Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Bacon, and Herbed Croutons with Rosemary-sage Salt

Call this wheat on wheat. Comfort food after days in the yard and basement, still cleaning up after the recent hurricane. Go for it while the gluten-frees are away. Truthfully, the wheat-dominated ingredients are just vehicles: cauliflower, bacon and herbs are the predominate flavors. The pasta and whole wheat bread crumbs are background ingredients.

I still have abundant cauliflower from recent gleaning days at our CSA. So many of the plants were dislodged – gone sideways – during Superstorm Sandy. The cauliflowers were therefore never harvested despite being superb, and we found them abundant once we got into the rhythm of finding them. Sliced cauliflower florets roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt is a norm. Combining them with whole-wheat pasta is pretty normal too. Even the addition of chunks of thick bacon. What made this version special were the flavor and crunch of the seedy whole-wheat breadcrumbs flavored with a very special rosemary and sage rub. 

I’ve written about this rub before, in a series on preserving herbs, a task that I start in the summer and conclude around now as I clean out my pot garden. Although the recent mild winters here allow me to use my herb garden year-round, I always cut back the rosemary and sage, trying to do it before the weather becomes too cold. (Otherwise, the pruning will stimulate growth and the plant will freeze to death.)  

To preserve rosemary and sage, I use an excellent recipe from David Lebovitz, who learned it from a friend. (He called it Italian herb rub.) Rosemary and sage leaves are finely chopped and combined with garlic finely chopped with sea salt (my own twist on his technique). The mixture is dried on pans for a few days in a non-drafty room or in an unlit gas oven (another twist of mine since my house is sometimes humid). The heat from the pilot light creates a great environment for slow drying.  This is a great combination. I use it on pork and poultry, on roasted roots and nuts, and on breadcrumbs and croutons. 

Here I tore whole wheat bread into coarse chunks, sprinkled them with olive oil and the rosemary-sage rub, and baked them, turning occasionally, in a 400-degree oven along with the cauliflower.  The bread took under 5 minutes and the cauliflower closer to 10.  Tossed with pasta and cauliflower, the toasted bread (and the bacon of course) added a textural contrast and a burst of flavor that are most welcome on a late fall day.

Rosemary-Sage Salt adapted from David Lebovitz

1½ c sage leaves (removed from stems)

1 c rosemary leaves (removed from stems)

1 tbsp salt (I used gray sea salt, slightly coarse)

3 large cloves garlic

Finely chop the sage and rosemary (by hand or pulsed in a food processor). Chop the garlic with the salt, until fine but do not turn into a paste. Combine all ingredients and spread them out on baking sheets. Either air-dry them indoors, away from sunlight and drafts for 2-3 days, or in a gas oven (with only the heat of the pilot light) for a day or so, until the mixture is completely dry. Store in a dark place in an airtight container.

Makes about 1 cup.

Read Full Post »

Curried Cauliflower Soup with Raisins and Cashews

I’ve had this soup in mind for a month. Every time I start to make it, some other idea takes over, such as the delicious cauliflower soup with garam masala that I posted a couple of weeks ago. I finally used one of the last large heads of cauliflower from our CSA, which was as bad a space hog as the cabbage. While I was turning the cabbage into sauerkraut and the like over Thanksgiving, I could have pickled and canned cauliflower as I did last year and the year before.  However, I abashedly admit that I still have a couple of jars, and they should be eaten very soon.

So soup it would be. I added grated fresh ginger to simmering onions and curry powder (cleaned the spice drawer too, ha) to provide a little kick, and garnished the finished soup with plumped raisins and lightly toasted chopped cashews to provide a little tang and crunch. Otherwise, this is as basic as creating cauliflower puree with lots of stock.

Curried Cauliflower Soup with Raisins and Cashews

1 medium-large head of cauliflower

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1-2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 tsp high quality curry powder (or make your own)

Optional: pinch of cayenne (depending on the heat of your curry mix)

4 c chicken or light turkey stock, or vegetable broth, plus water as needed

Salt and cayenne pepper

2 tbsp raisins

2 tbsp roasted salted cashews

Separate the cauliflower into florets and chop them roughly. Peel the core and tough lower stalks and slice them thin.

Warm the vegetable oil over medium-low heat in a large saucepan. Slowly sauté the onion until it is translucent.  Add the ginger and stir until it becomes aromatic. Add the curry spices and stir to combine well. When the curry is aromatic, add the cauliflower and stir to coat it with the onion-curry-oil mixture.

