Serendipity

So, when it comes to food shopping, I bristle at the thought of planning a week's meals and writing a list. I do bring a list, but it's of staples that we've run out of. And when it comes to fruit and veggies, I buy what looks good and what's cheap.

This means that I can have a recipe bookmarked for ages before it happens that all the necessary ingredients are in the house at the same time. It's only taken about a year for me to get around to this recipe: cauliflower with almonds, capers and raisins. (The capers were the hold-out ingredient -- somehow they haven't made it onto the staples list, but I think they might deserve a place there now.)

This was really good. The story behind the dish is that it was developed to convert a cauliflower-hater. I don't know whether it can do that, but this cauliflower-lover liked it a lot. It's a bit of a fussy recipe, with a few separate steps, but it's easy enough. The cauliflower is sauteed and then finished in the oven. It's topped with capers, almonds, raisins, herbs (I only had parsley, and left out the chives and tarragon. If I had waited until I had tarragon in the house, I don't think I ever would have gotten around to making this.) and toasted bread crumbs. Delicious!

For lunch today I had a simplified version: cauliflower with capers, raisins and parsley -- still good. I think I am officially a fan of the raisin + caper combination.