Cauliflower, How I Love Thee!

Recently I noticed that there are a whole lotta cauliflower recipes on this blog. Why? Maybe because it's a versatile and delicious vegetable that can be used as a side dish or an entree, even as a substitute for rice or a pizza crust, but most likely because I am about 80% Eastern European and cabbage and cabbage-adjacent veggies are the food of my people. 

My childhood was fairly cruciferous. (Cruciferous refers to the cross-shaped flowers of many members of the cabbage family. Also, I was raised Roman Catholic, so....) Boil-in-bag broccoli in cheese sauce was always a big hit upstairs in our apartment. Downstairs, Grandma cooked cabbage in any number of ways, with and without pork products and other vegetables. But cauliflower she made one way: steamed. She'd put the whole head in one of her enamelware pots, add an inch or so of water, cover it, and turn on the heat. After the water had mostly boiled away, Grandma would stick a knife into the head to see if it was tender. If so, it was offloaded into a bowl, topped with a tremendous knob of butter, and sprinkled with copious salt and pepper. She and Mom and I would go at it with forks until it was gone while my younger brother ate a boiled hot dog or whatever other food he deigned to eat at the time. (Unlike me, he was a picky eater.)

Many years later I realized that cauliflower was plenty tasty on its own, but it is even better when roasted, spiced, or sauced. Its relative neutrality lends itself to a wide variety of flavor profiles, and it can be eaten raw, lightly cooked, and even cooked to death without stinking up the house (take that, broccoli!) Additionally, cauliflower is loaded with Vitamin C, antioxidants, and fiber, with only 145 calories for an entire 6" head. Cauliflower diet, anyone?

Links to a baker's dozen cauliflower recipes can be found below, though there are probably more than that around here. Besides cauliflower, what is the other theme running through them? Take a guess and leave a comment.

Blackened Cauliflower Steaks

Cauliflower can be cut through the stem into "steaks," which are lovely roasted until just tender with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. Top them with sauce, or a fried egg, or both, as in this recipe for Blackened Cauliflower Steaks.

Cauliflower Breadsticks

Cauliflower is low in calories, but not after it's used to create a pizza crust! (Cheese is the magic that glues it together.) Cauliflower crusts don't really cut it for me; I prefer to make Cauliflower "Breadsticks."

Cauliflower Caponata

Caponata is a sweet-and-sour Sicilian condiment usually made with eggplant and other veg. I don't see why cauliflower shouldn't get the same treatment. Cauliflower Caponata

My grandmother used to make vegetable fritters or pancakes all the time, mostly corn or potato, but occasionally with something really weird like canned asparagus. A shame she never worked cauliflower into her repertoire. Here are two totally different takes on the concept: 

Cauliflower Corn Fritters 

Cauliflower Fritters

Cauliflower Soup Reading this post I got the impression that I wasn't too pleased with this recipe, but dammit, I was going to make it anyway. It does seem a little weird, but it's a Rocco DiSpirito thing.

Cauliflower Tikka Masala

I believe pretty much anything would taste good smothered in a creamy spiced yogurt sauce. Skip the chicken and try Cauliflower Tikka Masala on your next Meatless Monday.

Kung Pao Cauliflower

Our favorite sweet and spicy Chinese chicken dish works well with cauliflower, too. Kung Pao Cauliflower

Mediterranean Cauliflower

Mediterranean food, with its various sauces and condiments and hummuses (hummi?), is fun to play with. Mediterranean Cauliflower gave me the chance to make some sauces, and also use a jarred product that I had just received for review. 

Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks

There are nearly infinite ways to season a cauliflower and make it delicious. I made these Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks with a jar of Moroccan grill seasoning I received as a Fancy Food Show sample. Of course I also made various sauces and salads to go with.

Purple Cauliflower Tacos

I probably could have just steamed and seasoned the cauli in these Purple Cauliflower Tacos, but I decided to make things a bit more interesting by turning it into fritters with feta cheese. Tortillas just happened to be a convenient way to get the various sloppy ingredients into my mouth easily.

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a great way to sneak vegetables into a meal. Or to sneak cauliflower into a meal served to my pasta-loving husband who's not all that crazy about cauliflower.

Street Cauliflower

Street Cauliflower is my take on a dish eaten at La Food Marketa, which is their take on street corn.

