted to try it. So I was tasked to get several bags of frozen petite peas and some cream for the recipe. I forgot to get the peas and the cream. Then I used up whatever cream we had in the fridge to make lobster bisque. Not to be deterred, my wife chose to do some substitutions. We had a head of cauliflower which I already separated to florets and washed. We also had a bag of spinach. Since we had some previous experience making cauliflower puree, she proposed making "cauliflower and spinach panna cotta".  It turned out to be very good. I served it with watercress and blanched sugar snaps dressed with EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil) and syrupy balsamic vinegar with freshly cracked black pepper.

All green and, perhaps, it would have been perfect for St. Patrick's day.

I decided to add more bright colors and made two kinds of sweet pepper coulis (red and yellow) and sweet vinegar marinated red radish slices.

I think I may have overdone it, this time. Maybe a little less red color would have been more "restful to the eye".

Ingredients(for Cauliflower panna cotta, about 8 servings):

Cauliflower, 1 medium head, separated into florets, washed.

Spinach, one bag, cooked in a covered pan without adding any liquid. excess moisture squeezed out  #2).

Onion, two, medium, cut into thin strips.

Garlic, two cloves with skin on.

Milk, enough to cover the cauliflower (#1)

Butter, unsalted, 3 tbs

Directions.

1. Add the cauliflower, onion,, garlic, and butter to a saucepan and cover it with milk. Simmer it until the cauliflower is cooked (#1, about 30 minutes) (see P.S. below).

Alternatively, we need not cook the cauliflower in milk. Instead we could cook the cauliflower by steaming, sweat the onions in a pan then use milk to puree the two together.  Then we could heat some milk with about 3tbs of butter in it to bloom the gelatin and that milk would give the proper texture. 

2. Strain the cauliflower and milk mixture through a sieve,  reserving the milk (My wife figured adding butter will make the milk more cream-like).

3. In two batches, I placed vegetables in a blender and added enough milk to puree (with our blender on high speed, it took 30-40 seconds to have a nice smooth puree, #3 and 4). 

I added one of the garlic clover after squeezing it out of the skin in one of the batches. After tasting this batch, I did not add the garlic to the other batch.

4. I combined the puree in a bowl (#5) and tasted. I added few pinches of salt which made the sweetness of the vegetables to come out.

5. I sprinkled 3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin on about a half cup from the remaining milk (still hot) and whisked it to dissolve and then added to the puree making sure all the gelatin was dissolved into the puree.

6. I poured the final mixture into small individual ramekins (#6).

7. Covered them with plastic wrap and refrigerated until set (several hours).

8. To unmold, I placed the ramekin in hot water for few seconds and also ran a thin bamboo skewer (or a thin narrow knife blade) around the edge and inverted on the center of the plate.

Ingredients (For sweet pepper coulis):

Red and yellow sweet pepper, 1 each

Shallots, 3, finely chopped and sauteed in olive oil until soft

Vinegar (I used rice vinegar) 4 tsp

Olive oil (EVOO) 4-6  tbs

Salt

Directions:

1. I roasted the peppers in the toaster oven on broil mode, for about 20 minutes, turning every five minutes so that all the surfaces got slightly blackened. I immediately placed them in a Ziploc bag and let them steam for 10-20 minutes or until cooled down (#1).

2. I removed the skin, stem end and seeds (#2).

3. Cut it in small cubes (#3).

4. Place the #3, half of the shallot, juice accumulated in the bag, vinegar, and EVOO in a blending container (#4).

5. Using an immersion blender in high speed, blended into thin sauce (#5). If the consistency is too thick, you could add a bit of water. I tasted and added a pinch of salt.

6. I repeated for the yellow pepper to make red and yellow pepper coulis (#6).

Ingredients (For pickled red radish):

Small red radish, 3, top and bottom end removed, sliced into thin rounds (I used a Japanese mandoline).

Sweet vinegar, 1/4 cup (I took a short cut, and poured sushi vinegar from a bottle into a Pyrex ramekin with 2 tsp of sugar, and microwaved until the vinegar was warm and the sugar melted).

I immediately marinated the radish slices, covered with plastic wrap and let sit for a few hours. The red color leached out and the radish slices become a nice homogeneous pink.

This was an unequivocal success! This savory panna cotta has a nice light green color exactly like the picture of English pea panna cotta. We used gelatin instead of agar-agar suggested in the original recipe since we are not serving this to vegetarians. The texture came out just right without jello-like consistency but very creamy and also kept its shape. You can taste the spinach but if you were not told. you could not guess this is made of cauliflower.  Although I overdid with the second versions with sweet pepper coulis and marinated radish slices, the mixture of sweet sour flavor really worked. Next time I will use more discretion. We found another good way to use cauliflower.

P.S. Some days later, since I had a head of cauliflower which was already one week old, I decided to make cauliflower puree. I followed the recipe from the Washington Post. As per the recipe, I first steamed the cauliflower for 8 minutes and made a puree using my Cuisinart. But the result was disappointing with a mealy texture despite the fact I ran the food processor for quite some time. It never attained the smooth and creamy puree my wife made in the current recipe. I thought it had something to do with how the cauliflower was cooked. She cooked the cauliflower in milk and butter. Disappointed, I just put my cauliflower puree in a sealed container in the fridge thinking I would have to come up with a way to use it. 

