This week’s Chef’s Night theme was to elevate a “comfort food” to a Rogue Estate level. Comfort food – warm, familiar, often simple, readily available and easily stretchable on tight budgets. It’s a huge list of qualifiers to pick a single dish from, but after some inspiration from Michael Ruhlman, I settled on Roasted Cauliflower as my offering for this particular table.

Roasted Cauliflower at it’s most basic: a head of cauliflower is broken down into florets, oiled, seasoned and baked until golden, then served immediately. A preparation so simple that anyone can do it and the flavor and aroma so earthily wonderful that even the stubbornest anti-vegetarian will make room on the plate for it. How to improve something so perfectly wonderful as is? What could possibly be done that justifies the “it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule?

I began my quest for gluttony by paging through various older cookbooks from home cooks and semi famous chefs alike and eventually did a bit of google searching on the subject as well. The evidence below is an amalgamation of influences collected from different eras, regions and even a few related only by virtue of containing cauliflower dishes which I tested the night before and prepared successfully and to much enjoyment on Chef’s Night itself.

The software:

• 1 head of cauliflower, whole
• 2 tbl lard (grapeseed oil works here if you’re worried.)
• 8-12 garden sage leaves
• 2 springs silver thyme
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 shallot, grated
• salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup butter (more for a larger head of cauliflower)
• nutmeg
• 1 oz parmesan cheese
• 1 oz asiago cheese
• 1 oz gruyere cheese
• 1 oz finely chopped fresh parsely
• 2 oz freshly squeeze lemon juice
• scant dash of tobasco sauce

Method:

Rinse the cauliflower, remove leaves and cut the stem back flush with the bottom of the head, leaving enough to hold everything together. If possible, brine a mild salt water solution for an hour or so prior to the next stage.

The Pre-cook: this is an interesting step I discovered during my initial research courtesy of Harold McGee: a low heat pre-cook helps some veg reinforces cell walls, which in turn keeps things in better shape during high temp cooking. Cauliflower happens to be one of those vegetables aided by this process, called Persistent Firmness. Since the intent is to keep the head whole for a stunning presentation, do this if you have the time. Put the cauliflower in a pot and fill til just covered with water. Heat until the internal temp of the cauliflower is 130-140F for 20 minutes, remove and drain.

While the precook is going, preheat the oven to 425F and put your fry pan on the fire to melt the lard or heat the oil and saute’ half of the total sage leaves, thyme and all of the garlic and shallot. Once the herbs are spent, remove and discard, reserving the hot flavored lube.

With the cauliflower drained and dried, lube the bottom of  your baking pan and set the cauliflower in it, then spoon or brush the entire head with the remaining lube. use it all. season with salt and pepper as desired and shove the whole thing into the oven uncovered for 45 minutes, give or take.

While the head is roasting, grate the cheeses and chop the parsley, then combine in a zip lock or a bowl along with black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg and set aside for finishing.

Check your Cauliflower around 30 minutes – it should be starting to brown by now. Fire up the fry pan again, this time with the butter, remaining herbs, a pinch of nutmeg, the lemon juice and the tobasco. Sautee the herbs as before, discarding when they’re spent. Continue to heat until the butter starts to brown, than remove to a bowl or cup for basting.

Pull the cauliflower from the oven and drench with the butter. Cover every surface of the thing that you can and get it back into the oven to continue roasting. Pull and re-baste after 10 minutes and then sprinkle an ounce of the cheese mixture over the head, then send it back into the hot box for the finish.

When it’s reach your preferred level of golden brown, pull, slice it thick and transfer to your serving dish, fan the slabs out just a bit and sprinkle more of the cheese mixture over it and serve immediately.

It’s considerably more effort than the traditional roasted veg, but that’s the kind of indulgent bastards we are around here and everyone present for this week’s Chef’s Night can tell you – it is well worth the investment. Cauliflower never had it as good as this.

Cook this up for you next meal and put it in your heads!

