Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Cauliflower Love

I was told that my post about boiling an egg was lame, and I admit that it wasn't very special. I loved how the picture of the egg came out and I formed the post around it, but I'm hoping at least one of you will do the same the next time you see fresh farm eggs. You see, I've been trying to cook more recently. More importantly, I've been trying to cook healthier and I'm finding that in cooking, simple is best. I still love super complicated, many layered, dozen-dirty-bowls-minimum type cake recipes and I am still not intimidated by baking recipes that span 3 or more pages, but I know that I'd never be able to keep it up if it wasn't quick and easy, and while there's a great sense of achievement when the huge monster is complete, I'm usually wiped for at least the day or two. So I've been trying to keep things simple in the hopes that I could do this, well, forever. I was perfectly happy with the soft boiled egg, a small salad, and the gussied up Greek yogurt for dinner last night. Yummy, quick, and easily repeatable, so why not keep this up?

Mark Twain was quoted when he said that a cauliflower is just a cabbage with a college education. This quote has nothing to do with anything else that I'm going to say, but it's an awesome quote, don't you think? Okay, I'm weird, just keep going...nothing to see here.

Cauliflower
I never gave cauliflower much thought and it was never really in my repertoire until I read and old post from the fabulous Orangette and I don't know...it just looked perfect. I picked one up at the grocery store and whipped it up for dinner tonight. The recipe couldn't have been simpler, and I only tweaked it a tiny bit. I definitely recommend you pick some up the next time you see one and give it a try. And don't be afraid of the colorful ones either. I already had mine in the fridge when I saw beautiful green and vivid purple ones at the French market today.

Cauliflower Closeup
Caramelized Cauliflower
Adapted from Orangette

1 head of cauliflower, white or green or purple
Olive oil
Fine sea salt
garlic powder (everything is better with garlic)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the head of cauliflower on a cutting board, and slice it top-down into ¼-inch slices, some of which will crumble. Toss cauliflower in a large bowl with plenty of olive oil and a bit of salt and a few good shakes of the garlic powder, spread it in a single layer on a heavy sheet pan (or two, if one looks crowded), and roast until golden brown and caramelized, turning bits and slices once or twice, about 25 minutes. Pile onto a plate and don't forget to share...or not :D

Oh, and don't forget, there's still the Giveaway going on, so go go go and enter. There are some wonderful desserts people are coming up with :)

3 comments:

fatfighter said...

YUM! The cauliflower looks awesome - thanks for sharing the recipe. ;)

katie said...

the cake was not a monster! it was a lovely slice of heaven that I'm so thankful the caterer saved a slice for me! though....correct in it was MUCH bigger than I thought it would be! but no monster! yea for veggies btw!

Anna said...

It was a beautiful and delicious, but still a monster. Monsters can be cute you know :D