Crazy Cauliflower Curry

On my trip to Wegmans today I saw (and bought) the BIGGEST head of cauliflower ever. I wanted to make one of my favorite Indian dishes, but I don't know the name of it to find a recipe.

So I visited greatcurryrecipes.net. And found a recipe to base mine on, but not follow because I don't have the same ingredients or plan to follow their directions.

You were supposed to start with 3 large onions. I don't have onions but I do have about three tablespoons chives from my garden... See how this starts? Already! 

This is what I did...

I sautéed the following in my pan, adding water as it grew pasty:

- 2 tablespoons canola oil

- about three tablespoons shredded red cabbage

- one small organic carrot peeled into ribbons

- about 1/4 cup zesty sprouts 

- tons of garlic powder

- tons of ginger

- about 3 tablespoons curry powder

- about one tablespoon cumin

- a pinch hot Indian chili powder

- a teaspoon paprika

- the pulp and last ounce or two of Goya coconut water

Until it looked like this:

Then I added a can of petit diced tomatoes and some parsley. Brought that to a boil and poured it into the crock pot on high.

I added about a head of cauliflower and one cup unsalted cashews I had ground in the food processor.

I added water to cover the cauliflower. 

Now it looks like this:

Periodically I stir it. The house smells great but I haven't tasted it yet.

Oh my goodness! It's fabulous!

Thanksgiving requests

My mother-in-law requested that I make either roasted cauliflower or my special mini vegetable pot pies for thanksgiving. I made both.

This year for the pot pies, I put about 16 ounces of fresh cauliflower, carrots and broccoli in the food processor.

I bought Pilsbury pie crust because I got it on sale at Target. I greased muffin tins with butter and cut the pie crusts into weird shapes to stuff into the muffin tin.

The filling started as a cheese sauce. Some butter melted in a saucepan, mixed with a teaspoon or so of flour and then slowly mix in, over medium-low heat, about a cup of milk. I used soy milk this year but coconut milk would have been awesome.

I think I added about a teaspoon of ground four color peppercorns. 

Mixed in Colby jack and extra sharp cheddar until I liked the consistency. Then I mixed in the vegetables.

Poured the mix into the muffin cups. Topped with generous amounts of shredded Parmesan and then pinched closed.

Bake at about 375 until golden brown.

What fell out of the freezer

I went into the freezer to find some vegetables and chicken for my dinner tomorrow and stuff started falling out. So I whipped up some processed mac and cheese and added some of the "falling out" stuff.

- one box market pantry mac and cheese

- cauliflower

- peas 

- fresh spinach

- spicy chicken bites

- extra butter

- some extra milk (today I used soy)

- some cheddar jack shredded cheese blend

- a few shakes Frank's Red Hot

Meaty hot lunch

It's another day expected to tap out at a max of 90 degrees. Another day of errands, doctor's appointment and finally work at 5 p.m.

I slipped back to Market after my shift last night for lettuce and noticed a ton of meats going out that night-- the ones that say sell by or freeze the next day.

Guess who bought a mix?

Me.

Steak. Pork chops. Chicken breast. And my lunch today-- Angus beef sirloin medallions wrapped on bacon. And my lettuce. $17.54.

The sirloin I'm making for lunch normally sells for $9.79.

I'm cooking the beef and some roasted cauliflower for a main meal with the family at noon. That beats the heat and allows me to have a nice meal before an evening shift.

The basic premise for roasting cauliflower:

- wash

- preheat oven to 450

- break or cut into hunks no bigger than a golf ball.

- spread on a cookie sheet

- brush with olive oil

- sprinkle with salt

- cook for 35 to 45 minutes turning every 15 until browned in a speckled fashion. You want crispy.

Crôque monsieur Américain

My daughter has been hungry for "French grilled cheese" as she calls crôque monsieur, but since I don't have cream, or fancy ham, or an extra $15 to buy good gruyere... I whipped up an Americanized version that satisfied about 90% as much as the original.

Now, if you need measurements, I'm sorry because I don't have a clue.

I started with two tablespoons butter in my small Le Creuset saucepan. I mixed in about two tablespoons flour and melded them together over medium high heat with a rubber spatula.

I splashed in soy milk and half and half, and then cheddar, provolone, Romano and Parmesan until smooth.i added a large pinch of nutmeg and some fresh ground black pepper.

I ended up with about 2 cups cheese sauce.

In a cake pan, i toasted 6 slices of bakery bread, placed 1/3 slice gouda on each, topped with two teaspoons tuna, and then topped each with two teaspoons sauce. I added a slice of cheddar to each. Another two teaspoons cheese sauce. Put lid on.