The same day, my wife wanted to try the English pea pannacotta she had originally wanted to make using the original recipe, since we had all the ingredients this time. When we pureed the peas, we used the blender instead of the cuisinart, and the pea puree came out very smooth and velvety. We didn't even have to sieve it. It dawned on me that maybe I should have run my cauliflower puree through the blender instead of the cuisinart. So I retrieved my coarse textured puree added a bit more milk and let it whir. The result was amazing. My cauliflower puree became silky smooth. Moral of the story, use the blender to make cauliflower or pea puree--not the cuisinart. 

Cauliflower puree with parmesan cheese パルメザンチーズ味カリフラワーのピューレ

This is based on a recipe that appeared in the Washington Post. I decided to make this since I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge which I bought a week ago. I followed the recipe exactly and it was not good. It had an unpleasant mealy consistency and was not smooth and creamy. We figured out why this was. The recipe calls for using a food processor. No matter how long your run the food processor, the cauliflower will not become smooth and creamy. Instead of a cuisinart you need to use a blender on high speed (puree mode). Once I fixed this, the end product was nice and creamy with good Parmesan flavor.

As suggested, I garnished it with finely chopped parsley fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and freshly cracked black pepper. 

The below are the original recipe with one important modification; instead of a food processor, use a blender.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium head (2 pounds) cauliflower, cored and cut into 11/2-inch florets (7 cups)

1/3 cup low-fat milk (1 percent), plus more as needed

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese, plus 4 teaspoons for garnish

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Freshly ground black pepper

STEPS

Place the cauliflower florets in a steamer basket set over a pot of boiling water. Cover and steam until the cauliflower is just tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Transfer the cauliflower to a blender along with 1/3 cup of the milk (I needed more milk, probably 1/2 cup total), the butter, the 1/4 teaspoon of salt and the nutmeg; puree until very smooth.  Add extra milk a tablespoon at a time, as needed. Immediately add 1/4 cup of the cheese and pulsed just until the cheese melted and was incorporated.

When I first made it, using the Cuisinart as specified in the recipe, it was grainy and mealy. When my wife made cauliflower puree to make her cauliflower/spinach panna cotta, the cauliflower puree was really silky smooth. I initially thought cauliflower must be cooked in milk and butter as my wife did. But when we made English pea panna cotta, it became clear to us, the use of the blender made the difference. So I placed my previously made cauliflower puree into the blender and pureed it again. I needed to add a bit more milk but the end result was night and day different. Now the puree was nicely smooth, creamy and incorporated more air and became fluffy. This can be served warm or cold. I served it cold the second time with some good Spanish olive oil on the top. This made it better still. This can be eaten as a side vegetable dish, drinking snack or even as a spread for a cracker or a slice of bread. 

Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree カリフラワープピュレー入りマックアンドチーズ

When my wife made baked cauliflower with cauliflower puree, we were impressed with how creamy the puree was without much fat. My wife suggested making Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree instead of Bechamel sauce. So, one weekend, we made this new cauliflower puree Mac and cheese. We made two versions. One was topped with a mixture of panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese (see below). It came out nicely browned with a crunchy crust.

Under the crunchy topping was a creamy cheesy sauce clinging to the macaroni.

The second version was topped with grated cheddar cheese.

Again, underneath was the warm, cheesy sauce with macaroni.

Ingredients: (this makes about 8 servings in small ramekins such as the one seen above).

One head of cauliflower, separated into small florets.

Enough milk to cover the florets.

1 tbs unsalted butter

One large Jalapeno pepper, seeded and deveined, finely chopped (optional)

Cheeses (we used smoked gouda, fresh goat cheese, parmesan and cheddar) grated (#3)

Elbow macaroni, half box, cooked, drained, seasoned with salt, rice vinegar and then coated with olive oil (#5).

Directions:

Making cauliflower puree is exactly the same as posted before. Briefly; separate a head of cauliflower into florets, cook it in milk until tender with a pat of butter and red pepper flakes. I added one medium onion sautéed (instead of baked), adjusted the amount of milk to attain the right consistency while blending using a immersion mixer (#1). For variation, I added sautéed and finely chopped Jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined) (#2). For cheeses, I used smoked gouda,  fresh goat and parmesan (#3) and mixed into the puree and cooked over the lowest flame until the cheeses incorporated (#4). I added the cooked macaroni (#5) into the cauliflower puree cheese mixture (#6). Then added the cheddar cheese (#7).  The reason for adding the cheddar at the last moment is to prevent it from being over cooked and getting grainy in texture. Meanwhile, I mixed panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan and olive oil (#8).

I placed the macaroni mixture in small ramekins (#9 and 10). I topped one with the panko/parmesan mixture (#11)  and the other with grated cheddar (#12). Baked in 350F oven for 15 minutes. If the top is not browned enough, place it under the broiler until the top browns nicely.