Add stock or broth just to cover the cauliflower. Add a little water if needed. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the cauliflower is very tender, 30-40 minutes.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or use a food processor. Add more liquid if needed and adjust the seasonings.

Plump the raisins in hot water for 5 minutes and lightly toast the cashews in a dry pan over medium heat. Drain the raisins and chop the cashews. Strew them over the soup before serving.

Serves at least 6.

Read Full Post »

Cauliflower Gratin with Dill

Comfort food = gratin. Something baked with grated cheese. While we’ve been preparing cauliflower every which way because it happens to be seasonally abundant, we really craved scalloped potatoes during an early blast of blustery weather. This lighter version with cauliflower filled the bill.

This is a very simple dish to make. After lightly steaming cauliflower, I made a white sauce of butter, flour, warm low-fat milk, grated white cheddar cheese and a large handful of fresh dill, and poured it over the cauliflower arranged in a shallow pan. Baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so, it emerged puffy and golden, wonderfully aromatic and satisfying. The seasonings can be varied significantly. Use lovage or parsley instead of dill or use paprika or its smoked version pimenton, or on the spice side, try grated fresh nutmeg or ginger. I personally like to keep the seasonings light during cauliflower season since I like the vegetable to be present. The grocery market variety available at other times of year can be bland, so the seasonings matter more.  

Cauliflower Gratin with Dill

½ medium head of cauliflower, separated into florets

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 c warm milk (low-fat is fine)

½ c grated white cheddar cheese or another hard cheese of your choice

Salt to taste

Handful of chopped dill or other herbs, or paprika or grated fresh nutmeg or ginger

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Steam the cauliflower untl crisp tender and transfer it to a gratin dish (I use an enameled cast-iron Le Creuset pan) or glass pie plate.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir in the flour with a whisk, mixing until smooth. Let it cook a minute or so, taking care not to brown it, to diminish the rawness of the flour. Gradually add the warm milk, whisking well to keep lumps from forming. Let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes until thick, whisking from time to time to keep it smooth. Add the cheese and stir to melt it. Adjust for salt. Add the herbs or spices.

Pour the white sauce over the cauliflower and bake uncovered for about 25 minutes until brown and bubbly.

Serves 2-4 depending on what else you’re making.

Read Full Post »

Cauliflower and Carrot Soup with Garam Masala

Super-Storm-Sandy soup. A combination of melting vegetable broth from the freezer and seasonal vegetables saved from flooding or freezing fields.  Between our CSA and our own garden, crops are being harvested with today and tomorrow in mind. The same goes for the refrigerator and freezer section of my pantry.  Premature harvests.  Long-term storage cut short.  Given the devastation of places in New York and New Jersey closer to the shore than we, this is only a minor inconvenience. Turned to advantage, it gave me the opportunity to assess the usefulness of what I’ve been storing and why.  It’s resulted in soup after soup, at least.

While we’ve been harvesting beautiful Nantes yellow carrots from our little kitchen garden one by one, the whole row was yanked last week.  Then there were the two heads of cauliflower from our CSA. And the need for soup on an uncharacteristically balmy day as we cleaned out the garden and planted cover crops for the winter. I started out considering a curried cauliflower soup but the defrosted broth – corn broth with a hint of smoky ham hock – beckoned the sweetness and lingering spice of garam masala. Any broth or stock would work so long as it is light enough not to overwhelm the delicate cauliflower.

Note that you can use the core of the cauliflower, not just the florets, much like you should use broccoli stems. Discard the woody parts and slice the centers thin, adding them to the aromatics – onion and carrots – to tenderize them before adding the florets. As with other light pureed vegetable soups, I added a small potato for texture and creaminess.  While I wouldn’t freeze this because of the potato (which would transform in texture), the soup improved in flavor after a day or so.

Cauliflower and Carrot Soup with Garam Masala

½ medium-large head cauliflower

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp butter or vegetable oil or a combination

1 tsp garam masala

1 large carrot, chopped into ½-inch pieces, dicing some for garnish

1 medium potato, peeled and cubed

Salt to taste

4 c vegetable broth or chicken stock (I used corn broth cooked with ham hock)

Cilantro

Cut the florets from the cauliflower, reserving a few tiny ones for garnish. Remove the woody portions of the stem and core, and dice the remainder.