What's your favorite way to cook cauliflower?

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Nectarine Soup with Crab Salad

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on August 29, 2014.

It has long been a tradition to have steamed crabs for Mr Minx's birthday. We usually get two dozen, which comfortably feeds four adults, but for some reason, we had a ton left over this year. We did our part, putting away a dozen between the two us (along with hush puppies and corn on the cob), but there were still several crabs left by the time we were done. These were meaty suckers, so once we picked the remaining critters, we had a whole pound of meat (.984 lb, to be exact) left over.

I can probably eat a pound of crabmeat served with nothing but a fork, but that's no fun, and maybe more than a bit piggy. I didn't want to only make crabcakes, especially since I feel I've done that recently. I thought back to a soup I made with avocados and garnished with crab salad and decided that would hit the spot. Only we didn't have any avocados. But we did have a big bag of nectarines and white peaches that I had purchased at the farmers' market earlier in the week. Rather than going to my old stand-by soup, gazpacho, I decided to let the nectarines speak for themselves. Blended with a bit of Greek yogurt and seasoned with savory spices, it went nicely with the rich, sweet, blue crab (the best crab!).

As for the salad, I went with a ceviche-style preparation, with citrus juices, jalapeno, and tomato. Mr Minx and I agreed that it was a restaurant-quality dish, and not really all that difficult to prepare. And made entirely from things we already had on hand in the pantry and fridge.

Nectarine Soup with Crab Salad

For soup:
5 nectarines
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup chicken stock (you can use veg stock, or water)
1/4 cup mint leaves, loosely packed
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon harissa powder
Pinch cayenne
Large pinch salt
Agave syrup, to taste

For salad:
1 small shallot, minced
1 small tomato, seeded and diced, or 5-6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1/2 lb fresh blue crab meat

To make soup: Peel nectarines and cut into chunks, discarding pits. Place nectarine flesh into a blender or food processor with remaining ingredients except cayenne, salt, and agave syrup, and pulse to a puree. Season to taste with the last three ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make salad: Place vegetables in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together citrus juices, olive oil, and agave syrup. Pour over vegetables. Add crab meat and gently fold to coat with dressing. Refrigerate for at least an hour for flavors to meld and to tame the oniony-ness of the shallot.

To serve: Pour soup into bowls or cups. Top with a generous portion of crab salad.

Serves 4-6, with extra crab salad.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Nectarine Soup with Crab Salad

It has long been a tradition to have steamed crabs for Mr Minx's birthday. We usually get two dozen, which comfortably feeds four adults, but for some reason, we had a ton left over this year. We did our part, putting away a dozen between the two us (along with hush puppies and corn on the cob), but there were still several crabs left by the time we were done. These were meaty suckers, so once we picked the remaining critters, we had a whole pound of meat (.984 lb, to be exact) left over.

I can probably eat a pound of crabmeat served with nothing but a fork, but that's no fun, and maybe more than a bit piggy. I didn't want to only make crabcakes, especially since I feel I've done that recently. I thought back to a soup I made with avocados and garnished with crab salad and decided that would hit the spot. Only we didn't have any avocados. But we did have a big bag of nectarines and white peaches that I had purchased at the farmers' market earlier in the week. Rather than going to my old stand-by soup, gazpacho, I decided to let the nectarines speak for themselves. Blended with a bit of Greek yogurt and seasoned with savory spices, it went nicely with the rich, sweet, blue crab (the best crab!).

As for the salad, I went with a ceviche-style preparation, with citrus juices, jalapeno, and tomato. Mr Minx and I agreed that it was a restaurant-quality dish, and not really all that difficult to prepare. And made entirely from things we already had on hand in the pantry and fridge.

Nectarine Soup with Crab Salad

For soup:
5 nectarines
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup chicken stock (you can use veg stock, or water)
1/4 cup mint leaves, loosely packed
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon harissa powder
Pinch cayenne
Large pinch salt
Agave syrup, to taste

For salad:
1 small shallot, minced
1 small tomato, seeded and diced, or 5-6 cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1/2 lb fresh blue crab meat

To make soup: Peel nectarines and cut into chunks, discarding pits. Place nectarine flesh into a blender or food processor with remaining ingredients except cayenne, salt, and agave syrup, and pulse to a puree. Season to taste with the last three ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make salad: Place vegetables in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together citrus juices, olive oil, and agave syrup. Pour over vegetables. Add crab meat and gently fold to coat with dressing. Refrigerate for at least an hour for flavors to meld and to tame the oniony-ness of the shallot.

