cauliflower

Joy by the Pound

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Every couple of weeks The Kid and I take a trip to Chapel Hill.

First, we visit Café Driade.  We have an inviolable routine.  The Kid gets coffee and I get their transcendent hot chocolate.  We grab a table on the back patio.  And, we share half a fresh baguette with butter and strawberry jam.

But, it’s not something that we can do every time.  If it’s raining, won’t work.  If they’re out of bread, butter, or strawberry jam; nope.  No hot chocolate?  No can do.  And if it’s too hot outside; game over man.

But I’m telling you, sitting there, licking jam off my thumb or burning my tongue on my cocoa, I feel Frencher than Brigitte Bardot wearing a beret and eating a plate of Al’s fries.  It’s a precious little jewel of a time for both The Kid and me.

tres chic

Tres Chic!

We then head over to Trader Joe’s for groceries.  If you’ve never visited, I highly recommend it.  Before heading back to our own neck of the woods, we stop at Whole Foods for a little gourmet, organic splurging.

First, a sample of gelato in the prepared food section.  That’s the part of the store that gets us into trouble.  It doesn’t matter if we’re hungry or stuffed; we want everything.

That hot bar’s the toughie.  Not only does it all look delicious, we package it up ourselves.  That’s a recipe for disasterous sticker shock at the register. My mom says that when I was a kid I’d, “eat with my eyes, instead of my stomach”.  Which means that if you serve yourself, restraint and judgment fly out the window, and you take way more than you can eat.  Or, in my case, take waaaay more than I should eat; ‘cause honey, I can eat it; I just shouldn’t.

And the item that so often leads to my downfall is the cauliflower mac and cheese.  It’s unctuous and delicious.  This stuff also really reheats well; unlike regular mac, it doesn’t separate into a sad, greasy, unappetizing mess.

This could make a girl lactophobic.

Because I always inadvertently buy at least $10,000 worth, and my local Whole Foods doesn’t usually carry it, it’s problematic for me.  So, I finally asked Chef Alec how they make this stuff, and he told me.

The really neat things about this recipe is the cauliflower makes the sauce go further with very few calories and no fat.  Also, if you have cauliflower-phobic diners, they will never know it’s in there.

Cauliflower Mac & Cheesecauliflower mac1 pound ridged macaroni, cooked al dente and drained

1 head of cauliflower, cut into small florets and steamed until very tender. 

Place cooked cauliflower into food processor or blender and puree until completely smooth.

Cheese Sauce:cauliflower mac sauce¼ cup butter

¼ cup flour

2 ½ cups skim milk

4 cups shredded cheddar

½ teaspoon dry mustard

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter in large heavy pot on medium.  Whisk in flour.  Pour in milk, whisking constantly until it begins to bubble.  Add mustard.  Stir in cheese a bit at a time, until it melts, then add more until 3 cups are in, reserving last cup.  Take off heat.

Add pureed cauliflower and stir until combined.  Put in cooked pasta and mix through.  Season, taste, and re-season if necessary.  Pour into greased 3-quart casserole dish.  Place any leftovers into individual dishes for solo dining.  Cover with foil.Bake for 40 minutes, uncover and top with remaining cheese and bake 20 more.  Let sit 10-15 minutes before service.  Serves 8-10.

This mac would be a great addition to Easter dinner.  And if going to someone else’s house like me, this a terrific dish to bring.

Or stay home, eat it your pajamas, and Netflix & chill.Thanks for your time.

Contact Debbie at momsequitur@gmail.com.

Fairly Balanced

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My favorite ice cream treat is Dairy Queen’s peanut buster parfait.  It is a miracle of simplicity; vanilla soft serve draped in hot fudge sauce and studded with peanuts.

But who knew my affection was rooted in science?

While each component is plenty tasty on its own, it’s the contrasts that push it to icon status.  The hot/cold, salty/sweet, and creamy/crunchy excite us and satisfy the palate.  It’s called dynamic contrast.

The accepted definition for this term is: moment-to-moment sensory contrast from the ever-changing properties of foods manipulated in the mouth.All this fancy scientific palaver boils down to one thing: humans like contrast, and crave it.

The Kid recently found a dish on the website Smitten Kitchen, which was inspired by an Ina Garten recipe and features contrast.

Crusty Baked Cauliflower and Farro

Final amended recipe

I’m sorry guys, there are just a crap ton of ingredients in this dish.

2 cups cooked farro

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 pound head of cauliflower, cut into small florets

2 tablespoons capers, drained

2 large or 3 regular cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 cups coarsely grated Manchego

½ cup Marcona almonds, given a brief, rough chop into halves or thirds

1/2 cup full-fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/3 cup finely grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese

2 teaspoons dry thyme

Directions:

Place farro into large bowl.

