Baby Cauliflower A Dish Is Born

One of the best winter dishes is cauliflower.It's versatile and beautiful, a creamy alabaster that can be turned golden brown by roasting and baking. The heads are large and can be either the star or supporting player. Either way it is  dream vegetable and being celebrated in a new dish, a roasted style that'st taking the culinary world by storm.


Julia Moskin knows this and wrote about it in today's New York Times Food section. The veggie can be made a variety of different ways.It can go Italian,Indian, French or Middle Eastern.It's even becoming elegant, with chefs all over the world. It is the  internationally reknowned Israeli cook, Eyal Shani who is famous for this new healthy phenomena. He blanches it in salt water and then its' oiled and charred in a wood fired oven. It has fans such as other famed chefs such as Jamie Oliver,Giada deLaurentis, and Rachel Ray.It's an easy dish that even home chefs can make as a weekday dinner or an impressive dinner party centerpiece.If there's a worry about cooking it in a wood fired oven, don;t A regular heated 375 dgree Farenheit  oven will do the job nicely.Just make sure there is a pan of water with it to create steam.I imagine it could work on a closed barbecue grill too come Spring or summer.

Cauliflower is a lot like meat. It has a rough , outer surface like  beef roast that can grab onto flavor elements like fresh herbs, lemon juices and crushed spices.. The whole head can be marinated or dry rubbed,  basted, crusted or browned while the inside remains silky and tender.It can also be served ceremoniously at the table where it can be carved with a flourish.It can also be cut up and served as individual servings. It can be served with a sauce and Ms. Moskin makes an am anchovy, garlic almond sauce , kind of like a bagna calda one.This is an anchiode, a Provencale born one but you could also make a garlic tahini one with it.. Home chefs can also just have a lemon infused aoli one or or maybe an olive oil based za'atar infused sauce.

Baby cauliflower is the new star of the 2016 cooking scene. It can be easily recreated to produce a show stopping main dish or glittering sides. It is one heck of a baby!