Indian Pickled Cauliflower

Part of my upcoming Powerpoint presentation on pickling at the local historical society focuses on international pickles. People are fairly familiar with things like Korean kimchi and French cornichon by now but I don't think our appreciation of pickles from other countries is nearly wide or deep enough.

Pickling has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years. The Indians love their pickles and you can count on them to devise recipes with the usual mixes of exotic spices. I found this one in The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, by Yamuna Devi. These pickles use a somewhat different process, being tossed with roasted cumin, salt and turmeric, then covered with mustard oil and left out in the sun for two weeks to cure.

I know--the sun is a bit low in the sky these days to be making sun pickles. But I was anxious to try them. I'm sure they'll work great as a condiment with our next curry dinner.

To make 1 quart:

1 1/2 quarts water

florets from 1 small head cauliflower (about 16 ounces)

3-inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dry-roasted cumin seeds

2 teaspoons pickling salt (or additive-free sea salt)

1 teaspoon turmeric

pinch cayenne

1 1/2 cups mustard oil (or substitute sesame oil)


Cut cauliflower florets into bite-size pieces. Bring water to a boil in a heavy pot. Add ginger and cauliflower and blanch for one minute. Drain, then spread ginger and cauliflower on a baking sheet covered with a tea towel. Set aside in a warm spot for one hour to dry.

Mix cumin, salt, turmeric and cayenne. In a large mixing bowl, toss spices with ginger and cauliflower. Pack cauliflower into a sterilized quart jar.

In a small saucepan over moderate heat, heat mustard oil to smoking point. (If using sesame oil, it only needs to heated.) Cook oil for 4 minutes then pour it over the cauliflower. Secure a non-metallic led on the jar (a paper towel with a rubber band with do.)

Set the jar in the sun for 14 days, bringing it indoors every night. Give the jar a shake at least every day. Refrigerate the pickles after opening.

Note: Mustard oil can be found in Indian groceries. To dry-roast cumin seeds, I simply toss them in a small, cast-iron skillet over moderate heat. Be careful not to burn them. They are done when they become very aromatic.

Penne with Leeks & Roasted Cauliflower

Don't look now, but I think I detect the flavors of fall creeping into the menu.

I like simple pasta dishes. The whole wheat varieties have arrived at a point where you no longer have to fear they'll have the flavor and texture of cardboard. They really are extremely good. I also like robust flavors and between the roasted cauliflower and the leeks, this dish has plenty.

While the pasta is cooking in a large pot of salted water, break a whole head of cauliflower into florets and toss them in a bowl with extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and any of your other favorite seasonings--I use a shake of garlic salt and onion powder. Spread the cauliflower on a baking sheet and roast it in a 450-degree oven, turning once until the cauliflower has browned here and there and is just barely done.

Meanwhile, in a big iron skillet or saute pan, gently cook a medium-sized leek, cleaned and cut into bite-size pieces, in a tablespoon or two of extra-virgin olive oil. Season with salt to bring out the juices. I prefer to cook this covered just to speed things along.

When the leek is soft, add the cauliflower, a handful of cherry tomatoes sliced in half and a generous splash of white vermouth or white wine. Cover and cook a couple of minutes longer until the cauliflower is soft. Drain the cooked pasta and stir it into the skillet. Dress with some more olive oil, if desired, and adjust the seasoning.

I made this as a side dish, but I could easily see it served all on its own with a crisp glass of white wine to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole

Warning: Heart-healthy cooks, avert your eyes.


This dish is full of cheddar cheese. But it is also full of cauliflower, and now that we are approaching the "dark days," when the freshest local produce may consist mainly of cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and other hearty brassicas, a good cauliflower recipe is not such a bad thing.

I've been holding onto this one for years because it is so easy and so full of decadent deliciousness on a cold night. It could be a meal in itself, served with a salad, or wonderful next to a roast chicken or ham.

We purchased a huge head of cauliflower from the farmers market down the street along with a hefty wedge of cheddar cheese from the Keswick Creamery in Newburg, PA. So this is one guilty pleasure that is completely local.

If you know how to make a Bechamel sauce, there is nothing at all tricky about this casserole. First, divide a large head of cauliflower into florets and cook them until just done in a large pot of salted water. Drain and set aside.

For the Bechamel sauce, melt 3 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan over moderate heat, then stir in 3 tablespoons flour. Cook 3 or 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture becomes frothy. The object is to cook the flour without letting it brown. Begin adding about 2 cups room temperature milk (I use 2 percent), 1/4-cup at a time, stirring continuously.

