Posts tagged cauliflower
Light Sunday treat – Spicy shrimps on a bed cauliflower mash
Nov 7th
Légères gourmandises du dimanche – Crevettes épicées sur lit de chou fleur
San Francisco has been under the rain today, and it might be a sign that fall is very much around, warning you that more rainy days are on their way.
Even though, it’s not Thanksgiving yet, I am already thinking about the Thanksgiving dinner menu…I think this year, there will be many appetizers like this one. I am simply in love with simple and flavorful bites that “mettent en appétit” (open your appetite) and can be enjoyed with a fresh glass of Champagne. I noticed many of my friends don’t like cauliflower, I am not sure if its the texture or the taste, so sometimes I just play with cauliflower and try to serve it in various forms and textures.
Of course, you can substitute cauliflower with other ingredients, such as avocado, carrots, etc…I served this a few times with an avocado purée and it was simply delightful.
If you don’t want to serve this in a spoon, you can serve it in a small plate, add one extra tbs of cauliflower mash, and add four shrimps. That would be sufficient as an appetizer and you really don’t have to spend hours cooking. This is a fairly simple dish to prepare and no one needs to know that it takes only a few minutes for the whole dish to be ready.
The only little trick about using small spoons, is that you need to pay attention to small details, and make sure your presentation is clean and tidy. All the ingredients being cut in tiny pieces, they need to be well put together in a regular order.
Ingredients for 10 spoons
- 1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 tbs olive oil
- hot spicy habanero sauce or tabasco sauce
- salt and pepper
- 10 shrimps, peeled and deveined
- 1/4 tbs paprika
- 1/2 tsp mild curry powder
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil
- dill for decoration
Preparation
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add cauliflower and cook until soft. Drain, place in a mixing container and mash with a potato masher, leaving small pieces. Add habanero sauce, olive oil , salt and pepper. Mix well all ingredients and keep warm.
In a container, combine shrimps, curry and paprika powder, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Heat olive oil in a pan and saute shrimps.
Place 1 tbs of cauliflower in each spoon. Top it with one shrimp and a little sprig of dill.
Cauliflower adventures – Cauliflower and saffron cappuccino with clams
Sep 12th
Les aventures d’un chou fleur – Cappuccino de chou fleur au saffran et praires
Sorry about two cauliflower recipes in a row, I was convinced I used the nine of them I had in my case, then I found this one, that needed to be consumed or would go bad. Since I never throw away food (or at least I try), my father would always tell me when I was growing up, “You cannot throw away food, there are too many people starving in the world”, so now I do feel guilty to throw away anything. When you think about it, in our Western world, people die because they eat too much, in some other parts of the world, people die because they have nothing to eat. How unfair and absurd is that?
I think cauliflower is an amazing vegetable, and its use is so versatile…I was trying to find a way to combine it with seafood, and this cappuccino perfectly achieved what I had in mind, associating two complementing and opposite textures, the creaminess of the cauliflower with chewiness of the clams. That was a lovely combination, especially with the delicate touch of saffron (which I adore with seafood).
Now you might wonder why this is called cappuccino, since there is no coffee in it, and certainly cannot have this for breakfast. The cauliflower being cooked in milk and the foam used to top off the soup, the whole thing served in a cappuccino cup, it definitely resembles a savory version of the traditional and very famous coffee drink.
It’s a nice festive and delicious soup, so when you have no inspiration for cauliflower, try this soup, it’s such a treat.
Ingredients for 4-5
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 large potato, peeled and cut
- 1/2 leek, white part
- 1 cauliflower
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- milk (enough to cover the vegetables)
- 1 dose of saffron
- 16-20 clams
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large pot, heat olive oil add leek, potatoes and cauliflower and cook vegetables stirring for about 10 minutes. Add broth, milk and saffron, salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and cook at medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and keep about 1/2 cup of the milk aside. Let it cool.
In another pot, heat olive oil and clams. Adjust with salt and pepper, and let the clams open. When the clams are open, remove from heat and keep warm.
Using a hand blender blend vegetables into a thin puree. Pass through a sieve to obtain a creamy and smooth texture. If the consistency is too thick, add a little broth.