The end result: Both version were good but the sauce/puree was a bit grainy as compared to the cauliflower puree we made before. We were wondering if this is something to do with the cheeses we used, although we took precaution not to overcook cheddar cheese which get grainy after long cooking. We do not know how much calories/fat we are saving by substituting bechamel with cauliflower puree but certainly this is a good alternative. Compared to bechamel based Mac, this cauliflower puree did not get thick even after baking. We liked the one topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Baked curry flavored cauliflower カレー味焼きカリフラワー

We saw a recipe called “Buffalo wing cauliflower” posted on an internet “recipe site”. Essentially, it was crispy hot (spicy) baked cauliflower. But that recipe did not work well. It called for a kind of batter to coat the cauliflower florets then the florets were to be baked so the crust would get crispy. After the florets were removed from the oven they were to be coated with a mixture of melted butter and hot sauce. Somehow the batter did not work (at all). It was soggy and it made the cauliflower soggy instead of crispy. (did anyone actually try making this dish before posting it)? The idea of spicy nuggets of cauliflower sounded good however, so my wife suggested I try making baked cauliflower like I make my curry flavored wings and I agreed to try it.

I could have used an oven, either toaster oven or regular oven, but we were doing chicken thighs and wings on the Weber grill and decided to baked this in the grill before I cooked the chicken. (Later I tried with the 400F convection toaster oven for 10-13 minutes which worked well).

The recipe is very simple. I first separated the cauliflower into small florets. I then coated the surface of the florets with olive oil using my hands to toss and coat well.

For seasoning I used 4-6:1 ratio of flours and curry powder (I used “sweet” curry powder) mixture. I placed it in a gallon-size Ziploc bag and coated the florets (I forgot to add salt here and sprinkled it after it was cooked).

I placed this in a Weber Grill (I set it up for in-direct heat with the hot coal placed only half of the bottom. I placed the cauliflower on the cool side (indirect heat), put the lid (both lower and upper vents open) for 10 minutes (or 400 F oven for 10-13 minutes). We tasted it and felt it was slightly underdone and might need 5 more minutes. But after baking 5 more minutes, we found it was a bit overdone.

In any case, this is a very nice way to eat cauliflower and is a perfect appetizer while waiting for the chicken to cook. The curry was not too hot. The florets had a slight crunch from the combination coating of oil and flour. Our only regret was that they were too soft (over cooked). We must stop cooking when the cauliflower is still a bit underdone since it keeps cooking after removing from the heat. We had this with a dipping sauce of Greek yogurt flavored with blue cheese dressing (our effort to cut excess fat). This works very well since the flavor of the blue cheese dressing permeated the yogurt, and the blue cheese flavor went very well with the curried cauliflower.

Baked Cauliflower with Chimichurri sauce オーブン焼きカリフラワーのチミチュリソース

We try to make some vegetable dishes which can be eaten during the work week. We had a large head of cauliflower from last week which needed to be prepared. My wife spotted a recipe which is "Cauliflower steak with Chimichurri sauce". Although we are not sold on the idea of thick slab of cauliflower (it was equated with a steak in the original recipe), the idea of baked cauliflower with chimuchurri sauce sounded good. So, instead, we baked cauliflower florets and dressed them with chimuchurri sauce.

The florets were nicely browed (although a bit overcooked).

The chimuchurri sauce was very good with fresh herbs.

Ingredients (with our modifications)

For Chimuchurri sauce

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (for the Chimuchurri)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, large, deveined and seeded and finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (we used rice vinegar).

1/2 teaspoon paprika (we used smoked paprika)

3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley.

For Cauliflower

1 large head cauliflower (about 3 pounds), separated into florets.

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tbs olive oil (for coating the cookie sheet and the cauliflower).

Directions.

1. Combine oil, garlic, jalapeño, shallot and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small frying pan. Cook over medium heat just until the garlic starts to sizzle, 2 to 4 minutes, but don’t let it brown. Remove from heat and stir in oregano, thyme, water, vinegar and paprika. Cover and set aside (#3).
2. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a cookie sheet with olive oil (we used a non-stick cookie sheet).
3. Toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil and season with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.
4. Roast the cauliflower, gently turning once halfway through, until browned and the stems feel tender when pierced with a bamboo skewer, 15 minutes (we baked 18 minutes which was a bit too long) (#1 and 2).
5. Just before serving, stir parsley into the reserved herb sauce and season with pepper. Dress the cauliflower florets (#4) with the sauce (#5 and 6).

Th fresh herbs in chimuchurri sauce were very good. It was good warm. We later served cold which was also very good. We may even try real steak with this chimuchurri sauce.

Spice-roasted cauliflower with barely salad スパイスローストカリフラワーと大麦のサラダ

We saw this recipe in WSJ. Since we make roasted cauliflower and barley salad, separately this combination really caught our attention. This is a recipe from Chef Eric Ziebold who used to be the executive chef of CityZen at Oriental Mandarine hotel, where we had some wonderful meals on several special occasions. This January he opened a new restaurant of his own called "Kinship". We have not yet dined there.  Of course, we had to make some modifications to the recipe basically to accommodate the ingredients we had on hand.

