You know whats funny? I got a present yesterday – a new Ina Garten cookbook. The Foolproof one. I casually flipped through it and laughed OUT LOUD when I read the 10 Foolproof Tips for Cooking. Especially the first two … Continue reading
You know whats funny? I got a present yesterday – a new Ina Garten cookbook. The Foolproof one. I casually flipped through it and laughed OUT LOUD when I read the 10 Foolproof Tips for Cooking. Especially the first two … Continue reading
KUMQUATS Aren’t they a fun word to say? Nearly a swear word, right? I can picture some kid – okay, my kids – storming around the house stomping and yelling YOU KUMQUAT! That makes me giggle. They’re the size of an … Continue reading
Guacamole, a.k.a. what to do with those overripe avocados sitting on your kitchen counter. So I was at the Chinese grocery store yesterday and they had a bag of mini avocados on sale for $1. WHAT A BARGAIN! So I … Continue reading
Two days ago I made Chestnut Cream. Ever since, I’ve been pondering what to do with it. Bake a roulade and use it as the filling? Make a stack of crepes? Buy some really good ice cream and use it … Continue reading
That’s why the Pioneer Woman calls it FINGER JELLO. Her’s was all Christmasy and striped in red, white and green. Very pretty too. I thought I’d go for more of a rainbow effect, using red, orange, and yellow with white … Continue reading
Yeaaaaaah. I was *supposed* to eat salad today in preparation of the ALL-DAY-EATING-FEST that tomorrow will end up being. Instead? I learned how to make my own Bailey’s. Yup. Believe me: it sooooooooo rocks. Seriously seriously rocks. And you should … Continue reading
C said to me, ‘How hard was this meal to make?’ That translates into, ‘You’re gonna make this again, right? Like A LOT? Please please please?’ We had Beer-Battered Chesapeake-Style Fried Fish for dinner, with homemade white bread, oven-roasted cherry … Continue reading
So, um, I tried to make Chicken with Capers for dinner tonight. A dish I’ve made a couple times before. I thought I was being über smart by using TWO frying pans for the chicken instead of the normal one – you know, … Continue reading
Roasted Cauliflower with dates, olives and capers, drizzled with Garlic Confit and Date Syrup (Silan) and sprinkled with Smoked Paprika.
Yowsa that was good!
So good I won’t even bother to tell you what I ate alongside this SHINING JOY ON A PLATE.
I took a medium sized head of cauliflower, cut off all the spotted bits, rinsed it and sliced it into steaks. I drizzled a baking sheet with olive oil (shoulda used the garlic confit here instead of afterwards. *doh*) and laid the cauliflower out on top. Drizzled with a bit more oil and popped the sheet into a 450º oven for 10 minutes. I flipped the pieces over and shoved the pan back in for another 15 minutes or so. When the hot pan came out of the oven I tossed on the olives, capers, and dates, drizzled some Garlic Confit over the top and tasted.
It was good, but needed some smoke and some sweet. I grabbed the Date Syrup and the Smoked Paprika from the pantry and added a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
End result: DROOL WORTHY.
Roasted Cauliflower with Dates, Olives and Capers by Me
Ingredients:
1 medium sized head of Cauliflower, cleaned and trimmed into thick slices or large chunks. Up to you.
3-4 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided *USE GARLIC CONFIT HERE if you have it. Good LORD that stuff rocks.
6 Dates, quartered
6 good Olives, chopped *I used the kind you have to scoop out yourself instead of the jarred ones.
1 Tablespoon Capers
2 Tablespoons Date Syrup *Use honey if you don’t have any.
1-2 teaspoons Smoked Paprika *Go easy with this stuff. It’s potent!
How To:
1- Oven to 450º.
2- Oil a baking sheet with 1-2 Tablespoons of your garlic confit oil or your olive oil, lay out your cauliflower on the sheet and drizzle with more oil. Whack the pan into the hot oven for 10 minutes, then flip the pieces over and roast another 15 minutes or so – until everything is all golden and yummy looking.
3- When the pan comes out of the oven throw the olives, capers and dates on top. Stir everything around and then drizzle the Date syrup over every glorious morsel. Gently sprinkle the Smoked Paprika over all and taste. Add salt and pepper if needed.
SIDE NOTE
This afternoon E and I made a quick Get-Well dessert for the Grandparents today. It’s a re-do of the Blackberry Sour Cream Tart I made a few weeks ago. It was a family affair, actually. C laid out the puff pastry shells and baked them off. I showed E how to fill one tart shell and she did the rest.
Hmmmm…. I wonder how different/better the cauliflower woulda been if I’d used garlic confit to roast the cauliflower and then drizzled melted butter on top when it came outta the oven…. Damn. Now I’m mentally going through my fridge to see if I can make this again tomorrow.
So, um, do YOU know how to peel a chestnut easily? I suckity suck suck at it. I think I still have a chunk of shell wedged under my left thumb nail. *sigh* I’ve googled, Kitchn’d, wikipedia’d, asked friends and … Continue reading