To make foam, place cooled milk (set aside) in a small pot and heat it up without boiling it. Whisk gradually milk to make it foam. When obtained desired and thick foam. Pour soup on cappuccino cups, add 2 tbs foam on each cup and place 4 clams on top. Decorate with saffron threads and chives. Serve hot.
A crunchy bite – Cauliflower beignets with hot chili tomato sauce
Sep 8th
Ca croustille sous la dent – Beignets de chou fleur et sauce tomate piquante
I only have one or two recipe involving frying, I almost never fry food…and this for many reasons, first of all for health and calories issues and last but not least for the disgraceful smell of the house that has been subject to oil particles and fumes. That smell can remain in the house for weeks and it’s not a pleasant fragrance.
I ended up with a case of 9 large cauliflowers and really needed to find different ways to prepare them…After soups, gratins, salads, taboule, roasted…I finally gave in and decided to fry this last one…and to be real honest, I loved it. It can be quite addictive…I like a airy, thin and crunchy crust and that’s just the way those beignets turned out. It took them a while to get golden brown, probably because the oil was not that hot.
You can of course serve those beignets with a different dipping sauce, such as a spicy tartare or garlic tofu, or any sauce you like. To keep those vegan, do not add egg white, and they’ll be just as delicious.
Beignets in France are the equivalent of donuts, but I would certainly not call these donuts. The most traditional beignets are made during carnival (les beignets de carnaval) and are sweet…and of course fried in oil. The other savory versions are made with vegetables. You dip vegetables in a liquid batter, then you fry them.
The origin of beignets goes back to Roman times, when Romans had various ways of celebrating the awakening of nature with all kinds of rituals and meals. They were then consumed before the period of fasting that lasted 40 days, when Catholics were eating greasy food “Mardi Gras” (fat Tuesday) to get ready for their fast. Beignets have somehow a religious historical trace, like most ancient food.
Nowadays we eat donuts simply because they’re delicious, and that’s a good enough reason.
Ingredients for about 3-4
- 1 large cauliflower
- 4 tbs flour
- 4 tbs corn starch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbs chives, chopped
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 egg white, beaten (optional)
- 10 basil leaves
- vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
For the hot chili sauce
- 3 large tomatoes, peeled, seedless and crushed
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- tabasco (to taste)
- cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Start cutting the cauliflower in florets. Cook them in boiling water for three minutes. Drain and let cool.
For the batter, in a mixing bowl, beat egg white to a thick texture, then in another bowl, combine all other ingredients together. Incorporate egg white.
Heat oil in a wok. Dip each cauliflower floret into the batter and add to the oil. Let each floret turn golden brown. remove from oil and drain in a paper towel. Add each basil leaf to the wok and fry for about 30 seconds until crunchy (do not overcook or the leaves will break).
For the tomato sauce, heat olive oil in a pot, add 2 garlic clovess, stir for a few minutes, then add tomatoes. Let the tomatoes cook for about 10-15 minutes until the water evaporates. Remove from stove, let it cool and add all other ingredients.
Serve cauliflower hot with dipping sauce on the side and basil leaves.
A Goat in the kitchen – Cauliflower and leek gratin with goat milk
Apr 6th
Une chèvre dans la cuisine – Gratin de chou fleur et poireaux au lait de chèvre
I forgot how DMV can be a nightmare, waiting for your number 389 when the current number is 210 can be the story of an afternoon. So people bring balls to play with, and all kinds of entertainment to spend three to four hours. I somehow like to observe people, it’s certainly more interesting to observe people sur la terrasse d’un café, in a cafe terrace with a coffee in your hands, so when your hands are holding nothing more than a number, patience becomes a virtue and people looking becomes one too.
I had prepared this gratin in advance so it just needed to be gratiné when I got home and that’s the beauty of gratins, you can prepare them in advance and throw them in the oven when ready to be served.
I have used goat milk in soufflés and in the béchamel when preparing gratins that turned out lighter with a more delicate touch than with cow milk, and partly due to the fact that goat milk is lighter to digest than regular milk. You can slightly taste to goat milk which is not as strong as in cheeses. Basically you can replace goat milk in many dishes using cow milk. Gratins are very common in France and can be made with any vegetable.