The cauliflower was baked with spices but it was not "spicy" hot.

Ingredients: Serves: 4

- Kosher salt

- 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets (#2 in picture below)).

- 1/4 Tbs. ground turmeric (#1)

- 1/4 Tbs. ground cumin (#1)

- 1/4 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped (original recipe calls for dried)

- 1/2 tsp dried oregano (#1)

- 1/4 cup (4 tbs) olive oil, divided into 2 portions

- 2 navel oranges, use the zest, orange segments and juice from the segments

- 1 cup uncooked barley

- 2 cups of chicken stock

- 1/4 cup walnuts toasted and roughly chopped (#6). (original recipe calls for Marcona almonds)

- 1/4 cup roughly chopped mint

- 1/4 cup green olives, pitted and roughly chopped (we had almond stuffed green olives from California, which we used instead).

- Juice of ½ lemon

1. Toast 1 cup of barley in the toaster oven until it is golden brown and fragrant. Rinse the toasted barley and add it to 2 cups of boiling chicken stock. Simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool. If there is left over liquid drain the barley 

2. On a sheet pan  toss the cauliflower with the spices. Use 2 tbs of olive oil and a 1/2 tsp of salt to coat the florets. (The quantity of spices we used result in fairly mild flavor for the cauliflower. For a more intense flavor we could have probably doubled the spices. But it is generally to taste.) We put the tray in a 350 degree toaster oven and toasted for 25 to 30 minutes testing to so as not to overcook. (#3 and 4). 

3. Once both the barley and the cauliflower were completely cooled we put them in a bowl, then added the orange segments, orange zest, walnuts, mint and olives. We seasoned it with the remaining oil, lemon juice and salt. Then squeezed the juice from the reserved orange membranes over the salad (#5).

This is a wonderful salad. It has so many layers of texture and taste. The cauliflower had some crunch left. At first, when we tasted the cauliflower alone, it tasted too salty but after mixing it with the rest of the ingredients, it was just fine. Our store bought mint was not as strong as we would have liked. The navel oranges were very sweet and juicy which really added to the overall flavor. Over time even the cauliflower was infused with a sweet orange flavor. It is a rather filling salad but we like it very much.

Cauliflower parsnip soup カリフラワーとパースニップスープ

I got the idea for this cauliflower soup/potage from one of the episodes of “Worst cooks in America”. (I hasten to add this was one of the recipes used in the final contest after the worst cooks were no longer the worst). I had a head of cauliflower and a bag of parsnips in the refrigerator and decided to make this dish (I just winged it without a specific recipe). To echo what is in the potage, I added baked cauliflower florets and parsnip medallions and garnished with chopped chives. I served this several times and in one rendition my wife added some of her cheese curd which was also good.
I served this just an small starter dish as you can see below.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower, one head, leaves and thick stem removed and coarsely copped preserving 1/5 separated into small florets for garnish.
Onion, three medium, finely chopped
Parsnips, 3, peeled and coarsely copped, reserving one cut into small medallions.
Olive oil, 2-3 tbs
Chicken broth, about 3 cups or just cover all the vegetables.
I sweated the onion in the olive oil in a soup pot until soft and cooked (4-5 minutes), I added the cauliflower and parsnips and covered it with chicken broth and let it simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables were soft. Using an emersion blender, I pureed the mixture until smooth.
Meanwhile, I coated the cauliflower florets and parsnips with olive oil, seasoned with salt and baked in the convection toaster oven for 30 minutes at 350F (below) and set aside.

To assemble the final serving, I put the serving portion of the potage in a small sauce pan and heated it up. I then added light cream (to your liking) and seasoned it with salt and freshly ground white pepper. I placed the baked cauliflower and parsnip in the middle of the small bowl and ladled in the potage then garnished it with chopped chives.

This is a very straightforward potage with nice sweetness from parsnips and creamy texture. Still slightly crunchy baked vegetable echoed what was in the potage. When my wife added the cheese curd it contributed a different smooth texture that was very pleasing. This is quite a nice potage/soup, albeit all  white.

A spoonful appetizer 一口スプーン前菜

My wife gave me some new plates and bowls for Christmas which required us to rearrange things to make a room for them. During these activities, we found spoons my wife got for me some time ago which were meant to serve a just one-swallow/bite appetizer.  Since they newly resurfaced, I promptly tried a one-swallow/bite appetizer using the spoon. The handles of the spoons are bent so that they can sit on the plate without a handle sticking over the edge. I served this with the last of New Year’s salmon kelp roll and Russian marinaded salmon.

This was just a whim-of-the moment dish. Since I had Cauliflower purée which I made a few days ago, I just put a small amount on the spoon and topped it with soy sauce  marinated “ikura” salmon roe and micro green perilla from our window sill herb garden. This combination worked well. We had this with cold sake and it went very well.

