Athomewith Mandy

What to do with a cauliflower...

After years of being given wet, mushy cauliflower to eat growing up, my answer to the question was to leave it on the shelf.

I was never tempted by cauliflower 'steak', preferring the real thing, preferably rare, neither was I tempted by cauliflower 'rice'...all those bits 😬 I was once tempted by the fabulous looking Romanesco cauliflower, but only once. It tasted disappointingly of cauliflower 🙄

I recently came across a couple of recipes that have completely changed my mind and that of my husband, who doesn't have a fondness for it either.

First up is Caramelised Cauliflower with Spring Onions and Parmesan.

Ignore the poor photograph. I'd had a couple or so glasses of delicious Crémant de Bordeaux. The light in my kitchen isn't great at 8pm (particularly after a few glasses of sparkly), and hubby was impatiently hungry.

The recipe is by Jay Rayner from his fabulous book Night's Out in the Kitchen, which I think is even better than his first.

Lots of butter and olive oil to slowly sautee the cauliflower, spring onions, white wine vinegar, seasoning, and a generous helping of parmesan. I also added the chopped leaves of the cauliflower.

It was gorgeous! Despite all the butter and parmesan, it was wonderfully light and a great accompaniment to our roast chicken.

It's also a recipe you can play about with ... anchovies, perhaps, lemon zest, some chilli flakes...

See pic 2 for some more cauliflower inspiration...

#nightsoutinthekitchen

Another thing to do with a cauliflower...

Cauliflower Soufflé Bake by Ottolenghi from his book Simple Too.

Quite a few ingredients and steps go into making this dish, with quite a bit of washing up too, but it's not arduous and it is absolutely worth the effort.

Among the list of ingredients are cherry tomatoes, eggs, basil, cottage cheese, and cheddar.

It's a rich dish but not at all heavy. We had it with some sausages from the butchers, which was perfect for a wet and windy night here in Cumbria

#simpletoo