Gratin can be considered a plat unique (a one meal dish), and universally appreciated, it’s certainly a meal in itself with a side salad. If you feel like something hot with a golden crust, stop thinking, this is it. Some people are fighting to eat the crispy crust while others are fighting to get to the soft melting middle. What type of gratin eater are you? I am definitely a crust lover, but would not mistreat the middle either. No matter how you eat it, gratins always evoke a comforting and warm cuisine that everyone loves.
I would use premium gruyère cheese that melts well and leaves a nice golden crust the quality of the cheese is important and will make a great difference in the texture of your gratin. Also, you could add a little goat cheese as well instead of adding gruyère in the mixture but gruyère on top is a must if you want a golden and melting crust.
Ingredients for 2-3
- 1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
- 1 leek, cut in 1 inch chunks
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 3 tbs butter
- 1.5 tbs flour
- 1.5 cup goat milk
- 5 tbs imported Gruyère cheese
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add leeks, adjust with salt and pepper and cover with lid until leeks are tender.
Cook cauliflower in salted boiling water until cooked but still firm. Drain and set aside.
Start preparing the béchamel by melting butter, then adding flour. Stir well. Add milk, salt and pepper and reduce temperature to medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture starts thickening. Cook for a few minutes until it has reached a nice consistency, but should not be too thick.
Using individual ramequins or one larger dish, add one layer of leeks, then add one layer of cauliflower and end with another layer of leeks. Sprinkle with 1 tbs gruyère cheese (or goat cheese for each ramequin) and pour béchamel. Try to coat your vegetables with cheese and bechamel by mixing the vegetables carefully. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, grind fresh pepper and cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes or until the gratin has reached a golden brown color.
No soup for the holidays – Soup of cauliflower, chickpeas and quadretti
Jan 31st
Zuppa con cavolfiore, ceci e quadretti
I heard California got a lot of rain this season, all the news talked about it when I was in France and I heard it from my neighbors when I got back. The good things is that it’s clearing up. Eventhough France was very cold with -10C temperatures some days, my mom never made soup and neither did I. Of course during the holidays, we tend to eat “holiday meals” and strangely enough soup is not entitled to the be on the “holiday” list, so I somehow missed it.
One soup I really like is this cauliflower soup with chick peas and small pasta, you can put potatoes instead of the pasta, or even both. You can use any small pasta such as quadretti (little squares), ditali (small cylinders) or any small pasta to be used is broths or soups. I had none left so I cut some fettucine into small pieces, and it worked quite well. The difference is that quadretti are a egg pasta and thinner than fettucine which are not supposed to be used in soup as per the pasta étiquette. So I went against the étiquette, nonetheless it was really enjoyable. I think some ingredients can be substituted and some others, cannot. In this case, I would say it could be.
I am not sure how the word “pasta” is used in the US, if it refers to a particular pasta dish cooked in a particular way and not in soups. Then not sure what the word “noodle” refers to either, so I will try to be as accurate I can be. For me noodles reminds me of the Asian pasta, and not Italian pasta. Every kind of pasta in Italy has its own name, that makes it quite easy to what type of pasta you are talking about.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 medium size cauliflower
- 2 potatoes
- 4 medium tomatoes, seedless, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbs onions chopped
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1/2 lb chick peas (either canned or dry and soaked overnight)
- 5 tbs quadretti or small pasta for soups
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot, brown onions, then add garlic, stir a few minutes. Add tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes to let the water evaporates, then add potatoes, cauliflower and rosemary. Stir well to coat all the vegetables and cook for about 7 min stirring. Add enough broth to cover the vegetables (you might want to add extra to have enough liquid to cook the quadretti). Let it cook until the vegetables are tender but not mushy, remove rosemary then add chick peas. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add pasta and 1 garlic clove and cook until desired texture (I like them al dente). Sprinkle with olive oil, cracked pepper and serve.
Let's squish the cauliflower – Wholewheat fettuccine with cauliflower, saffron and pecorino
Dec 9th
Abbiamo schiacciato il cavolfiore – Fettuccine integrali con cavolfiore, zafferano e pecorino
Something funny happened to me today that has nothing to do with food. I am looking to buy a new car, but not really new more like second hand since I gave my Golf away. So the guy I went to meet who was selling his car, was not the one I thought I was supposed to meet. The car I thought I was going to see was a white Nissan with 9000 miles and the one I ended up meeting had a black Toyota with 28,000 miles. Basically I mixed up sellers. I have been acting strange lately, maybe I need some rest.