This was quite good. Although our initial cauliflower purée was made with cauliflower cooked in milk, recently I have been making in an abbreviated quick method.

Ingredients:
One small head of cauliflower, florets separated
1-2 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup warm milk

salt to taste

Directions:
Steam the cauliflower using a basket steamer for 10-15 minutes until very soft.
Place the cauliflower in a plastic container for immersion blender

Add 2/3 of the milk and blend using an immersion blender in high-speed
Add more milk for the nice silky consistency if needed.
Add the butter in thick pats
Season with salt and blend until very smooth and silky

This is wonderful way to prepare cauliflower. This purée can be used in many different ways. The smooth texture of the cauliflower purée was a great contrast to the burst of saltiness from the ikura.

Creamed Spinach with Cauliflower Puree カリフラワーピュレのクリームほうれん草

I make cauliflower puree occasionally. I modified how I make cauliflower puree mostly for my convenience. I steam the cauliflower florets for 10-15 minutes until very soft. Then I place the cauliflower in the container used for the emersion blender, add warm (in the microwave oven) milk (1/2-2/3) cup and puree first on medium speed and then on high speed until very smooth. This takes a few minutes on high speed. Then add several pats of unsalted butter and salt to taste and puree to incorporate the butter . The resulting puree can be used as is or many other ways which I have posted.  We found it is particularly good as an accompaniment to white fish. This time, we bought “baby arugula and spinach salad mix” and found out the vast majority was spinach. So instead of salad, we decide to make this into“creamed spinach using the cauliflower puree. It was quite good. This blog entry is for us to remember how we made this.

To make creamed spinach: Cook a bag of spinach in a wok without adding water with a tight fitting lid on low flame. Occasionally turn the spinach over until all wilted and cooked. Squeeze out excess moisture (I use a potato ricer to do this). Chop the spinach finely. Mix the spinach into the cauliflower puree. We also added cheeses (Gruyere and parmesan). Place the creamed spinach in a ramekin and bake in the toaster oven 350F for 20-30 minutes.

We had this as a side for “Tsukune with lotus root” 蓮根つくね, pickled daikon and cucumber 大根, キュウリの漬物.

This is a very acceptable substitution for bechamel based creamed spinach. It had a very rich flavor and creaminess.

Seared Scallops on Cauliflower Puree 焦がし帆立とカリフラワーピュレー

We like cauliflower puree. Now I changed how I make it and the process is easier but the results are the same (I added the directions below).  We used the puree for quite a few dishes. Recently, we revisited one of our favorite fish dishes; Chilean sea bass (Patagonian tooth fish). We really like this fish over a bed of Cauliflower puree. Recently we tried a similar combination using seared diver scallops which we got from Great-Alaska-Seafood. I made an impromptu pan sauce which went well.

For seared scallops
Ingredients (for two small servings)
4 diver scallops, thawed if frozen, patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper
1tsp peanut or other vegetable oil
Pan sauce:
2tbs Japanese sake for deglazing
1tbs lemon juice
1 tsp x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce
1 tbs of cold butter

Directions:
Add the vegetable oil with high smoking point to a stainless steel or iron frying pan on medium high flame. Heat the pan until the oil just starts smoking
Add the scallops and brown one side for 1-2 minutes and flip-over . Brown the other side for another 1 minute or until the scallops are just cooked in the center (expect some smoke).
After removing the scallops, add the sake and deglaze the pan. Reduce the liquid to half. Add the noodle sauce and the lemon juice. Reduce briefly and finish with pats of butter.
Place the scallops on the bed of warm cauliflower puree and pour the pan sauce over the scallops.

For cauliflower puree
Ingredients (makes at least 4 to 6 servings):
One head of Cauliflower, washed and florets separated
1 to 3/4 cup 4% milk, warm (I microwave but be careful of over boiling)
Several thin pats (2-3 tbs) of cold butter
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Directions:
Steam the florets for 7-10 minutes or until very soft.
Meanwhile warm the milk (I microwave but be careful of over-boiling)
In a cylindrical container for a immersion blender, add the cauliflower and half of  the warm milk.
Press down the immersion blender at a medium speed, up and down several time.
Depending on the consistency add more milk and blend in high-speed until silky smooth (may take some time to attain the smooth puree).
Add the butter and salt and further blend
Taste and adjust the salt

We really like this combination. The pan sauce also worked well. If this is a main dish, I would use 4 scallops per serving and add side vegetables.

Scalloped potato with cauliflower puree

My wife came up with this dish one day. A few days before I had made my usual Cauliflower puree. Beside eating it as an “adult baby” food, we have made Mac-and-cheese using the puree instead of Béchamel sauce. I am not sure how she came up with this dish but, it is essentially scalloped potatoes made with the Cauliflower puree, cheese, onion and jalapeño pepper. This was topped with several kinds of cheese and baked.

After the servings were cut out, you could see multiple layers of thinly sliced potato with cheesy sauce. The green bits are chopped Jalapeño pepper. She ended up making a quite large amount but we managed to enjoy it all as a side for lunches and dinner and also as appetizers. Probaly not as rich as if we made this with full-fledged Béchamel sauce but it was quite good.