To serve: Pour soup into bowls or cups. Top with a generous portion of crab salad.

Serves 4-6, with extra crab salad.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

A Twist on B'stilla

My mother, after many childhood hours spent reading the adventures of Richard Halliburton, was quite the armchair traveler. Her favorite among his reminiscences of travels to exotic locales like India and Timbuktu were passages on visits to dusty, spice-filled Morocco, and she liked to pretend she was with him on the journey, perhaps riding by his side on a flying carpet.

Around the mid-70s, Mom started exhibiting symptoms of the RA that slowly crippled her, ending any dreams she had of traveling around the world. It was a trip to DC to see a new doctor about a new treatment that enabled her to visit a little piece of Morocco in the form of the restaurant called Marrakesh. There, with our hands, we ate delicious things like roasted chicken with lemon and olives, couscous, and b'stilla - a pie made with a filo-like dough, chicken, eggs, and almonds, and dusted with powdered sugar. It was one of the most intriguing and delicious things I had ever eaten up to that point and I attempted to recreate it at home with various unsuccessful results. Eventually, I forgot about it.

Then Mr Minx and I were invited to a press dinner at a new restaurant called Tangier's. (Yes, misplaced apostrophe and all.) I was excited to see b'stilla on their menu, but was rather disappointed to find that their version was like a Moroccan eggroll. It was just ok, maybe a bit too cinnamon-y and gritty with ground almonds. I briefly thought to re-attempt making a more authentic version, but really didn't want to deal with filo. The pastry is fragile, and dries out quickly. Ideally, filo should lounge under a damp tea towel while the cook works with it, but that takes up more counter space than I can afford to lose. The idea was soon discarded.

Then, last Fall, I was again reminded of b'stilla while eating the chicken-liver-and-walnut filled crespelle I had concocted. My first thought was that dish might be interesting with a dusting of powdered sugar, and then it hit me: why not make a stacked crepe thing with a b'stilla-like filling? Or easier still - individual crepes filled with shredded chicken and almonds. B'stilla also contains scrambled eggs, and crespelle are quite eggy, so could I use them to kill two birds with one stone?

The answer is "yes." The resulting dish wasn't as crisp and buttery as the real thing, but it definitely had all the right flavors.

While Crepe B'Stilla has several steps, none of them are particularly difficult. Don't be afraid of making crepes - they are really quite easy. The rather eggy batter makes them pretty resilient. You might mess up the first one, but the rest should come off well (at least that's my experience). I grease the pan before making the first crepe, but not for subsequent crepes. Your mileage may vary.

Crepe B'stilla

Chicken 
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch saffron threads
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
4 bone-in chicken thighs, skin and fat removed
1 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add onions. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until they turn translucent. Lower the heat, stir in spices, and cook for an additional 10 minutes until onions start to caramelize. Add chicken and stock and cover pan. Cook for about 45 minutes at a low simmer until chicken is very tender and most of the stock has evaporated. (However, the mixture should not be completely dry. If stock seems to be evaporating too quickly, add more.) Remove from heat. When cooled, remove chicken bones and tear meat into large shreds. Remove and discard cinnamon sticks. Store in a covered container in the fridge until ready to use.

Almonds
1 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Wipe out the sauté pan used for the chicken and melt butter over medium-high heat. When melted, add almonds. Cook nuts until they turn golden brown, stirring constantly to make sure they do not burn. Remove from heat and set them aside to cool. When completely cool, pulverize them in a food processor. In a bowl, mix nut powder with powdered sugar and set aside.

Crepes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put flour in a large mixing bowl and slowly drizzle in the milk, stirring constantly to avoid making lumps. Whisk in eggs one at a time until a thin batter is formed. Add salt and let stand 20 minutes. Spray non-stick 12" skillet or pancake griddle with cooking spray and heat over medium heat until hot (but not smoking). Add 3 or so tablespoons of batter to the pan, spreading it quickly with the back of a spoon or ladle to make a round about 8" in diameter. Cook until crepes are set (top will look dry), about 30 seconds. Remove from pan and place on plate. Stack subsequent crepes on top. Repeat until batter is gone. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Makes 8-10 crepes, depending on how many got messed up during the cooking process :)

To Assemble:

Place oven rack about 8-10" below broiler and preheat broiler.

