Go floret: 17 delicious ways with cauliflower
In culinary phrases, cauliflower is usually described as a clean canvas, partly as a result of it doesn’t style of a lot by itself, but in addition as a result of it’s so very, very white. These days, cauliflower additionally is available in colored variations: yellow, orange, purple or the pale inexperienced of the fractal-patterned romanesco selection.
But in case you are shopping for the white stuff, it ought to be snow white, with no gray or brown patches or darkish flecks. The florets ought to be dense and agency, and mustn’t odor within the least cabbagey – past-it cauliflower will solely turn into extra sulphurous with cooking. Remember, a clean canvas is what you might be after.
A clean canvas, although, will also be daunting, and you can’t simply sit round looking at a cauliflower ready for inspiration to strike. Believe me, I’ve tried. To save time and anguish, listed here are 17 delicious technique to get you previous your chef’s block.
Perhaps the only resolution is to roast the cauliflower entire – take a slice off the underside so that it’ll sit flat on a tray, drizzle olive oil excessive and sprinkle it, as Allegra McEvedy does, with salt, cumin and sumac. Two cauliflowers – sufficient for six folks – will want as much as an hour within the oven earlier than a remaining drizzle of lemon, extra oil and a scattering of chopped parsley.
Tom Hunt’s merguez-spiced cauliflower with tahini and molasses additionally makes use of a complete head. In each instances, you’ll be able to carry the intact cauliflower to the desk and carve it like a turkey. No one goes to name that uninspired.
I typically make cauliflower cheese for my spouse, as a result of it’s simple and it makes her inordinately pleased. To me, the old school pale simplicity of the dish smacks of privation, however I do know English folks get nostalgic about that type of factor. This is the recipe I always turn to for the basic template and it is kind of foolproof. As a private contact, I normally add a big spoonful of dijon mustard to the sauce – that approach it feels much less like I’m cooking for a schoolroom filled with orphans.
As humble as it could appear, cauliflower cheese is the type of basic consolation meals that lends itself to variation: Nigel Slater’s model – orecchiette, cauliflower, cheese – is much more comforting, with the added reassurance of pasta. Yotam Ottolenghi presents a much less staid take: curried cauliflower cheese filo pie.
The cauliflower steak had its second – or maybe just a few successive moments – a few years again, when it suffered from ridicule and a barrage of rolling-eye emojis. This was extra to do with price than idea: a pub chain tried charging £14 for a cauliflower steak; M&S briefly provided cauliflower cross-sections for £2.50 when you may get a complete one for 70p. That type of pricing is sure to rub folks up the incorrect approach – a bit like charging extra for non-alcoholic gin than actual gin. But that doesn’t make cauliflower steak a nasty concept. Which different veg might impersonate steak so effectively?
Slice your cauliflower steaks as thickly as you think about you may like them – someplace between 1cm and 2cm. You will find yourself with quite a lot of offcuts, which could appear extravagant, however these can be utilized in different recipes. Now strive Thomasina Miers’ crispy cauliflower steaks with saffron escabeche: dipped in egg and polenta, fried till golden brown, then roasted for an extra quarter-hour. Ottolenghi’s grilled cauliflower steaks are served with tonnato sauce and walnut salsa. These harissa cauliflower steaks are merely baked as an accompaniment to corn and courgette fritters.
Any offcuts out of your cauliflower steaks are perfect for salads, wherein they may function roasted or uncooked or, within the case of Ottolenghi’s cauliflower, pomegranate and pistachio salad, each. He can be identified to grate uncooked cauliflower into one thing roughly the feel of bulgar wheat, to make a kind of tabbouleh. In reality, uncooked cauliflower can stand in for all types of grains and pulses, relying solely on the scale of the holes in your grater.
For Meera Sodha’s cauliflower, beetroot and asparagus salad, the three greens are roasted earlier than being tossed with parsley, mint, dill, edamame beans and almonds. Angela Hartnett’s pomegranate, orange and cauliflower salad makes use of boiled, cooled cauliflower. In Bryan Terry’s recipe for dirty cauliflower with tempeh and porcini salad, the cauliflower is pulsed to a grain-like measurement earlier than being briefly fried and served heat.
Omar Allibhoy’s cauliflower tapa is a type of Spanish stir-fry with garlic, vinegar and capers. This recipe makes of use of the entire cauliflower, leaves included, however you may also roast the leaves separately, with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
Curries are one other realm the place the agency texture of cauliflower works effectively. Felicity Cloake’s perfect aloo gobi might be the place to begin. Miers’ Sri Lankan-style cauliflower curry, a heady mixture of garlic, ginger, chilli, tamarind, cardamom, coconut milk, cashews, turmeric, fish sauce, fennel seeds and curry leaves, is about so far as you may get from a clean canvas. If your retailer cabinet is just not empty when you’re executed with this one, you could have clearly missed one thing out.