Besides the confusion, I have had cravings for pasta, of all kinds and shapes. I have had a strange love story with pasta, somehow during my teenager years, I just refused to eat it, since my mom was making pasta al sugo at least once a week, with leftovers that lasted for a week. There were three of us, since I am an only child, and like a good Italian mamma, my mom made food for about an army, and my dad was complaining of eating leftovers. So after I rebelled against pasta like most teenagers do, they always rebel about something, I just went by phases, either I eat pasta seven days a week or just don’t eat any for months.
Looks like, I am back with my daily consumption of carbs. I remember my mom making a soup with cauliflower and tomatoes that was delicious. This dish is inspired by a Sicilian pasta dish that I twisted around a little, and I loved it. If you have a cauliflower that has been sitting in your refrigerator and not sure what to do with it, you might want to try this pasta. You’ll be surprised to see how delicious the cauliflower sauce tastes, very light, not too strong, a real delight. In my case, I had a green cauliflower, that resulted in a beautiful greenish fettuccine dish.
Ingredients for 3
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) wholewheat fettucine
- 1 large green cauliflower
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 saffron dose
- 1 bouillon cube dissolved in water
- 4 tbs pecorino, grated
- 4 tbs heavy cream
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut cauliflower florets and cook them in salted boiling water. Cook until still a little crunchy. Drain cauliflower and keep the cooking water to cook pasta.
With a potato masher or a fork, crush the floret roughly.
In a cup, mix about 1/3 cup or more hot cauliflower water with saffron threads and let it infuse for about 10 minutes. Dissolve a bouillon cube in it. (You might have to add some additional water if the sauce is too thick).
In a pan, heat olive oil and brown shallots. Add cauliflower and mix well. Add bouillon mixture, and stir well and cook for a few minutes at high heat until some of the saffron and bouillon get absorbed by cauliflower and infused in the sauce. If the sauce is too thick add extra water. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add cream. At this point, you need to have a little creamy sauce (not too liquid) with cauliflower but not too much.
Cook fettuccine in the cauliflower water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower. Mix well, let the fettuccine absorbe the sauce, add pecorino and serve hot.
It's warm, it's flavorful, it's a salad – Warm quinoa salad, with cannelli beans, carrots and cauliflower with a four herb salsa
Jul 25th
C’est tiède, c’est plein de saveur, c’est une salade – Salade tiède de quinoa aux carottes, cocos, chou fleur et salsa aux quatres herbes
Today I said goodbye to my long time and faithful friend, my VW Golf I had for over 10 years, and that over the years turned into an old lady. I gave it to a charity and I have to admit that when the tow-truck came pick it up, I was somehow sad. I know it’s just a thing, and I should not get attached to material, but still, it was the first car I got in the US and I was somehow attached to it. We went through some good and bad times together. I did not feel comfortable selling it, since the steering wheel was really hard to manoeuvre and I stopped driving it for a month, fearing it would break down in the middle of the street…and many other things were wrong with it, so I figured I would give it to charity. C’est la vie, nothing lasts and things like people sooner or later quietly go.
OK, let’s not dwell on this, it’s just a car after all!
Let’s go back to the fun world of cooking, I love to play with quinoa, it’s delicious in soups, salads, taboule and any kind of side dishes. The great flavor comes from the herb salsa I made, which enhanced this whole salad.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup quinoa
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 2 carrots
- 1 cup cooked cannelli beans
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 celeri stick
- 3 cloves
For the salsa
- 2 scallions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1/3 bunch mint
- 5 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- a pinch chili powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
If you are using dried cannelli beans, they need to be soaked overnight in water, if you didn’t have any and don’t have time, you can use canned beans, but they don’t taste as good as the dried ones.
Cook quinoa by steaming it, like you would make steamed rice. Add double its volume of water, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a minimum and cover with lid. Cook for about 20 minutes.
If used, dried cannelli beans, cook them in water for about 30 minutes with 1/2 onion, 3 cloves, 1 celery stick, and 2 bay leaves. When cooked remove onion, cloves, celery, bay leaves, and drain beans.
Cut cauliflower in small florets, cut carrots in slices, then cut in half. Steam for about 10 minutes and set aside.
Mix the salsa ingredients in a mixer to make it into a smooth mixture.