Place about two tablespoons of shredded chicken on one quadrant of a crepe. Top with a generous sprinkle of almond sugar mixture. Fold crepe in half and then half again to form a triangle. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all crepes and chicken are used up. There should still be some almond/sugar mixture left.

Place pan in oven and heat for 15-20 minutes, until crepes start to crisp up, turning them halfway through to crisp on both sides. Remove from oven and sprinkle with some of the remaining almond/sugar mixture. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves 4

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Casablanca Halal

One of the newer food trucks to hit the UMMS area is Casablanca Halal, which might better be described as a food cart, since it's towed by a truck and sometimes finds itself on the sidewalk rather than at the curb. Like many halal carts, Casablanca Halal serves up chicken, beef, and lamb, pre-sliced and seasoned, alone or in combination, as a salad or a gyro-style sandwich. The portions are generous and the prices are inexpensive, making it a near-perfect lunch for the hungry and omnivorous.

 

My first sampling of Casablanca Halal's food came in the form of their popular chicken and lamb combination dish, which for $5.99 provided enough for two lunches. The gyro meat was tender, as were the chunks of chicken breast meat, both served over cumin-seasoned basmati rice. Lettuce, tomato, and onion were arrayed on top, with the option of adding "white sauce" (yogurt-based) or hot sauce as well.

Just as delicious but not quite as gut-busting is a gyro or chicken sandwich served on a freshly-griddled pita for the very reasonable price of $3.99. It's a bit messy, but worth the napkins.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs

I was perusing Serious Eats recently and came upon a photo so stunning, it stopped me in my tracks. Go ahead - go look. Gorgeous, isn't it? I *had* to make that dish; fortunately, it was one of those rare times when the stars were aligned just so: I had merguez in the freezer, plus fresh cilantro, and some ras el hanout left over from a recipe I made earlier in the year.

It was extremely easy, and the result was rather like a Moroccan version of huevos rancheros.

Moroccan Merguez Ragout with Poached Eggs (adapted from Food 52)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
10 oz merguez sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick
2 tablespoons ras el hanout (recipe here)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro, stems included
warm crusty bread, for serving

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until wilted and starting to brown. Add the merguez and sauté until almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Toss in the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of the Ras el Hanout, and smoked paprika. Cook the mixture for about 30 minutes, until flavors meld and sauce thickens. Add salt to taste.

Crack eggs into individual ramekins, then invert them over the mixture, 2 at a time. Cover and cook until the whites set, but the yolks are still soft. Divide the eggs and ragout among two warm bowls using a large spoon. Top with a sprinkling of cilantro and a sprinkle of additional Ras el Hanout.

Serve immediately with crusty bread.

If you don't have access to Merguez, you can make your own with some ground lamb. I don't see why you can't use ground turkey or beef in place of the lamb - it's the spice mixture that really makes the sausage. Homemade sausage won't have casings (unless you're really ambitious) so just sauté the meat along with the onions until it loses most of its pinkness, and then add the rest of the ingredients.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Tangier's

Mr Minx and I were invited, as press, to enjoy a complimentary dinner at the new Moroccan restaurant, Tangier's. As one can probably tell by the name, Tangier's serves North African cuisine; as one can tell by the unnecessary apostrophe, the restaurant is in Baltimore. Located in Canton on the corner of Boston Street and Montford Avenue just south of the Can Company, you can't miss the now nearly neon red building that once housed Red Fish. Inside, the restaurant is painted with warm earth tones and sports a beautiful bar area in the front.

We were led to a table in the dining room behind the bar area and told to choose anything we wanted from the relatively short menu of twenty items, all mezze, the Eastern Mediterranean version of tapas. After a bit of discussion and a consultation with our server, we decided on: lentil soup; two of the cold mezze, tchouktchouka and spicy fried eggplant; chicken shish kebab; chicken bastilla; and the "Sabbath meat delight."

While waiting for our food, we sipped a pink-colored French Martini, redolent of citrus, and a glass of pineapple-y red sangria.