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A perfect storm of me being sick, hungry and well… being ME led to an impromptu yet so damn good I’d be ashamed to not write it down soup recipe to share with you today. This is essentially a “leftover stew” made from whatever I had lying around a couple hours ago when hunger struck, with no desire at all to leave the house for additional supplies.

The flavor is tremendous, enough so to cut right through the post-illness-malaise and wake up the senses with great aroma, flavors and a perfect amount of heat. Follow along and remember – it’s soup – taste, taste, taste and adjust to your liking as you go.

I have also included substitutions on the ingredient list, as I realize my staples and leftovers are probably rather exotic to the general public. Also worth reiterating:  it’s soup. Approximate values are fine – If you have an extra carrot and room in the pot, dice it up and throw it in.

The Software:

• 2 tbl olive oil (or vegetable oil)
• 6-8 ribs of celery, chopped thin
• 4 medium carrots, chopped thin
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 tbl minced garlic
• 12 oz chicken stock
• 6 oz coconut milk
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbl shrimp/chili paste*
• 1 tbl garlic/chili paste*
• 1 tbl bean/chili paste (Toban Jan)*
• 1 tbl Golden Boy fish sauce (or any available)
• 1 tbl Penzey’s sweet curry (any red or yellow curry powder or paste will do)
• 1 tbl Penzey’s sweet basil (or fresh if available)
• 2 tbl cilantro, flat parsley or both, more to taste and for garnish
• 2 packets instead dashi soup powder (a tbl or two of soy sauce works in a pinch.)
• 1/2 brick dried ramen noodle per serving
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• sea salt
• black pepper

* The various chili pastes all bring depth and warmth to the soup, so use however much of whatever combinations you have on hand and desire, the results will all be delicious.

Method:

In a large stock pot, heat the oil til shimmering, then add the onions, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt and pepper (aka the mirepoix) and simmer until just tender, adding the garlic about 5 minutes into the process, stir things around as needed to avoid browning. Bump up the heat and add the chicken stock, coconut milk, chili pastes, curry powder, dashi powder, ginger and fish sauce. Give it all a good stir and continue to heat til just at a tremble, then back off the heat to keep it there. No need to boil, as our veg it already cooked. Stir in the Basil, Cilantro, Parsley and lime juice. TASTE, TASTE, TASTE and make any adjustments you desire – even something as simple as a few drops of plain old tobasco will liven the party in interesting ways. Just before serving, crack the ramen into halves and add it to the pot, covering it with soup to soften to desired texture. I prefer my ramen a bit toothy, so my soup was ready to serve in 60 seconds.

Scoop a hunk of ramen into a bowl, and cover with a scoop of the veg and a scoop of broth and serve immediately. Garnish with a dash of coconut milk and a pinch of additional basil / cilantro / parsely as desired. I dropped a couple quail eggs into my bowl, but that’s just how I roll. ;)

It’s that simple. Go make you some!

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It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, but this evening’s meal has me inspired to share, due to both it’s lip smacking goodness and it’s brilliant ease of preparation. Added delight: It’s healthy.

Yes it’s true – I cooked something without bacon. A rare event, indeed. I’m sure you’re hungry, so let’s get started.

YUM!

The bill of goods:

• 1 qt. jar of your favorite organic red sauce. Mine was roasted garlic & onion.
• 1 handful of fresh baby asparagus. remove the bottom inch & halve.
• 1 handful of fresh basil leaves, washed and minced into 1/4″ ribbons
• 1 handful of broccoli, chopped into whatever size bits you desire
• 2 small zucchini, halved and chopped lengthwise, about the size of a typical french fry.
• 1 pack of udon or 8 oz of whatever other pasta you prefer
• fresh shredded mozzarella cheese to suit your cheese loving needs
• salt & pepper to your preference

For hardware – your favorite knife, a pot that all the above can fit into comfortably and a lid to cover it. This one is fast and easy.