I ask my wife to provide the recipe. I help her by slicing potatoes, onions, and chopping up Jalapeño pepper.

Ingredients:
Two russet potatoes thinly sliced
2 onions thinly sliced
2 jalapeño pepper
1 cup of cheddar cheese grated
1 cup monterey Jack cheese grated
1/2 cup parmesian cheese grated
Several slices of smoked gouda to top.
Enough cauliflower puree to cover several layers


Directions:
Cover the bottom of an oven casserole dish with the puree. Distribute a layer of potatoes (#1) then the sliced onions, jalapeño pepper and the various cheeses (# 1&2) then the cauliflower pure (#3) Keep layering until all the ingredients have been distributed. End by putting on slices of smoked gouda (#4). Cook in a 400 degree oven covered for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender and a knife slides in easily. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

This is a very comforting dish with thin layers of potatoes between custard like layers of warm cheese. The jalapeño peppers and onion give a nice flash of flavor. You would never guess that cauliflower was one of the main ingredients. It heated up nicely in the microwave. This would the a staple for any menu. 

Cauliflower Rice with Safran カリフラワーライス

I saw this interesting recipe in the food section of the WashingtonPost. Since I had a package of Iranian saffran (the second picture upper left) from one of my friends, I thought this is the dish I must try.  I served it with my wife's indian style lamb curry and homemade naan.



Ingredients: (for 2-3 servings)

Cauliflower, medium
Saffron, generous pinch
Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
Olive oil 1/2 tbs
Salt to taste

Using a box grater (coarsest side), I grated the cauliflower by holding the stem end. I only grated the florets.

I added the saffron threads to a small bowl with a small amount of hot water (below, right upper).  I added the olive oil to a frying pan on medium high flame and added the cumin seeds. I sautéed it for one minute until fragrant and added the grated cauliflower (below, lower left) and cooked for 2 minutes. I then added the saffron and the water it soaked in and salt. I sautéed for 1 more minute (below, right lower).



When I read the recipe, the combination of cumin seeds and saffran sounded good but we did not particularly like this flavor profile. I may change the seasonings in the future.

Braised crunchy cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワー炒め

This is a very simple and healthy dish that goes very well with sake or wine. I first encountered this recipe in a Japanese cook book entitled "men's drinking snacks" 俺の肴 which was given to me by my high school classmate 20 some years ago. This recipe was by a famous Japanese painter/artist, late Taro Okamoto 岡本太郎. According to him, while he was living in Montparnasse, Paris, his Chinese friend, who was a good cook, used to make this dish as an hors d'oeuvre and he loved it. I have been making this for some time but I deviated slightly from the original recipe by adding red pepper flakes and substituting rice vinegar for regular white vinegar, added towards the end of cooking.

Break a whole head of cauliflower into small floweretts.  Heat 2-3 tbs of peanut or vegetable oil in a wok, add red pepper flakes (as much as you like) and chopped garlic (I use 3-4 cloves but use your discretion). Briefly saute until fragrant but do not brown. Add the cauliflower and saute on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add half a cup of chicken broth and put on a tight lid. Cook (steam) for 5 minutes or until cauliflower is cooked but still crunchy (it will keep cooking after it is removed from the flame). Add 1-2 tbs of rice vinegar and stir. Add salt to taste and remove from the heat. There should be only a small amount of liquid left on the bottom of the wok.

You could serve this hot or warm but it is best the next day. The combination of crunch, hot pepper, garlic and subtle vinegar taste all work together. Quoting from Taro Okamoto, "Once you taste this dish, you can not eat over-cooked limp cauliflower in a restaurant."

Baked cauliflower with garbanzo beans, olive and garlic カリフラワーとひよこ豆、オリーブ、ニンニクのオーブン焼き

This is or another attempt at keeping ready-to-eat vegetables, like my ratatouille, handy. My wife is in charge of making this dish and the recipe below is from her. This dish goes well with any main proteins but especially goes well with lamb or roasted pork. Served by itself, this is also a good drinking snack.

Separate cauliflower into florets (one large head), place it in a bowl. Add garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed (one 16 oz can), olives (pitted, oil cured black olive is best, add several kinds if you have them, the amount is arbitrary), garlic (several cloves, separated but with inner skin still on). Season with salt (olives are salty, so careful with salt) and pepper. Add olive oil (3-4 tbs) and toss to coat each florets. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes (more if you like it hot) and mix again. Place it in a baking dish such as a flat pyrex baking dish and bake it in a 350F oven for 30-35 minutes, uncovered, mixing midway through. The cauliflower should be cooked but still crunchy. Be aware that it will keep cooking after the pan is out of the oven. The reason we keep the skin on the garlic is to prevent it from browning and becoming bitter. The cloves still add flavor. The resulting roasted garlic is an added byproduct of the dish and can be used two ways. If you are eating this at home, squeeze out the inside of the roasted garlic and mix it with the other items.  Or use it separately by smearing it on bread and enjoy. If you are taking this as a part of your lunch, I would leave out the garlic as a "public service".