Lightly cook the onion in the oil or butter in a large saucepan until translucent. Add the garam masala and stir to combine well. Add the carrot, potato and diced cauliflower stems and cores, stir the mixture to coat the vegetables with oil and cook very slowly, taking care not to brown the vegetables, for about 4 minutes to soften them slightly. Add half the liquid, cover the pan, and simmer until the vegetables are nearly tender, about 15 minutes. Add the cauliflower florets and addition liquid just to cover the mixture and continue to simmer until the cauliflower is very soft, about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, lightly cook the reserved diced carrot and tiny cauliflower florets in a little salted water until tender.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in a food processor. Return to the pan and adjust the seasonings.  Serve hot.

Serves 4-6.

Read Full Post »

Giardiniera

Garden in a jar. A light and delicious appetizer salad is as picturesque as it is piquant.

For a cocktail party fundraiser in New York last weekend, I was planning to take a large antipasto platter centered on ravioletti (mini raviolis) with sundried tomatoes, tiny balls of mozzarella, and salami, and needed a vegetable counterpoint. While I was fishing the ravioletti from the bottom of the freezer at our posh local Italian deli, I spied giant jars of giardiniera, pickled peppers and mushrooms on top of the freezer cases. Aha. That would be it. 

Giardiniera is a combination of lightly pickled vegetables, usually containing cauliflower, peppers, celery and carrots, and spiked with mustard seeds and hot pepper. It goes together in a snap, cures within a day and keeps for weeks in the fridge. I couldn’t find my notes from the last time I made it but I recalled that the recipe came from Gourmet magazine, and luckily Deb at the Smitten Kitchen blog reproduced a similar recipe, which I used as my guide. Like Deb, I omitted the olives. I was considering omitting the jarred pepperoncini, but added them at the end since their hotness re-balanced the sweetness of the pickling liquid.  My organic veggies were from our CSA and very fresh, so my cooking time was considerably less than the original recipe. Pay attention at the stove!

Giardiniera adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet

Pickling liquid (see below)

1 large head cauliflower (at least 2 lbs before trimming, about 2 after)

4 medium carrots

4 stalks celery

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

About 8 oz jarred pepperoncini (3/4 of a 12 oz jar, selecting the smallest ones)

Pickling liquid:

2½ c white vinegar

3 c water

¾ c white sugar

5 tbsp Kosher or other coarse salt

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

½ tsp red pepper flakes (or crushed whole red peppers)

Clean a large (2 quart) jar.

Make and cool the pickling liquid. Bring the ingredients to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Set aside to cool for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the fresh vegetables. Cut the cauliflower into florets of about ¾-1 inch,  saving the large stems and core for another use. Peel the carrots and slice on the diagonal into ½-inch pieces. Trim the celery, pulling off any long strings and slice it on the diagonal to a similar size as the carrots. Remove the stems, seeds and ribs and cut the peppers into 1-inch squares.

Cook the vegetables. Bring a large pot of water (not salted) to a boil. Place a bowl of ice water in the sink.  Cook each vegetable separately until it is crisp tender (err on the side of crisp). Cauliflower and carrots take 3-4 minutes, celery and peppers about 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables quickly to a colander and dunk it in ice water for a few seconds to stop the cooking. Drain well and spread the vegetables on towels to remove as much water as possible.

Assemble the giardiniera. When the vegetables are dry and thoroughly cool, place them in layers in a large (2 quart) jar, adding in the pepperoncini as you go.  Pour the cooled pickling liquid over the vegetables to cover. Cap the jar and refrigerate.  The pickled vegetables will be ready in 24 hours and will keep for a week or two in the refrigerator.

Read Full Post »

Cauliflower Soup with Bacon and Hazelnuts

I’m a great fan of Nigel Slater so whenever he comes up with an unexpected combination, I know it will be a winner. Despite the poor growing season for most vegetables, cauliflower has been abundant and flavorful this year. Though the markets were full of the big blowsy ones, labeled “Jersey Fresh,” I tend to prefer the smaller ones from our CSA and the farmers’ markets. A local organic farm is still delivering beautiful specimens to our local all-organic produce store. They sit there among the turnips, on ice, pretty and perfect. Cauliflower can be tame, insipid even, so you need to obtain a small, flavorful head and cook it to bring out the cabbage-like essence.  It is, after all, a member of the Brassica family. 

For my previous cauliflower soup, I roasted the vegetables (cauliflower and leeks) to deepen the flavor. Here, I bring it in from the outside, from rendered bacon, onion and garlic and, finally, from toasted hazelnuts.  Slater, writing in The Guardian, claims this is a Polish recipe, but if he had said it was Austrian, I would have said “sure.” I pureed the hazelnuts with the soup instead of adding them afterward, since I wanted them to contribute to the texture. I omitted the bay leaf he called for during the braising stage since I didn’t have one on hand. That was probably a good thing. I tried a few herb combinations (dried rubbed sage, and then a dried rosemary-sage-garlic rub that I made from my garden) and found any would overwhelm the soup, which was great by itself as a showcase for cauliflower. I opted for crusty little croutons with the mixed herb rub; their crispy texture played well against the toasted nuts.