Then I sprinkled fresh cauliflower and garden peppers into the bottom of the pan. I covered each sandwich with sauce then doused the vegetables lightly.

Baked 10 minutes at 475, then broiled until bubbly.

Successful grilling?

Anyone who has followed this blog knows that when we grill, serious misadventures follow, to the point where we doubt our successful grilling endeavors because they feel *too easy.*

When your NOT trying to keep a fire lit in a windstorm or seeking shelter in the middle of heavy rain, it seems overly easy to light the grill, put food on the grill and voilà dinner... Too damn easy.

Today I took a head of cauliflower, brushed it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled it with sea salt and cut it into large chunks to layer in the grill basket.

I put those on the preheated grill for 15 minutes and they began to turn nicely brown. I flipped them and put some bratwursts beside them for about five minutes. I have them in another basket, so I flipped them and put them under the cauliflower.

In a few more minutes, we should have a meal.

Hurry Curry Cauliflower

Haven't tried this one yet either. Another recipe from Good Eats.

HURRY CURRY CAULIFLOWER

Ingredients
1   tablespoon canola oil1  teaspoon cumin seed
1   teaspoon coriander seed
2  teaspoons  curry powder
1  teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1  whole clove garlic, smashed
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1  cup  rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup  cider vinegar
3  tablespoons sugar
1  teaspoon pickling salt

Instructions
Heat the canola oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Crush the cumin seed with the coriander seed and add to the pan. Add the curry powder, ginger, and garlic to the pan. Cook these spices, stirring until the oil colors and the spices are fragrant. Add the cauliflower florets to the pan and toss to coat.
In a lidded plastic container, combine the water, rice wine vinegar, cider vinegar, sugar, and pickling salt.

Shake to combine.

Once the cauliflower is slightly tender, add it to a glass jar. Pour the pickling liquid over the cauliflower, filling to the top of the jar. Cool, chill, and store the pickles for 1 week to allow the flavors to develop thoroughly.

About the photo: It looks like Hurry Curry Cauliflower but it's actually Cauliflower with an adapted Savory Bread and Butter Pickle Brine that I added the curry cauliflower spices to.

We had lots of brine left so we used it. We packed the cauliflower in pint size jars, added the mystery brine, and processed in a hot water bath for 15-20 minutes.

A weird little dinner

I asked my mother-in-law for one of her sweet potato casseroles. She usually makes it with raisins, walnuts and roasted marshmallow.

Unfortunately for me, nuts were out of the question. So I asked for one without. I thought I could handle the marshmallows and raisins but I could only make it through two of each. I ended up picking the others out.

But I still enjoyed it.

To accompany this, my husband chopped and cooked an aging head of cauliflower. He whipped up a cheese sauce, which he lamented came out runny but I think it fabulously came out like soup! He chopped a chik*n patty for protein and everyone in our house loved it! It had a fantastic, smooth flavor.

(of course, I merely had tiny pieces of cauliflower and lots of cheese sauce. It was yummy to eat something NOT chicken soup.)

Pork and rice leftovers

Today I took the leftovers of that 2 lb pork loin basted in apple "jus" and chopped it into bite sized pieces. I added it, all the leftover "jus," about two cups peas and two cups cauliflower to the Le Creuset skillet and simmered it over very low heat while some rice cooked in the steamer.

Served over rice and was super yummy.

Tonight we're having spaghetti and sausage. I'm cooking the sausage now and will divvy it into smaller portions to freeze for other meals in addition to tonight.

Also, last night we went to the warehouse club where we primarily stocked up on paper products and soap. And my husband's $36 pack of refill razor blades that last him about a year. We also got pet supplies. And some groceries: tuna, cheddar, 12 pack of hunt's sauce, six pounds of rotini. A 3-pack of silk Vanilla soy milk. Apple juice.

Sausage and rice with veggies

Tonight I prepared Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples (3 sausages) in my Le Creuset skillet with about 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and 2 cloves fresh garlic. When the sausage finished cooking, I sliced it and added the broccoli from one broccoli crown and a couple cups of fresh chopped cauliflower. I let that sizzle for a while until the vegetable soaked up all the "juice" and then I added another tablespoon olive oil, the last of my French butter (probably three tablespoons) and about three tablespoons champagne vinegar.

And then I added the long grain white rice I had cooked in the steamer with garlic powder and four color black peppercorn. (It was 1.5 cups unprepared rice) And stirred it all up and let it cook until the rice turned a soft yellow (and wanted to stick to the bottom as I stirred. I stirred constantly.)