When quinoa is cooked, place in a mixing bowl, add vegetables. Spoon salsa at the end and mix well.
Someone suffocated the cod – Cod in parchment paper with zucchini, carrots and coconut milk with cauliflower purée
Jun 30th
Quelqu’un a étouffé le cabillaud – Cabillaud en papillotte aux courgettes, carottes et lait de coco, avec purée de pomme de terres et chou fleur
I really love fish in parchment paper, it makes a beautiful presentation, it keeps the fish moist and very flavorful. When you open up the papillotte, you can smell all the wonderful aromas of the fish infused in spices.
Papillotte is the word that we use in French cuisine that describe a method of cooking and that means to wrap what you want to cook in a foil, either aluminum or parchment. There has been some discussions a little while ago that aluminum was bad to use in cooking and could cause some health problems, so many people are using parchment paper for papillotte instead.
The smooth cauliflower purée is a great accompaniment to the cod, it balances the spicyness of the dish. I added a few potatoes to the cauliflower to give it a smoother consistency et voilà, c’est prêt! You can enjoy and healthy dish, full of flavors and very low in calories.
Ingredients for 4
For the cod
- 4 cod fillet
- 2 carrots
- 2 zucchini
- about 10 cremini mushrooms
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp curry
- 4 tbs coconut milk
- 1 tbs olive oil
For the purée
- 1 large cauliflower head
- 4 medium potatoes
- 1 tps olive oil
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut cauliflower into florets. Steam cauliflower and potatoes together. When cooked, mash them, add all other ingredients. Keep warm.
Shred carrots and zucchini. Slice the mushrooms. In a pan, heat olive oil, add onion and brown them. Add garlic, stir for a few minutes. Add curry powder and stir well to get the fragrance out. Add mushrooms, cook for about 5-7 minutes, then add shredded vegetables. Cook for only 1 minute or they will become very mushy. Add salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Divide equally the curried vegetables and place in at the bottom of the parchment paper. Add cod fillet. Sprinkle with a little curry powder, 1 tbs of coconut milk, salt and pepper. Tight the parchment paper all around the fish so that no air would get inside. Repeat the same process for the other cod fillets.
Place cod in a dish and cook in a 375F pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes.
Open the parchment and serve on a plate with some cauliflower purée.
Light weight – Cauliflower flan with gorgonzola and thyme
May 27th
Poids plume – Flan de chou fleur gourmand au gorgonzola et thym
I don’t know what is going on with me lately, I just want to eat flan, sweet, savory anything that looks like a flan or tastes like a flan…and I am not even pregnant. I think it has to do with its consistency…anyway my life functions with waves as well as are my culinary tendencies. Flans don’t necessarily have to be sweet, they can be made with so many vegetables, such as asparagus, carrots, broccoli, leeks, etc… you just need the egg/milk and/or cream mixture. You could also substitute cream with silken tofu blended into a creamy texture.
For those who do not want to use cream, you can find a substitute cream made out of soy, it’s called Mimicreme, and is available now in California at the Rainbow. I was waiting for it to arrive in california, and here it is, la voilà qui est arrivée! In France we have many types of non dairy creams that are delicious, without the weird soy unpleasant taste at all, and the texture is as smooth as dairy cream.
These flans are a wonderful way to eat vegetables and for those who are just beginning to add more veggies into their diet and who don’t know how to prepare them.
Cauliflower has very little calories and is rich in fibers, magnesium, calcium and potassium. It’s one of the “kings” among light vegetables, so I would not worry about eating too much cauliflower. Vive le chou fleur!!
Ingredients for 4
- 1 cauliflower
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/8 cup cream
- 2 tbs gorgonzola
- 1 tsp thyme
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Steam the cauliflower cut in florets. You can also cut it in small pieces and boil it in water for about 20 minutes, or until cooked. Drain and mash with a potato masher.
In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, milk, cream, thyme, salt and pepper. When everything is well mixed, add crumbled gorgonzola.
Butter individual flan or souffle cups, and pour evenly the mixture.
Cook in a pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or until flan is cooked. You can use a knife to slide in the flan and if it comes out dry, that means the flan is cooked. Sprinkle with fresh thyme.
You can serve flan in their individual molds or unmold them in a dish. You can serve this with a salad or as a side dish with some white broiled fish.