This is a good dish either warm or cold. The crunch of the cauliflower with the hot zing of the pepper flakes really makes this dish. Do not overcook.

Chow-chow pickles チャウチャウ ピクルス

In the food section of Washington Post online, I found a recipe for scrapple (a fairly "refined" version) and sent it to my wife. Since she created Auntie N's no-crapple scrapple, I thought she would be most interested in this recipe. As she was looking through the scrapple recipe, she also came across a recipe for a dressing which is based on (store-bought) "chow-chow", Pennsylvania Dutch pickles.  Although she is not Pennsylvania Dutch, she grew up in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. She tells me that chow-chow was ubiquitous and appeared everywhere. It was even served in the school cafeteria.

Chow-chow is one of the classic Pennsylvania dutch "Seven Sweets and Seven Sours" which by tradition should be included in every dinner served to company. The seven sours included: pickled vegetables (such as pickled cauliflower, beets, or cabbage), coleslaw, dill pickles, green tomato relish, meat jelly and spiced cucumbers in addition to chow-chow. (For those who are interested the sweets included: jelly (currant or apple), apple butter or apple sauce, preserves such as quince, candied watermelon rind or wild strawberry, two or three pies such as schnitz, shoofly, funeral or montgomery and cheese cake). As a kid, my wife particularly liked chow-chow because she could pick out the veggies she liked best from the wide selection that made up the dish. Although my wife knew chow-chow as exclusively PA dutch, we found out that it is also a southern dish. The Pennsylvania version, however, is said to be much sweeter than the southern.  Over the years my wife has looked for but never found a recipe that reproduces the chow-chow of her childhood.  She searched on line and found this one based on an old Pennsylvania dutch cookbook from the 1930's.

Vegetables: Red and yellow pepper, cut in strips (one each), Cauliflower (one head, separated into small florets), celery (two stalks cut in to 3 inch buttons), green beans (on hand full), corn (kernels from 2 cobs, uncooked), kidney beans (one 15 oz can), black beans (one 15 oz can), Lima beans (one package, frozen thawed) (picture below upper left). The cauliflower and beans were precooked by steaming.

Pickling liquid: She used sushi vinegar (1 cup), (this is obviously her modification--sushi vinegar is not traditional to Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. She said she used it because it is milder than the traditional cider vinegar), sugar (1 cup), water (1 cup), kosher salt (2 Tbs.), ground turmeric (1 tbs), black pepper corns (1 tbs), cinnamon stick (one), whole all spice (1/2 tbs). She simmered these ingredients in a pot for about 30 minutes. (top right picture).  

Then she strained the syrup to remove the spices. She poured the strained syrup back into the pot and added whole bay leaves (3), hot red peppers (dried, 2), yellow mustard seed (2 tbs), celery seeds (1 1/2 tsp) and simmered the mixture for another 10 minutes. 

She arranged the vegetables in a glass baking dish (top left picture, since we did not have a glass pickling jar) and poured the hot liquid over the vegetables, stirred well and covered. After it cooled she put it in the refrigerator. The recipe said 'wait at least a week before serving. Because of the way these pickles were made they are considered "refrigerator pickles" meaning that they should be kept in the fridge and will not last more than a couple of weeks. The traditional PA dutch method is, of course sterilized, "heavy duty" canning.

After waiting a week my wife tasted the chow-chow...she was ecstatic!! This was the traditional taste of her childhood that she had been looking for all these years.  She was so excited she called me at work to tell me the pickles were a success. She said that the minute she tasted them she was instantly transported back to her childhood--summer picnics, dinners at friend's houses, cafeteria lunches, community suppers at the firehouse. As she said, Proust really knew what he was talking about with those madelaines.  

This is a very mild pickle with a pleasing sweet and sour taste. If truth be told, it is a little too sweet for me (my wife says that she probably liked it as a child because it was sweet--she said she still likes it a lot). All the additional spices give it a distinctive depth of flavor. The veggies are still very crisp and the diversity of ingredients makes it very interesting. Chow-chow is sometimes referred to as "the end of summer pickles". It includes such a variety of vegetables because these are all the veggies that are left over from pickling individual vegetables from the summer harvest. I suspect my wife will be making this again. It is certainly worth the effort.  

Chilean Sea bass チリアン・シーバス

 We eat lots of fish. When we lived in California many years ago, we really liked  “Chilean sea bass” which is buttery moist yet flakey and very difficult to overcook and make dry. Then we learned the real name of this fish is ‘Patagonian toothfish” and, at that time, that the fish was frequently illegally poached. So we stopped buying it and forgot about it for a long time. Then, my wife found Chilean sea bass available at Vital Choice which came from MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) -certified sustainable fishery. We remembered how wonderful it was and ordered it, although  it was a bit on the expensive side.

Digression alert: “Chilean sea bass” is said to be the most popular in US, and EU as well as in Japan. (Although when I was in Japan I did not know about this fish.) In Japan, this imported fish is reportedly called “mero” メロ or “ginmutsu” ギンムツ.