Chop all your veg and pile it into the pot, pour the red sauce on top, give it all a stir to coat and simmer, lid on for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to let everything come up to a nice warm temperature. check your veg often, pull it off when the asparagus are just slightly tender, but still give a good crunch. mix in your noodles (udon is ready to go, but if you’re using some other pasta, prepare it separately while the veg is on.) and cover, let everything sit for a few minutes.

Once it’s all warm, scoop up a heaping helping into a bowl, top generously with the mozzarella and season to suit your desires. I let the cheese warm up and get a little melty myself, then it’s go time. One of the faster meals I’ve made this week and absolutely deeeee-lightful. Enjoy!

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An afternoon discussion on another forum led to a stop at the local specialty food store to visit their cheese counter. The mongers were more than happy to feed my addiction and I came away with 5 examples of rotted milk at it’s finest to indulge myself for the evening and stave off any cold shakes which could develop from lack of curd.

While all cheese is fair game, I have a strong tendency lately toward those made form goat’s milk. That in mind, I procured the following: Fontina Fontal, Brie Florette, Bucheron, Montchevre Blue and Pyrenees Onetik.

The Fontina is a cows milk cheese. Semi firm, mild and nutty in flavor. Nothing special. Probably won’t bother with it again. Nothing wrong with it, mind you, simply underwhelming.

Moving on to the Montchevre Blue – a very mild blue. I had expected, given it’s goat milk origins, to have something with a lot of bite. It’s simply not to be. Soft, buttery and as far as blue cheeses go, one of the mildest and least offensive I’ve tasted. This one too will probably receive a pass in future purchases.

A new flavor to my tablem te Pyrenees Onetik is a sheep’s milk based french cheese that is very buttery, has a wonderful texture and goes will with unsalted crackers do to having a bit higher of a saltiness to it. Sheep’s milk cheeses are still new territory for me, so I haven’t much to compare it to.

The Bucheron, pictured above, is another frech variety made from goat’s milk which I qualify as one of my absolute all time favorites. I’ve been enjoying this cheese for a while now and I never lose a taste for it. Bucheron is aged in log like rolls, with an inner core of tart white goat cheese, soft and a bit dryer than the little logs one finds in the regular grocery. The outer ring is a greyish color, very smooth and very salty, finished by a tender rind that is best left on and eaten, to privde a little extra texture.  Eaten in wedges, to combine all three zones of this treat is best. I am never disappointed with this cheese.

Last on tonight’s menu, is this week’s winning new discovery – the Brie Florette, a goat’s milk Brie. Very soft, creamy and absolutely the worst smelling thing in the bag. This cheese has a very characteristic aroma from which I expected a very tart and rotten flavor. I was pleasently surprised by a very smooth, buttery brie with just a bit of the token goat’s milk tartness around the edges. This brie is better than any other I’ve tasted and I’m absolutely placing it on my regular purchase list.

If you like distinct flavors and smooth textures, you’ll find great rewards with the Bucheron and the Brie Flourette and milder more traditional market cheese experiences from the Fontina, Pryenees and the Montchevre Blue.

Happy Fromaging and feel free to share your thoughts in the commets.

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Well… More like an after dinner snack. The garden is full of big green orbs and I couldn’t resist. I dressed up the kind Grandma makes with a little extra seasoning. Still fast and easy:

The Goods:

• 1 large green tomato
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• garlic powder to taste
• paprika to taste
• Corn meal to coat
• 1 dollop of bacon grease or other cooking lubricant

The Process:

Preheat your pan on medium heat and drop that bacon fat in there. Evenly coat the cooking surface. Drop a pile of corn meal onto a paper plate. Slice the tomato. I prefer a thin cut, around 1/8th of an inch. Sprinkle salt, pepper paprika and garlic to your liking. press te seasoned side of the tomato into the cornmeal to get a nice coating on there. repeat for the other side. Slide your coated tomato slices into the pan and brown each side. Plate, let them cool for a minute or two and enjoy.

Any simpler and it would be a salad.

Does your Grandma have a better FGT recipe? Let me know in the comments.

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