I was nervous about it because of the champagne vinegar, but it was good. Really good. I had two plates and I'd really like another...

Kid lunch

Since we had a tea party, I didn't expect someone to be hungry.

So I served her a hard-boiled egg, raw carrots, leftover raw cauliflower (we added it to mac and cheese for dinner last night), organic Ceasar dressing from Wegmans and a chunk of sharp cheddar.

She's happy.

Pasta Primavera with crôque monsieur sauce

We're taking the leftover cheese sauce from crôque monsieur last night and making a pasta primavera. Adding some california blend, peas, and extra cauliflower to the noodles and in terms of pasta I'm using about 8 ounces white wheels with about 6 ounces vegetable rotini.

I added parsley and extra grated swiss to the sauce.
But, while the noodles cooked I compared the labels. I thought I bought Giant wheat pasta, but it looks like I bought multigrain. Which means I have three types of noodles in my cupboard right now: 'regular' white, vegetable and multigrain.

The white pasta has a smaller serving size (1/2 cup versus 3/4 cup for the other 2) but it's the lowest in fat and the only one with no sodium or egg.
Per serving:
Carbs: white 14% RDA (42g), multigrain 13% (38g), vegetable 13% (40g)
Calories: white has 210, whereas the other 2 have 190
Protein: white 7g, multigrain 9, vegetable 7
Fiber: white 8% (2g), multigrain and vegetable 16% (4g)
while they all have the same enriched vitamins, the vegetable also has 25% vitamin A, 4% vitamin C and extra of the standard enriched vitamins. Does that make it worth the extra cost?

Four Cheese Vegetarian Crôque Monsieur

Ah... finally!

Adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris:
Angel's four cheese vegetarian crôque monsieur

• 12 slices homemade wheat bread (each about half the size of store-bought bread)
• six slices Morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons unbleached white flour
• 2 cups hot heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground four color organic pepper
• pinch nutmeg
• 2 cups shredded swiss cheese (I got French Entremont)
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
• less than 1/4 parmesan (I ran out)
• 1 cup shredded smoked gouda

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Melt the butter over low heat and add the flour all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon for two minutes (is it supposed to end up as a lump? Because mine does.) Slowly stir in all the milk (oops I did mine fast) and whisk until sauce thickens (mine did fine, even if I neglected the subtle nature of the instructions).

Remove from heat and add salt, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan, 1/4 cup cheddar, and 1/4 cup swiss.
Stir until melted and set aside.

Toast the bread about five minutes on each side in the oven.

On the bottom halves of the sandwiches, pile 1 tablespoon sauce, about a tablespoon shredded cheese (at this point I mix all remaining the cheeses together), one slice vegetarian bacon (folded), one more tablespoon cheese sauce, then the lid, one more tablespoon sauce, then a little pile of cheese.

Return sandwiches to the oven until bubbly and browned.

Prepare some frozen peas and cauliflower and top with leftover cheese sauce. The remaining cheese sauce can be refrigerated and used for a killer alfredo sauce, or more sandwiches, or a really decadent fondue.

Another crustless quiche

I had some milk product, some eggs and some cauliflower that needed using up, so I made a crustless quiche.

So:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh half and half
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 3 strips morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 1.5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• about 2 ounces cheddar cheese

Beat the eggs and the milk products with the parsley. Preheat oven to 425. Heavily butter a deep-dish pie pan. In a skillet, combine oil, bacon, cauliflower and herbs/spices and cook briefly until they smell good.

Add to bottom of pie dish. Add cheddar, in crumbles. Pour egg mixture over top. Place in oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and cook at least another half an hour until eggs set and toothpick in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

Simplicity tonight: Trader Joe's Chicken-Apple Sausage

I found some mozzerella sticks in the back of the freezer, which I served tonight with popcorn cauliflower and apple-chicken sausage from Trader Joes. The original recipe for popcorn cauliflower is a favorite in this house.

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/04/popcorn-cauliflower.html

The great tofu gratin experiment

Deep breath...

This one could suck.

I started with a favorite recipe:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/steak-au-poivre-with-cauliflower.html
as developed by the chefs at Wegmans.

Today, I mixed the following:

• 8 ounces vanilla almond milk
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 block soft silken tofu
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed in the microwave with some water

When that got whirred together, I added

• 16 ounces cauliflower
• About 6 ounces shredded cheddar

I oiled my Le Creuset skillet with some walnut oil from my mom. And poured it inside. Back 40 minutes at 350 degrees, stirring at the midpoint.