The sauce will become quite thick as it cooks. Continue adding milk as needed. Remove sauce from heat and stir in about 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese. Season to taste with salt, white pepper and ground nutmeg.

Add the cooked cauliflower to a souffle dish and pour in the cheese sauce. Top with bread crumbs and place in a 350-degree oven for about 1 hour, or until the bread crumbs are golden brown. The cauliflower should be extremely tender, and the kitchen filled with the aroma of baked cheese.

Serve hot.

My secret vice is the leftovers from this dish. They are impossible to resist. The souffle dish, covered with plastic, calls to me from the refrigerator. I warm a heaping serving spoon-full into a bowl and heat it in the microwave. A glass of white wine and I am content.

Curry-Roasted Cauliflower

I know, I just wrote about cauliflower. Or so it seems. But this treatment of cauliflower is so good I could not resist passing it on. I've been focused on cauliflower with my "food appreciation" classes at a private elementary school here in the District of Columbia. We made the cauliflower soup I described earlier. I usually do some baking with the older kids. Voila: curry-roasted cauliflower.

I consider it high praise whenever I get a thumbs up from someone who has not yet experienced puberty. The kids loved the cauliflower soup (well, most of them). And one of the 12-year-olds described the roasted cauliflower as "good as popcorn."

This is not so much a recipe as a treatment for cauliflower. There are only four ingredients, most of which you probably have already in your pantry. All you have to do is toss cauliflower florets with the seasonings and place them in a hot oven on a baking sheet. Within a half-hour or so, you will have the tastiest gold-brown florests you've ever experienced. And they do eat like popcorn. Serve them as a snack, or as a side dish, perhaps with the sweet-and-sour braised chicken I described in yesterday's post.

Serves Four

1 head cauliflower, washed and seperated into individual florets (if some of the florets are very large, cut them in half)

3 TBS extra-virgin olive oil

Curry powder to taste

Salt to taste

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower florets with the olive oil. Sprinkle curry powder over the florets, tossing occasionally, until all of the florets are seasoned and fragrant. Season with salt.

Spread cauliflower florets on a baking sheet. Place in over and bake until florets are tender and lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Serve warm.

We Love Cauliflower: A Helluva Soup

I have to admit a strange brain tick: I collect cauliflower recipes. I think this started at a time when I had a client who was beginning the South Beach diet and I noticed that people--some people, anyway--were substituting non-caloric cauliflower for starchy potatoes. Suddenly I was seeing cauliflower recipes everywhere, and I began to collect them and stash them away in a manila folder for who-knew-what future purpose. Because up to that point, the only cauliflower I was really familiar with was the kind my mother boiled, then drenched with one of those Hollandaise sauces made out of a foil packet. I was desperate to know every other possible way to prepare cauliflower. This week I needed to make a soup, so I thought it was high time I look into my cauliflower file and make a cauliflower soup before spring arrives and we move on to fava beans or something.

Cauliflower to me is the Cinderella of the brassica family. It doesn't get noticed much. Typically it is consigned to a corner of the steam table, mixed with some bland, overcooked carrots. But cauliflower has an almost ethereal flavor, hardly brassica at all, and the most yielding texture. This is a vegetable made for small children, a fairytale brassica, but it also dresses up well for adult tastes and without much bother. I like to toss it with extra virgin olive oil, salt and lots of curry powder, then roast it in a 450-degree oven to get an almost crusty brown on it. It also transforms completely in this soup preparation with potatoes, milk and cream. It is so delicious, I would eat it all the time, were it not for the potatoes, milk and cream. But see how easy it is: there's hardly any work at all. You just need to make absolutely sure when cooking the soup that the milk doesn't boil and separate. The soup should barely simmer until the vegetables are cooked through. Don't be surprised if this takes a half hour or 45 minutes. Just poke the cauliflower with a trussing skewer. It should slide through easily.

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into thick slices

1 quart milk

1 cup heavy cream

salt and white pepper to taste

Place cauliflower, potatoes and milk in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Over medium heat, bring soup just barely to a simmer, then reduce heat to lowest setting, cover and cook without boiling until the vegetables are perfectly tender. (If using an electric range, you might want to move the pot to one of your smaller burners so it doesn't overheat. For a gas range, a heat deflector might be called for.)

When vegetables are done, run the soup through a blender or food processor in batches until very smooth. Return soup to pot. Stir in heavy cream. Season with salt and white pepper. Serve hot with buttery croutons.

When I made this two days ago, I think I had somewhat more than the called-for potatoes. It was a thick but extravagantly velvety soup. My wife swooned over it, and I can't remember the last time she swooned.