Par-cook cauliflower:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Brush a large baking sheet with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Spread florets in one layer, drizzle with 1 more tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes until lightly browned and crisp-tender (they will finish baking with the farro). Reduce heat to 400 degrees.  Place cauliflower into bowl with farro.

Assemble casserole: Add the capers, garlic, lemon zest, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to cauliflower and farro and stir to combine. Stir in manchego and almonds. Transfer half of the mixture to an oiled 10-inch ovenproof frying pan or equivalent baking dish. Dollop rounded tablespoons of ricotta all over. Sprinkle remaining cauliflower and farro over the ricotta, leaving the pockets of it undisturbed.

In a small dish, combine panko with Parmesan, thyme and 1 tablespoon olive oil until evenly mixed. Sprinkle over cauliflower and farro.

Bake casserole: For 20 minutes, until browned and crusty on top. Dig in.Do ahead: Farro can be cooked up to 3 days in advance, kept in an airtight container in fridge. Cauliflower can be cooked 2 days in advance. Casserole can be assembled and baked a day later, easily, although the crumbs might lose their crisp from absorbing the moisture below if not added right before baking. Casserole keeps for several days in fridge and longer in freezer.

The Kid loved this dish so much it was a struggle to leave enough for me to try.  I liked it a lot, but had a couple of tweaks in mind.

The sample I tasted had a lot of lemon zest; like a whole lemon’s worth.  It was too much.  It became very floral, and the flavor overpowered the other components.  We reduced it.

It needed crunch, and we picked nuts because they don’t go soggy.

We both thought about pine nuts, but Chinese pine nuts from the Pinus armandii can give you something called “pine mouth” which deadens your taste buds for a while and leaves you with a metallic taste for two weeks or more.   And unfortunately, it’s not usually easy to discern the origin of your pine nuts.So we chose Marcona almonds because they’re addictively tasty.  They were the perfect foil for the other ingredients.  It was a true balance of both taste and texture.

And, here’s one more contrast for you.

When I eat something outrageously delicious, it makes me want to cry; with pleasure, gratitude, and the ephemeral nature of the food. But The Kid gets angry.

Yeah, angry.I only offered another contrast.  I didn’t promise it wouldn’t be bonkers.

Thanks for your time.

Ghosting your machines

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There’s this new relationship term—ghosting.

It’s a no fuss, no muss way to break up with someone.  One simply disappears.  They stop calling, texting, smoke signaling.

And you’re probably doing it right now, as you read this.

I’m not talking about your love life.  I’m talking about all those machines in the cabinets, and pantry, and that closet where stuff goes to die.  Those gadgets that you thought you couldn’t live without (but did).

A couple weeks ago, while perusing the interweb, I stumbled upon a recipe that intrigued me.  It was gluten-free biscuits.So, here’s the thing; for various reasons, I am extremely skeptical about the whole gluten-free, celiac thing.

1.)Gluten-free products.  Gluten’s job in food is to make it stretchier so it can rise, and not having it makes the food dense.  There’s a reason gluten is present, so when it’s not, you notice.

2.)Gluten-free people.  There are two kinds of people; those with celiac, and those without.  Unfortunately, there are lots of people who don’t have it that are absolutely convinced that they do.  In truth, only 1% of the population has doctor-diagnosed celiac disease.

3.)Cauliflower abuse.  Ever since gluten and celiac became part of popular lexicon, poor old cauliflower has been abused.  It’s mashed “potatoes”, pizza crust, even (sadly) brownies.

caulicrap

This is all made with cauliflower.  And I’d have to be mighty hungry…

Because of this, when I saw the recipe from Cooking Light magazine, it was a minor miracle that I even read it.  But I did read it, and decided it sounded so tasty that I would make it.  And I used three kitchen gadget and appliances.

But I can’t call it a biscuit, ‘cause it’s not.  It’s actually a soufflé.  A soufflé that tastes really good at only 25 calories each.

Cauliflower Soufflé Cupscauli souffle4 cups steamed, fresh cauliflower

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

½ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

¼ cup grated Parmesan

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Place cauliflower into food processor along with garlic and whole eggs.  Blend until smooth.  Add yogurt, salt and pepper.  Mix until smooth and creamy.

While blending cauliflower, put egg whites into mixer with whisk attachment.  Mix on high until stiff peaks form.

Pour cauliflower mixture in large bowl and stir in cheeses.  Stir in one spoonful of beaten whites to lighten the mix.  Then gently fold in the rest of the whites.

Spray a mini-muffin tin with cooking spray.  Put a heaping spoonful into each cup.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until top is browned and edges are caramelized.  Let sit ten minutes before removing from pan.  Makes 24 mini soufflé cups.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo get in there and break out some neglected kitchen toys.  You’ll remember why you thought they were such a great idea in the first place.

But some stuff you just gotta have.  I’m going to Amazon and ordering a paper towel holder that charges electronics, and a carrot sharpener.  I’m positive I’ll use them all the time.Thanks for your time.