Our cruciferous crusade continues with roasted curried cauliflower

Now if THAT title does not say  "brought to you by the letter C," Annalena does not know what does.  And aren't we all glad that Sesame Street and Big Bird are safe ?  (Incidentally, ragazzi, if you want a little tear jerker moment, go to youtube and watch Big Bird singing "It's not Easy Being Green" at the Jim Henson memorial.  Annalena is tearing up thinking about it now).


Ok, now that was way more of a digression than usual around here, wasn't it?    Back to topic:  as promised, (or threatened), we continue our survey of the cruciferous vegetables today.  Every year, it seems, that a particular vegetable falls out for the Guyman and Annalena as the "veggie of the year."  This year, it seems to be cauliflower.  We like it, and we eat it, but this year, we seem to have eaten more of it than ever.  We'll be eating it tomorrow in a simple puree under beef stew, for instance, and ate it last week as soup. And so on, and so forth.   And when you use a particular item over and over again, you learn what works, and what does not.  You have to.

Curries, and hearty, "heavy" spices work really well with cauliflower.  Think of all those Indian cauliflower dishes.   Perhaps it is the assertive nature of the vegetable, who knows?  In any event,  when Annalena first saw this recipe, she thought "ANOTHER curried cauliflower?"  But the "roasted" brought her eye back.  Especially when she saw that the roasting happened at 450.  AND... the recipe contains coriander, which is, perhaps, the spice of the year.  And it is good. 

Here, a mild digression again, ragazzi.  This recipe comes from epicurious.com, and Annalena would like to suggest that site to all of you, and a suggestion for any of these sites:  if a recipe appeals to you, read the reviews.  Inevitably, you will learn something that may change the way you do the recipe.  Annalena did so here, because, well, she was just not interested in grinding her own spices for this one.  The "zip" wasn't there.  And, someone had written that she had used preground spices and didn't perform the toasting step either, and the dish was fine.

Annalena did toast, as you will learn, but if someone else thought you didn't have to, well then.

So, here we go.  The recipe calls for four pounds of cauliflower.  Honestly, ragazzi, that is not as much as you would think.  It is either a very large head of the stuff, or two smaller ones.  If you have a crowd, or you don't mind leftovers, do the full amount.  If you don't, or do,  (refer back to the prior sentence), cut the amount of veggie, but do not cut the other ingredients.  You do need them all.  And if you're not doing this with at least one large head of cauliflower, it is not worth doing.

Ok, break the florets off of your cauliflowers, while you preheat your oven to 450.  Peel a very large onion, quarter it, and then separate the onion into individual leaves.  It's kind of fun.  Put them together with the cauliflower.

Now, if you're going to go "all out" for this recipe, get a teaspoon each of cumin seeds, and coriander seeds, and toast them in a small skillet, over low heat, for five minutes OR until you smell the toasty smell.  This will probably not take five minutes.  Get them off the heat immediately, and get them in the spice grinder.  Alternatively, use a teaspoon of each, ground and toast it, or don't toast them at all.    Put these in a bowl, and add - ready for this?  3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, and then whisk in 1/2 cup of red or sherry vinegar.  Keep whisking and add a heaping TABLESPOON  of curry powder (any kind you have, but make sure it is fragrant),  and an additional tablespoon of hot paprika.  The original recipe calls for Hungarian.  Annalena had  Spanish piccante, and liked it.  Finally, whisk in two teaspoons of salt.

Spread out the veggies on a baking sheet.  It will be tight, but you can do it.  Pour the dressing you just made over them, and stir it all together with your hands (you could also add the dressing to a bowl with the vegetables, toss it, and then put that on the roasting pan.  Your choice).    Sprinkle on some pepper, if you like, and put it all in the oven.

Every ten minutes or so, stir the veggies a bit.  You do this because the part touching the pan is going to brown much more than the rest, and you don't want this beautiful stuff to burn. 

For about the first twenty (of what will be forty five minutes), you will wonder what the hell is going on.  There will be no color change, no smell , no sizzle.  NIENTE.  BUT...at thirty, as if by wizardry, the stuff begins to darken and even blacken - a good thing.  And at forty five minutes.  OH do you have a wonderful side dish.  Or main dish if you plan to eat this with rice and a green of some kind. 

This was terrific warm, but Annalena thinks it would be better at room temperature.  How about the first of you to make it, and leave it to cool, lets us all know what it's like? 

Come on folks, if you are still going seasonally, you know our choices are limited.  There's good cauliflower out there. Go get some, and make yourself a mess of this.  YUM