All of the dishes on Tangier's menu come from Casablanca-born owner Alan Suissa's family and are prepared on premises by his mother Nadia and his aunt Liliane. I love the "home-cooking" aspect almost as much as I love the fact that we now have some Moroccan food in Baltimore! Twenty or more years ago I had eaten at Marrakech, in Washington, DC, and I still think about the delicious food, particularly the b'stilla, or chicken pie with almonds. Tangier's calls their version bastilla, and serves it as clever cigar-shaped packages of cinnamon- and almond-scented chicken rolled in the filo-like pastry, ouarka.

The tchouktchouka, a thick stew-like mixture of roasted tomatoes and peppers, was a simple and hearty preparation that would have benefited from being served with some crusty French bread. Instead, we got squishy, bland, American rolls. Likewise, the eggplant dish, reminiscent of a favorite Indian dish called bengan bartha, cried out for a better starch on which to slather it. Both of these vegetable dishes tied for my favorite of the evening. They were rich yet subtle, and had just the right amount of oiliness without being unctuous.

Both the lentil soup and the Sabbath meat delight reminded Mr Minx and I of our grandmothers' cooking. The lentil soup had a nice proportion of broth to legume (often lentil soup is too porridge-like for me) and had a very homey, warm, subtle spicing. The meat delight, a mound of sliced meatballs served with stewed peas and celery, brought back Grandma's beef soup. I don't even like cooked celery and found myself enjoying the long-forgotten flavor of my childhood. Considering that Mr Minx's family was German, and mine Polish, this whole food memory thing seems a little odd, since clearly the spices used in the cuisines are vastly different. Chalk it up to the home-cookin' vibe of these specific dishes.

The last savory dish we tried was the chicken shish kebab. Although flavorful, the chicken breast meat was dry and tough. Thigh meat would be the way to go in this dish.

We finished our meal with a plate of assorted Moroccan pastries. Yes, these pastries are impossibly tiny and cute, but they were very sweet and the perfect size to follow all of that food. The flower-shaped, sesame-dusted chebakia had an intense honey flavor. There were also balls of pink zucre coco, a sweetmeat not unlike a coconut fudge, and a tiny triangle similar to baklava, with a nicely caramelized warka crust and a hint of lemon flavor.

If you're interested in tasting a bit of North Africa, check out Tangier's. Definitely go for the tchouktchouka and the eggplant. I'm definitely interested in trying out the merguez, the tagines, and the flounder.

Tangier's
845 S. Montford Ave
Baltimore MD 21224
410-327-0029

Chicken with Fennel

During our weekly trip to the grocery store, I picked up a couple of bulbs of fennel because it looked nice. Come Sunday, I had no idea what to do with it, but I thought maybe I'd use it with chicken. There were some Chinese sausages in the freezer; that also sounded good with chicken, but then I couldn't reconcile the sausage with the fennel. It might have worked, who knows? But then Mr Minx mentioned "preserved lemon" which inspired me to make something Moroccan-ish.

Not pretty, but pretty tasty. I've never before eaten fennel that has been cooked for such a long time - it was succulent, slightly sweet, absolutely wonderful. The chicken was tender and the spice mixture added a nice sharp bite, as did the tang of the lemon.

I would imagine that this would work with regular lemon as well, just make sure to slice it very thinly and put it in the oven with the fennel and onion at the start of cooking time, so it will get tender.

Chicken with Fennel and Preserved Lemon

olive oil
2 fennel bulbs, sliced crosswise
1 small onion, halved and sliced
handful of sliced mushrooms (optional)

1 preserved lemon, halved, seeds removed, and sliced
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 T Ras el Hanout (recipe follows)
salt and pepper to taste

sliced almonds, toasted (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Drizzle the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan with olive oil. Add fennel and onion to pan, top with mushrooms and drizzle with more oil. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove pan from the oven and stir the vegetables. Top fennel with chicken pieces. Sprinkle half of the Ras el Hanout on one side of chicken, turn chicken and sprinkle the other side with the remainder of the spice mixture. Scatter preserved lemon on top. Turn oven temperature down to 350F and place the pan back in oven for approximately 45 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are quite tender and limp. There should be quite a bit of juice in the pan - make sure to spoon this over your starch of choice.

Serve with rice or cous cous. Serves 2-6.

Ras el Hanout

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
I teaspoon turmeic
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix all spices together well and store in a covered container.