He’s my favourite recipe maker on YouTube. Been following him for years.
The whole cauliflower recipe is one I’ve made for several years now, but didn’t get it from him, but from one of my danish chef friends.
You can make it in the oven, but I prefer to make it in a pan on the stovetop where I butter baste the cauliflower during the last 5-8 minutes like I would a steak the last 1-2 minutes. Delicious.
When I was living in Santa Monica, there was a veg restaurant in Venice (don’t remember the exact name but it was something like “Myera”) that made a whole cauliflower, with a sage seasoned stuffing, wrapped in phyllo dough, and baked crispy.
Never been able to find a similar recipe/method online, which is unfortunate as it was one of the best cauliflower dishes I have had.
Any good uses for the stems and leaves? I have fermented the stems a couple of times (while fermenting the florets as well) and it’s okay, but just okay.
Being a nerd, I just weighed the cauliflower I am going to use tonight for the braise Claus recommended, and found the stems/leaves are fully 20% of the entire mass. So I’d be happy for use recommendations. Or do they mostly just get tossed?
Maybe…
I almost never toss anything edible.
I do incorporate stems and leaves into the dish as much as I can, especially in dishes where the cauliflower is just cut into pieces. The stems taste great to me.
If not incorporating, I separate the stems and leaves, roughly chop, put in a food processor and pulse a couple of times, and voila! cauli rice!
When I make regular rice (for me, basmati or sona masoori), I begin by heating oil, adding about half tsp of cumin seed. When these sizzle, I add the cauli rice yielded from one cauliflower. When those have sautéed for a couple of minutes, I add 1 cup of (previously rinsed and drained) white rice, stir fry the whole thing for a minute or so, then add the measured water and about 1/4 tsp salt. Then I cook the rice as usual. This way I some of the benefits of cauli rice and the satisfaction of white rice.
I do the same with broccoli stems, though I am puzzled to find that more and more, local supermarkets are selling broccoli cut off close to the heads with almost no stem. I guess the stems are going to the frozen broccoli rice manufacturers.
Thanks Scott. I’ve tried that and, for me (I like bitterish stuff), it’s good. But not so much for the rest of the family. I’m pretty sure that’s what you meant by “Maybe…”! Right? I also have tried some excess acid when cooking them (not mentioned in this particular recipe) but still the family finds them too strong flavored.
Thanks, I’ll try that.
For broccoli, here we still get full stems and my family loves them.
Then there’s the old story of “Uncle Bennie” who ONLY used broccoli stems and threw away the florets. In some circles (for quite other reasons) he’s called “Crazy Uncle Bennie”. LoL.
Maybe it was along the lines of a whole cauliflower Wellington using phyllo instead of puff pastry?
I use the stems close to florets with the florets, but usually save the bigger stem portion for soup.
Lately I’ve also taken to cutting it small and adding it to lentils while they cook, which both adds flavor and softens it (I find the main stalk very sharp in flavor, so for soup I cut it with florets).
Leaves I don’t use yet (they’re not usually that fresh for the cauliflowers I get) but there are some regional indian dishes that are specifically designed to use them. Examples here and here.
Apparently people also roast them.
I saw a kosher cooking show on Youtube where the observant Jewish home cook only used the broccoli stems and discarded the florets because the florets could harbour tiny insects which would make the vegetable non-kosher.
It was definitely stuffed. Appearance wise, this is the closest thing I have found online, but imagine it wrapped in phyllo rather than the bread crumb mixture.
I’m going to try that one from Mamta’s kitchen next. Fun line in her instructions:
[emph. added]
I remember having a blue cheese and cauliflower vegetarian main in Czech Republic 15 years ago. Haven’t seen a recipe for it. Might try to replicate.
My wife and I had roasted cauliflower at Etch Restaurant in Nashville. Simple roasted cauliflower with three sauces. We liked it enough I looked for the recipe. We didn’t order it during the fundraiser, but that did give me the recipe.
I love cauliflower, but I had to turn off the soft porn soundtrack. (Not that I know what a soft porn soundtrack sounds like.)
Cauliflower chestnut soup with thyme and parmesan. Followed this recipe pretty closely:
It’s not difficult, but it is time consuming. And it takes A LOT of salt.
Good for you and so nice you know how to adjust the volume on your YouTube device.
I recently brought the NYT buffalo cauliflower dip to a party and the pan was wiped clean! It’s important you cut the cauliflower small enough to be scoopable with various dippers. One comment said cauliflower rice worked well, and I’d be willing to take that for a spin.
We’ve also been seasoning roasted cauliflower with baharat and serving in hummus bowls/salads.