Cauliflower Soup with Bacon and Hazelnuts adapted from Nigel Slater

1 medium large or 2 small heads cauliflower

3 slices high quality smoked bacon (I used one referred to as Black Forest)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, sliced

4 c chicken stock, preferably homemade

2 tbsp peeled hazelnuts, (see below for peeling instructions)

Vegetable oil

Salt

Cut the cauliflower into florets, coarsely chopping the stems and tender parts of the core.

Cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces and render it in a large saucepan over medium heat until crispy. (You can remove the bacon now and add it back later as I did, or leave it in the pan.)

Add the onion and cook slowly, not letting it brown. Add the garlic and the chopped cauliflower stems and let them cook slowly for a few minutes. Add a little stock and braise the stems until nearly tender. Add the remaining stock and the cauliflower florets and simmer until the entire mixture is tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the hazelnuts. If they are not peeled, place them in pan in a 300-degree oven for about 5 minutes, remove them and rub them in a tea towel to loosen the skins. Place them in a small sauté pan over medium heat and toss them until light brown. Sprinkle with a little oil and salt, and set aside.  Chop them if you’re pureeing the soup using an immersion blender.

When the soup is cooked, reserve a few florets and puree the rest, along with the nuts and bacon, in a food processor. Serve hot.

Read Full Post »

Roasted Cauliflower and Leek Soup with Cheese Dipping Sticks

Cauliflower is among the few local crops that astonishingly have flourished despite the horribly wet growing season that rotted the majority of the fall harvest. Purple, green, orange and white heads of cauliflower are mounded in the farmers’ markets and even in the local grocery store, where they are specially called out as local.  I love the orange ones, which we ate earlier in the month simply steamed or roasted and combined with pasta. We were in the mood for soup, which was good, since I have an amazing amount of turkey stock — some light and some condensed – and little room in the freezer. I had made light stock from fresh necks and backs for Thanksgiving gravy, and thought that it would work fine for a cauliflower soup. (Otherwise I would have used chicken stock.) 

I wanted a soup with oomph so I first roasted the cauliflower and combined it with a sliced leek that I had slightly browned in a little butter. Stewed with stock, flavored with a couple of squeezes of dried thyme from a bundle I harvested at our CSA last summer, pureed and thinned with a few drops of milk, the cauliflower and leeks made a hearty and full-flavored pureed soup.

To accompany the soup, I made long croutons – dipping sticks – from sourdough bread crisped in the oven with grated hard cheese mixed with thyme. I used an American-sourced cheese called Sole Gran Queso Reserve featured at Whole Foods this week. The dipping sticks were fun and delicious and a great vehicle for eating the soup.

Roasted Cauliflower and Leek Soup

Half a medium head of cauliflower

Olive oil

Salt

1 leek, white and light green part only

2 tsp butter

3-4 c homemade chicken or light turkey stock

½ tsp dried thyme

Optional: ¼ c milk, half & half or light cream

Optional: a sprig of fresh thyme, leaves removed

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Separate the cauliflower into florets and slice each one vertically into several pieces (the point is to achieve flat surfaces). Slice the tender part of the core the same way. Sprinkle the cauliflower with a little olive oil and salt and roast for about 10 minutes or until brown on one side. Flip and roast until tender, another approximately 5 minutes. Reserve a couple of attractive pieces as garnish.

While the cauliflower is roasting, prepare the leeks.  Slice the leek vertically and wash, making sure to remove the sand that hides among the layers. Slice it crosswise and sauté it slowly in butter, letting a few of the edges brown.

When the cauliflower is done, add it to the leek and pour in some chicken or turkey stock. Add a little dried thyme and let the mixture simmer for about 15 minutes. Puree (use an immersion blender, food processor or food mill) and return to the pan. Thin with a little more stock or will milk or cream, if using. Adjust for salt. Garnish with reserved grilled cauliflower slices and a few leaves of fresh thyme. Serves 3-4.

