The Cauliflower That Ate New Jersey

James Beard, the great chef and cookbook author, said that the very best cauliflower was grown in the sandy soil of eastern Long Island.  I always agreed with Mr. Beard on this, and made many a pilgrimage to the east end farm stands in the Fall to gather up the delicious, plentiful, and cheap cauliflower heads.

Showing and Telling and Foodie-ing, on this Friday.  Links at the end of the post.

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Reluctantly, I may have to bump Long Island off its Cauliflower Throne.

Guess what I got at a New Jersey family farm stand?

I bet you guessed.  

But this ain't no dainty supermarket veggie.

No sirree.

This is the biggest cauliflower I have ever seen in person.

I took a picture of my sister holding it up next to her head, for size ratio, but for some reason the shot didn't turn out.

Dang.

She also bought one.

They were $2.00 each.

Two bucks!

That's a boutique tissue box in the lower left, for size comparison.

Not as much fun as my sister's head, but beggars can't be choosers.

We watched the farmer bring this vegetable and several of its brethren right in from the field.
It was so freshly cut, the stem was still wet.

Don't you think this magnificent product of God's good earth

is just as beautiful as this other pale and interesting beauty:

No?  Really?  

What if Ms. Cauliflower is all decked out in her Sunday best?

So what am I going to do with this enormous vegetable?
Sadly, it will not last indefinitely as sculpture, so I'm going to cook it.
By halves.
Half into soup.
And the other half into roasted florets.

Roasted cauliflower makes believers out of the most stubborn veggie-phobes.

Recipes below.

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Random Friday nonsense:  our garden bunny, in the good old days,

roaming free amongst the weeds and frolicking, tra-la-la.

Oh dear.

It seems Mr. Bunny has done something naughty

and now he's serving a bit of time behind bars.

Whatever could he have done?

Confession:  Mr. Bunny is actually a law abiding citizen of the border, but the gentlemen who came last week to give the yard its Brazilian wax, yanking out weeds and trimming hedges, put Mr. B. in this basket, and Mr. Goose in another basket.

We have no idea why.

But it makes me laugh.

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Roasted Cauliflower Florets

I know there are people who think Cauliflower is only edible if it is put into the Witness Protection Program and completely disguised.  As in, hiding under a blanket of cheese sauce.

 Give them a serving of this.

Cauliflower, cut into individual florets -- I like to leave a bit of stem, it's delicious.

Olive or vegetable or sesame oil.  Amount depends on amount of veggie.

Salt and Pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the florets in a couple of TBS of oil, to lightly coat, then spread out on a rimmed cookie sheet.  One of those stone sheets works fabulously.

Into the oven ... and you can shove them around a few times while they roast, if you want; I don't but I'm doing them on stone so maybe that makes a difference.  Check them in 20 minutes to see if they've hit the done-ness you like.  I usually let them go 30; I like my Cauliflower florets dark and mysterious.

That's it!

Simple Cauliflower Soup

There are soup recipes for this veggie that are uber-rich; this is not one of those.

Cauliflower, cut into small chunks.  Like big dice.

Olive or vegetable oil.

One small onion, finely chopped, or more if you have loads of veggie.

A couple of cloves of garlic -- minced.

Chicken stock.  Low sodium lets you control the saltiness.

Finely grated Parmesan.

S&P.

Into a hot soup pot or big saucepan -- the oil, onion and garlic.  Cook 'em till they've gone limp with the heat and are demanding Margaritas by the pool.  This should take about 5 minutes.

 Add in the cauliflower, turn it around a few times in the oil, then add the stock and bring the whole thing to a boil.  Cook till cauliflower goes soft.  20 minutes or so.

Then, if you are lucky enough to have an immersion blender, now's the time to use it.

Plunge that puppy into the pot, and blend the whole batch of soup into a lovely creamy smooth delight.

No immersion blender?  Into a blender-blender in small batches then back into the pot.

Stir in the Parmesan, add S & P to taste, and you've got it.

No cream, no white sauce -- but pure veggie goodness.

Quantities of stock, onion, etc., will depend on how much cauliflower you are making into soup.

You can always add more stock.

**** Thrifting alert -- If you live in my neck of the woods ... the New Jersey Goodwill Stores are 50% off on Housewares, Frames and Pictures from today through Sunday.  Woot! -- Cass

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