Well, the jury is out.
I cooked it for about an hour and it's still got a layer of water to it, because the ingredients didn't solidify like animal products. By husband said it looked good and sunk a fork into it and called it 'bland.' So I tried it. It wasn't bland, it was rich with nutmeg and a hint of nut flavor. He says we just need to put it over rice to absorb that watery layer.

I say he can do it and take it for lunch.

I'm so disappointed.

Modified Corn Lemongrass Sausage soup

I have started a new entry because I have desecrated the vegan nature of the soup with which I started.

I started with Imagine Foods vegan Corn Lemongrass soup...

In the crock pot:

• 1 container Imagine foods vegan corn lemongrass soup
• about 1.5 cups cauliflower
• about 3/4 cup peas
• 2 spinach asiago sausages, cut into chunks.

Well, if I can trust the package of the sausages, it's still a gluten free meal.

This turned out well. My husband really liked it.

Cauliflower Spinach Gratin

Ah, Wegmans... This week we're making Wegman's Cauliflower Spinach Gratin again. Once again, I deviated from the recipe (I don't use their Alfredo sauce but make my own sauce with basil, heavy cream, organic ranch dip mix, and butter).

Fresh cauliflower, about 8 ounces of frozen chopped spinach...

I added about 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg to the top of the gratin and added some romano cheese and garlic powder to the breadcrumbs.

And of course, today I baked it in my Le Creuset skillet.

The original post for the gratin is here:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/steak-au-poivre-with-cauliflower.html

or click on Wegmans or cauliflower.

Steak sandwiches

So I sliced the leftover steak au poivre into slivers and layed it into my skillet. I cooked it on low to warm it and get the pink out, and sprinkled it with garlic pepper. I added the leftover brandy cream sauce and cooked the meat slowly in the sauce with the last of the frozen parsley from my garden (about 2 tablespoons 'fresh' parsley).

I thawed the last (and very nice looking) loaf of homemade bread. Added a nice helping of leftover gratin, the spinach-cauliflower gratin I adapted from a Wegmans recipe.

Heated the gratin.

Added some slices of meat to each little piece of bread with some 'gravy.'

Fantastic. (Better than the first time around.)

My husband agreed.

Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin

For dinner tonight, I wanted to make another meal in my Le Creuset skillet. I opted for steak au poivre, but I'll tell you, the cut of steak I picked (a huge sirloin of 2 pounds I bought for $10) had way too much fat for my liking and I ended up cooking it medium-rare when I really don't like my meat with 'red.'

The menu:
Appetizer: dates
The meal: Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin, with bread leftover from last night's Italian dinner with family
The wine: a French Cabernet Sauvignon, selected by a French friend

First, for an appetizer, I sliced some whole dates to get the pits out and arranged two dates on each bread plate like a flower.

Steak au poivre (Steak with pepper)
from the Internet (I no longer have the source)

• 4 (3/4 to 1 inch thick) boneless top-loin (strip) steaks 8-10 ounces each
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (I use iodized sea salt)
• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns (I use organic four color peppercorns)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 1/3 cup finely cut shallots (I substitute fresh chives and tonight I omitted them completely, but I thought it was detrimental to the gravy.)
• 1/2 stick butter, cut into four pieces of one tablespoon each
• 1/2 cup cognac or other brandy
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Pat steaks dry and season both sides with salt. Gently crush peppercorns using the bottom of a heavy skillet and press pepper evenly into both sides of meat.

Heat a 12-inch cast iron skillet over moderately high heat until hot (about three minutes). Add oil. Swirl evenly. Sauté steaks in two batches, turning over once. About six minutes for medium-rare.

Transfer steaks to heatproof platter. Place in oven to keep warm.

Drain fat from skillet. Add shallots and half the butter to the skillet and cook the shallots over moderately high heat, scraping, until shallots are well-browned all over.

Add cognac. (It may ignite!) Boil, stirring, until liquid is reduced to a glaze, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cream and any meat juices from the platter. Boil, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half. Add remaining butter and cook over low heat until incorporated. Serve sauce with steaks.

The gratin is an adaption from a recipe that appeared in Wegmans magazine.

Cauliflower and Spinach gratin:

• 1 head cauliflower, stemmed and cut into nice serving pieces
• 10 ounces spinach (I used 1 package frozen chopped spinach, heated and drained)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
  
• Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzerella
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Combine the cauliflower, the spinach, the milk, the cream, the seasonings, and the mozzerella and half the breadcrumbs. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Add mixture to pan. Cook for 20 minutes at 350. Stir. Cook another 20 minutes. Combine remaining bread crumbs with olive oil. Sprinkle on gratin and return to oven for a final 15 minutes.