Cheese Dipping Sticks (makes 4 pieces)

1 slice of bread, ½ thick, crusts removed and sliced the long way into ¾-inch wide strips

Butter

2 tbsp grated hard cheese

A pinch of dried thyme

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter both sides of the bread and place it on a baking sheet. Bake for about 5 minutes or until brown on one side. Flip them over, sprinkle cheese-herb mixture on the crisp side and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until the sticks are crispy and brown. Serve warm.

Read Full Post »

Pickled Cauliflower with Pork and Penne

When I pickled cauliflower in the fall, it was this dish that I had in mind, and I was not disappointed. It came from Eugenia Bone’s Well-Preserved, a great canning book that provides recipes for the preserved products. The cauliflower was slightly sweet, so I was dubious, but by changing proportions of the ingredients, and adding onion and hot red pepper flakes, the dish was a winner. I love the fact that pickled vegetables don’t always have to be considered antipasti.

I intended to make my own pasta for this, from locally processed whole wheat flour, or at the least, but I ended up with an organic whole wheat pasta. With local pork, wine, cheese, onion, garlic, thyme and parsley (from my garden), and homemade chicken stock, this was a quality meal for the Dark Days.

Pickled Cauliflower with Pork and Penne adapted from Eugenia Bone

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced onion

½ lb ground pork

¼ c dry white wine

1 tsp dried thyme leaves

Black pepper and red pepper flakes

¼ c homemade or good quality chicken stock (more if necessary)

¼- ½ lb whole wheat penne pasta (I used 1/4 lb for 2 servings)

1 pint pickled cauliflower, drained

¼ c grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp minced parsley

Warm the oil in a sauté pan and lightly cook the garlic and onion over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, until the onion becomes translucent and the garlic fragrant. Add the pork and stir frequently to break up the pieces, for about 5 minutes. Add the wine and seasonings and cook, uncovered, until the wine evaporates, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in the chicken stock and cover the pan, cooking for another 5-6 minutes, until the pork is crumbly and moist.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling water and drain.

Add the cooked pasta to the pork and stir to combine. Add the pickled cauliflower and a little more chicken stock if the mixture seems too dry. (It’s not a very saucy dish.) Adjust the seasonings if necessary. (I did not add salt since the cauliflower pickle contained a little salt and so did the cheese.)

Turn into a serving bowl and toss with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Read Full Post »

Pickled Cauliflower Two Ways

To capture the bountiful local harvest of cauliflower for the winter pantry, I put up a few jars generally following a recipe from Eugenia Bone’s Well-Preserved cookbook. For some, I followed her recipe relatively closely but for others, I added some grated fresh ginger and turmeric, which our local Whole Foods carries, presumably to cater to the large local Indian population. I’d never cooked with fresh turmeric before, so this was a learning experience. I plan on planting some in a pot to see what it produces.

Pickled Cauliflower adapted from Eugenia Bone’s Well-Preserved

1+ lb head of white cauliflower (yielding 4-5 c florets)

1 medium onion, thinly sliced (about 1 c)

1 c sugar

1 c distilled white vinegar

1 c white wine vinegar (or use only one type)

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Prepare pint jars for canning (or use larger jars and process for longer).

Trim the cauliflower and separate into small florets.

Combine the onion, sugar, vinegar and red pepper flakes in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cooking gently for five minutes. Remove the onions.

Loosely pack the cauliflower florets and onions into the prepared (warm) canning jars and pour on the liquid, leaving at least ½ inch of headspace.

Process pint jars in a water bath canner for 10 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Turn off heat, remove lid and let sit for ten minutes before removing to sit undisturbed until cool. Allow to cure for 4 weeks before using.

Variation: Pickled Cauliflower with Ginger and Turmeric

Add 1 tsp grated ginger and either 1 tsp freshly grated turmeric or scant 1/2 tsp turmeric powder to the sugar-vinegar mixture.

Read Full Post »

Cauliflower Baked with Preserved Lemon

Fresh lemons are not great in my part of the world so when I get good ones, I try to put up some of them by preserving them in salt, Moroccan-style. I find those tangy little pieces to be very versatile in cooking, imparting a depth of character to many dishes, even one as simple as this.

I was checking out Canal House’s latest (and, as always, beautiful) publication online and noticed a recipe for cauliflower baked with preserved lemon. I didn’t record the recipe but the idea was simple enough: separate the cauliflower into florets (or leave whole), sprinkle with olive oil and chopped preserved lemon, and bake at 350 degrees until browned and tender. I stirred the florets a couple of times to make sure they were browning since I skimped on the oil.  This was a delicious combination of fragrant subtle cauliflower sparked with tangy morsels of lemon.

Read Full Post »