The fish was as wonderful as we remembered. Actually the first time I cooked this fish, I did not take a picture. So, I made the same dish a second time in an identical fashion. This was simply sautéed in butter with a caper lemon butter sauce. The sides were  cauliflower purée and haricot vert (pre-blanched) and Campari tomato (skinned) sautéed in butter. Everything went well together but the combination of cauliflower puree and Chilean sea bass was sublime.

Ingredients (2 servings):
2 4oz frozen Chilean sea bass, thawed, seasoned with salt and pepper

For Caper lemon butter sauce
2 tsp pickled capers (from a jar)
1 tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp lemon juice (half lemon)

Directions:
Cook the filets in melted butter on medium flame, turn once after 5 minutes and cook another 5 minutes (I put on the lid since one of the filets was rather thick)
Once cooked, set aside on a plate
In the same pan add the butter. capers and lemon juice and quickly warm them up then pour over the filets

We also served small slices of mini-baguette I baked to soak up the sauce. The fish is buttery, flakey but moist. Somehow it went so well with the cauliflower puree. The green beans can be “a hit” (nicely crunchy after few minutes of steaming) or “a miss” (fibrous skin no matter how you cook) but this one was definitely “a hit”.

One spoonful appetizers a.k.a baby food for adults 一口スプーンの前菜第二弾

This is another iteration of one spoonful appetizers. I am making more purées or what I refer to as “baby food for adults” to use as one gulp spoonfuls of food. In any case, the below are three such appetizers. From left to right: Kabocha potage カボチャのポタージュ, seasoned soft boiled egg 味卵 with ikura salmon roe イクラ and cauliflower puree with ikura.

I also strewed the plate with simmered kabocha カボチャの煮物 (left lower corner), braised cauliflower モンパルナスのカリフラワーand blanched sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし.

The below was what I served for another evening. This time I made broccoli puree which I garnished with flowerets of blanched broccoli. The other two are the same cauliflower puree and Kabocha potage shown in the pictures above.

I made broccoli puree from the stem of broccoli, onion, and parsnip. It has very good and interesting flavors. When I ask my wife to taste it, she thought it had asparagus.

I made the broccoli puree without a recipe but the basic is very similar to any potage or puree.

Ingredients:
Broccoli stem, hard bottom removed and hard skin removed (I used stems of two broccoli heads), cut into small cubes.
One medium onion, finely diced
One parsnip (or maybe a potato), skinned, cut into small cubes.
1/2 cup of chicken broth or more depending on the consistency of the puree (I used Swanson's no fat reduced salt)
1 tsp unsalted butter and 2 tbs olive oil
Salt to taste
Two bay leaves (optional)

Directions:
Add the olive oil and butter to the pan on medium flame and sauté the onion until cooked (2-3 minutes).
Add the broccoli stem and parsnip and coat with butter/oil and add the chicken both to cover.

Add the bay leaves and simmer until soft (15-20 minutes)
Remove the bay leaves and puree using an immersion blender until smooth (add more chicken broth for desired consistency).
Season with salt

These appetizers are nice. The spoonful is just the right amount for a satisfying gulp. They provide a nice range of flavors although the consistency seems, well consistent. It is lovely and smooth but I can’t help but think of it as sophisticated “baby food for adults”. I’ll have to come up with something different.

Broccoli Balls ブロッコリボール

Since we are getting home grocery delivery, the amount of broccoli we get per order is out of our control. For some reason they are extremely generous with the amount they provide; we get three large heads of broccoli in one order. I usually, wash and separate the broccoli into small florets and steam them. Afterwords, I divide the steamed broccoli into small batches and freeze them for later use leaving a few days worth in the refrigerator. In addition, sometimes we get free-be cookbooks with the grocery delivery. My wife was purusing one of these little cookbooks called “from Freezer to Table” and came across a broccoli-centric recipe. This combined with seeing the abundant supply of broccoli we had just received led to a conjunction of the recipe/ingredients planets and my wife decided to make her own version of this recipe.  The original recipe (as would be expected coming from a cookbook about frozen food) used frozen “riced” broccoli and cauliflower. While we had the broccoli (non-frozen, of course) we did not have the cauliflower so my wife used mashed potatoes instead…(don’t ask). In any case, this made a quite good small appetizer that also heat up nicely in the toaster oven.

Ingredients:
1 cup steamed broccoli chopped in the small food processor
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese (any cheese would work)

1 cup shredded smoked gouda cheese
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 tsp onion powder (to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder (to taste)
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients (#1). Using medium ice cream scoop drop scoop fulls into small muffin cups lined with muffin papers (#2). Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown (#3 and #4).

These were very flavorful, crispy bites perfect for appetizers. The garlic, onion and herb flavors were very rich and satisfying. The potatoes added a slightly creamy texture inside the crispness of the outside shell. One word of advice, go light on the salt. The cheese is salty. I used 1 tsp of salt and that was too much. I reduced it in this version of the recipe. These really crisp up nicely the toaster oven.