Cauliflower inarizushi

Dinner: 'inarizushi' filled with cauliflower rice, plus dolmades, over salad greens.

The cauliflower rice was half a cauliflower, pulsed in the food processor, plus one carrot, likewise, plus sesame seeds, salt and liquid from the can of inari wrappers. The dolmades were from a can, and were a sort of jokey last minute addition to fill out this meal.

I read that there are various options with inarizushi: you can use plain rice, sushi rice or sweet rice (okay, cauliflower) like I did here. I think I might prefer sushi seasoning over the sweet version.

Also, it should be noted that Inari herself, as the goddess of rice, would be very unhappy with these cauliflower imposters. I'm not sure how foxes would feel about them.

Catchup

Good things I ate (or drank) in the second half of 2014:

From Vedge, Broccoli Rabe Philly Style (seriously bitter homegrown broccoli rabe [which I cut with gai lan to tone it down a bit], roasted red capsicum, porcini mayo)

 Pizza and roasted cauliflower at Pizza Domenica in New Orleans:

 Birthday/journal acceptance cake (Chocolate/root beer):

Asparagus pizza:

Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba style (wish I'd had poblanos; made do with green chillies and used rehydrated yuba sticks as chicken, and cashew cheese)

Pasta with a pureed caramelized onion / nutritional yeast sauce and cubed smoked tofu:

Pumpkin and pecan pie(s):

Home brewed saison:

What does a vegetarian do with a meat grinder?

I love my stand mixer. Recently in an op shop I spotted an attachment for it: a meat grinder. Although they're not that rare (you do see attachments on eBay -- they can be pricey) I was so surprised to find it that I bought it right away without thinking about what I would use it for.

Quite some internet research later, I read that you can grind chickpeas for falafel with a meat grinder. And so I did. The falafel worked out really well. I convinced myself that this was because of the excellent texture, but it may well have been because the previous few times I've made falafel I have wimped out and baked them in the oven, and this time I (shallow-)fried them. Another vote in favour of the meat grinder was that it was really fun to throw the chickpeas, parsley and garlic into the hopper and have them come out homogeneous. (Okay, that happens when you use the food processor too, but I swear this was more fun.)

Emboldened, I ground some seitan, and some cauliflower, and made a version of larb with cauliflower 'rice' from Stone Soup. This was delicious! We had a green mango salad alongside (sort of along these lines).

Overall, I'm happy to have the meat grinder. It's a bit of a hassle to clean, but not that much worse than a food processor. I like that the stuff you grind comes out a uniform size. I also like that you can grind a large amount. I think the next thing I'm going to try is bigoli.

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.

Fenugreek cauliflower and dal

     Sometimes I wonder what the point of these 660 Curries posts is. Every time I make something from the book that I love, I want to post it so that I remember it and can make it again. But, seriously, I think I've loved almost everything I've made from the book. I think flipping open a page at random has just as good a chance of ending up with a good dish, as does sticking with the tried-and-true. But I digress...

This meal was great. Here you see, at the front, Fenugreek-Perfumed Cauliflower, and at the back, a dal of Yellow Split Peas with Tomato and Chiles. 

The cauliflower curry was supposed to include ivy gourds, but the book suggested cucumber as a replacement and that's what I used. Cooked cucumbers are a revelation -- I know the idea takes some getting used to, but they're really good. The curry also used up the half of my fenugreek crop that didn't get eaten by snails. In the end, I couldn't really taste the fenugreek greens distinctly, but maybe they added something because apart from them, this curry has a pretty simple list of ingredients, and yet it tasted surprisingly good.

The dal was also simple and delicious: the split peas are cooked (I did them in the pressure cooker) and then you add a tarka with the usual suspects (coriander, cumin, chile, garlic, turmeric) and tomato. I don't usually put tomato in my dals, but it added a really nice tang.

Iron chef: sriracha

I was out of ideas for dinner, so asked R if he had any cravings. I don't know why I asked -- I was expecting him to say no, as that's his usual answer to that question (weird, right?) but instead he surprised me and asked for something with sriracha. This turned out to be an excellent and inspiring answer.

We had tofu omelettes with sriracha (based on the Thai classic); roast cauliflower with a dipping sauce of sriracha, honey and lime juice; and latkes (from the freezer) with a sauce of vegan mayo and sriracha.

All three were pretty good but I think the best one was the cauliflower. The very brown pieces went especially well with the sauce. (I got the idea for this combination after some googling turned up the suggestion to combine this sauce with roasted brussels sprouts.)

After all that heat: ice cream (chocolate and peanut butter, with pretzels. I used soy milk in place of the recommended half and half, and regular cocoa powder, and it worked out fine -- very rich and almost fudgy.)

Cauliflower Cheese

This post brought to you by: nostalgia. I had a craving for Cauliflower Cheese (which I know sounds strange to some -- just think Mac and Cheese but with cauliflower instead). I made up this cheese sauce as I went along, and it worked pretty well. Unfortunately I didn't really keep track of the measurements, but I wanted to post my best guesses so that I'm prepared the next time nostalgia strikes.

Cauliflower (No) Cheese
1/2 head of cauliflower
1.5 T olive oil
enough flour to make a roux
3/4 c water
3/4 c soymilk
1 t dijon mustard
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1 T fake parmesan
2 t miso
salt
pepper
nutmeg

1. cut up the cauliflower and steam it
2. make the roux
3. add the water + soymilk, and the rest of the ingredients, and whisk until it thickens
4. cover the cauliflower with the cheese sauce; bake at 400F for 20 minutes
5. (optional) place under the grill (broiler) for a few minutes to brown the top