Ah, Kaki, that oft divisive ingredient: fish. Maybe not as much as tofu, but many people have strong feelings about which fish they like or don’t like. I am strongly in the pro-seafood-of-all-types camp.* Here’s how I’ve been eating it … Continue reading
Kaki! You know, I make new dishes all the time, constantly testing out different techniques and flavors and ingredients. Buuuut there are also those handful of dishes that I make over and over again. Here are the recipes on our … Continue reading
Kaki,
Cauliflower. My word, it is SO good. And this past week I proved it to myself all over again.
Exhibit A: Cauliflower and Green Onion Stir-Fry
I haven’t made too many stir-fries recently, and that is about to change. I LOVED this, though I naturally made some changes from the linked recipe. I didn’t have rice wine, so used white wine. Didn’t have a wok, so just used a big saute pan. Doubled the ginger. Frankly, I think this is a great base recipe, to which you could substitute many different roasted vegetables in place of the cauliflower. The sauce with the green onions and caramelized onions would be so good with pretty much anything. (Oh, and, um, maybe I eat like a crazy person, but I got 3 servings out of this, not 4.)
Exhibit B: Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry
Okay, so this did take a while to make. Should have guessed that when it was adapted from a slow-cooker recipe for a Dutch oven. And I had put off making it forever because wilted spinach just isn’t my thing. So instead of fresh spinach, I just added some frozen chopped spinach at the end of cooking time. SO, so good.
Exhibit C: Crispy Cauliflower Leaves
So, I prepped the two cauliflower heads for these recipes at the same time, and for one reason: that meant I had double the cauliflower leaves leftover. Kaki, if you’ve never roasted cauliflower leaves, now is the time. It’s just a toss-in-oil, salt-and-pepper method; I roasted them while roasting the florets for the stir-fry (so, also at 450*F, and for 30 minutes).
Let’s make up some cauliflower goodness the next time we’re together, okay?
Until then!
-Caitlin
Kaki, my, it’s been a bit “meh” around here. I’ve spent the past month going from one mediocre dish to the next. With some I think, “Caitlin, you tried to make that too healthy.” With some I think, “Caitlin, you … Continue reading
Kaki! I’ve been whipping up a storm of curry these days. We made Peter Berley’s Rhubarb and Lentil Curry the other night at Cooper’s. It was really good, though I had trouble guessing the amount of water to add, so it … Continue reading
Dear Kaki,
This is just a post to say
I have eaten
the carrots
that were in
my fridge
and which
you would probably
have
in a salad
Forgive me
they were delicious
so spicy
and so warm
Curried Carrot Soup
adapted from Cook Without A Book: Meatless Meals* by Pam Anderson
Serves… quite a few? Shoot, I don’t remember how many servings I got. 6? 8? 6-8?
Ingredients
Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. In an extra-large mixing bowl combine the carrots, 1 tablespoon olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Toss the carrots until evenly coated. Pour the carrots out onto the lined baking sheet and set in a cold oven on the lowest rack.
Heat the oven to 425*F and roast the carrots for 30-40 minutes. Stir them occasionally to make sure they cook evenly. (But don’t stir too much; you want the bottoms to really caramelize on the hot baking sheet.) Remove from the oven and set aside.
In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until very fragrant, another minute or two. Add the curry powder and stir for a minute until very fragrant.
Add the carrots to the pot and stir to coat in the onion/garlic/curry mixture. Add the white wine and simmer for a minute. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling turn heat down to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 5-10 minutes. The carrots should be easily pierced with a fork.
Using your immersion blender, puree the soup until very smooth. Add the evaporated milk and stir until fully incorporated. Thin with water if soup is too thick. Serve with cheese toast or the leftover croissants from the office breakfast tray.
Shown is a half serving. Other half was already eaten!
Yes, I ate this sitting on the floor. We’re casual around here.
Here’s to a great week, my dear,
Caitlin
*The schtick of this book is that you mostly use formulas in the kitchen, not strict recipes. So, for example, in this recipe Pam suggests you use two pounds of any root vegetable or hard squash (or even cauliflower!), and two tablespoons of any seasoning that you think would go with the vegetable. I think I’ll try butternut squash and maybe cinnamon and some cayenne next.
**Preferably one you’ve used before, so you can tell if it’ll be spicy enough on its own. The carrots roast up rather sweet, but the medium heat (in my case, ha) of the curry powder plays against that sweetness nicely. Add cayenne or a few dashes of our favorite hot sauce at the end if it’s not spicy enough for ya.
becausebutter 