When life gives you cauliflower, make cauliflower parmagiana

 

Some of you may have noticed that Annalena has been a little obsessed with cauliflower as of late.  She confesses to that.  Apparently, her obsession IS shared, as she saw one article that referred to cauliflower as "the new kale."  Well, Annalena could not be happier about that, since kale is not one of her favorites, by any stretch of the imagination.

There have been periods in Annalena's life when she simply COULD NOT STAND cauliflower, to the point where looking at it would make her ill. Well, clearly that has changed.

Recently, Melissa Clark, one of Annalena's favorite food writers, posted this recipe.  She pointed out that cauliflower is with us through the winter (indeed it is), whereas Annalena's beloved eggplant is going to be gone very soon. So, for those of you who are trying to eat closer to the source, here we go.  Annalena will point out, along the way, where she used local products.  She will also announce, at the start , that this recipe presupposes that you have tomato sauce on hand.  If you do not, why not?  And if you do not, MAKE SOME.  Annalena has given you several recipes on this blog, you can look up Marcella's superb and simple recipe, and you can make it from other recipes as well.  You will need at least a quart, a quart and a half is  better.

First, we start with the cauliflower.  Annalena used her favorite golden cauliflower, but you should fee free to use white, or green.  She is not too sure about the purple one.
Use a BIG one - 3 pounds or so.  Cut it into florets, but not dainty ones:



You are going for something the size of  a small meatball.  Also, because you will be frying, and it is harder to fry something round than it is to fry something flat, and you already have to deal with all the crenulations on the cauliflower,  slice the florets in half as best as you can. 

We now set up Annalena's modified fry station.  Here, we are using the classic formula for parmagiana, of flour, egg, and bread crumbs.  If you are cramped for kitchen space (who isn't), you can avoid the full set up, by putting your cauliflower in a bag, with 1/2 cup of well seasoned unbleached flour.  Half a cup is all you need.  It's much more important that the bag be big enough, and not have a hole in it:

You can put that aside while you beat four large eggs with a little salt in a large plate or bowl, and pour 3 cups of bread crumbs into another one.  Put some salt there.  Have a tray  ready to receive all of the cauliflower as you coat it, and preheat your oven to 400. 

Now, here we go. Shake that cauliflower in that bag.  Take out a few pieces at a time, and dip them in the egg.  Dip them completely.  Then, move them to the breadcrumbs, and roll them to coat.  A pair of kitchen tongs is a big help here, but it is not at all necessary:

Because we have coated these guys with breadcrumbs, we can take a break if we want to.  We will continue here, however.  You need to put about 1/2 cup of oil into a big pan, and here, you can and should use olive oil.  The cauliflower is not going to cook for very long, smoke point will not be an issue, and your dish will taste SO  much better. 

You can tell when the oil  is hot enough to fry, via a very simple test.  Take a kitchen implement with a wooden handle, and turn it upside down in the oil.  Watch for bubbles to form around the wood.  Little tiny ones.  When that happens, it's ready. 

As observed, fry these a few at a time:

If your oil is hot enough, they will brown very quickly, and you should turn them over, and on their side, to get them completely brown:

At a distance, it is very hard NOT to think these are pieces of chicken breast.  But they are not.  

We are now going to assemble the dish. Get a 9x13 non reactive (non metallic) pan, and put about a cup of sauce into it.  Then add 1/3 cup of grated parmesan.  Now add half the cauliflower.  Put about half a pound of small pieces of mozzarella on this, and add more parmesan. 

A very quick digression on the mozzarella here.  It can be mind boggling as to the different kinds of mozzarella there are now.  Annalena used a local mozzarella, made by a farm called Riverine Ranch.  It is buffalo, firm, and not too salty. That is what you want.  This will be the least expensive variety of mozzarella you will find: sometimes called "fior di latte."  Save the burrata and other fancier ones, for salad.  

So you've layered sauce, cauliflower, mozzarella, and parmesan.  Now put down another couple of cups of sauce, and then the rest of the cauliflower.  What you'll find is that the cauliflower sort of "sorts" itself and fills in the spaces.  That's those crenulations gang.  You finish off with  more mozzarella, more sauce, and finish with parmesan. 

Get this into the oven, for forty minutes.  You are going to get something which looks, at least to Annalena, like meatball parmesan (which is American, not Italian):

This certainly looks like something Annalena wants to eat, and it is. She can't wait.    

So if you have your non vegan vegetarian to feed, who doesn't fear the "warning: this cheese contains dairy," you're in business.  

Make it ragazzi.  You will LOVE it. 

Sweeter than you think: chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Well, ragazzi, to say this has been a week is to understate things.  Let us have a show of hands:  how many of you, when you saw that you were going to be able to sleep for an extra hour today (as daylight savings time ended), thought it wasn't nearly enough?    This political campaign has pushed us all to our limits and then beyond them.  Annalena has been called names on her beloved facebook that she hasn't been called since a schoolchild.  And she learned, last week, that physicians are prescribing medicines for "pre election stress syndrome."  It seems perfectly justified.  Annalena was stood up on a "date" (not really, but a meeting she should not have planned).  And the finale, at least for Annalena, was to see that cheese now bears the warning  :"caution.  Contains dairy products."

We are now at the point where we have to label cheese to warn the lactose intolerant.  Where have we come to, carini?  Annalena is more than flummoxed.

Fortunately, she has a place to hide:  her kitchen. And food blogs, and recipes.  Recenty, she started reading the blog of David Leite  ("Leitesculinaria.com") from which this recipe comes.  He is a marvelous racconteur my lovelies (that does NOT mean he is a raccoon), and his recipes are nice and solid.

Annalena made this one, and she will tell you in all seriousness:  you can make this in a littlemore than an hour, and your work time, is really, really  short.   You should make this.  You really should.

First, as Annalena is doing lately, your ingredients:

What you see there are three pounds of chicken thighs - 13 of them.  You see a bit of wine, a bit of stock, some butter, thyme - and 40 (that's right, 40 ) cloves of garlic.  

Some comments on these ingredients:  why all thighs, and not chicken parts?  Annalena's regular readers can answer this, but to review: think about what a free range chicken does all day:  she walks.   In that respect, she and Annalena have something in common.  The leg muscles get stronger,  and tougher, and more blood vessels form. And that is why we have "dark meat."

Now think of that same chicken's breast, standing out in front of her proudly:  and doing nothing.  The breasts are tender, and white, and if you try to cook them the same way as you cook legs or thighs, you will overcook them. And if you try to cook the thighs and legs the way you cook the breasts, you will undercook them.  So, for uniformity, stick with one style.  Also, that way no one can complain  "No, my favorite part is gone so I'll go hungry."  (In this age of privilege, we have all heard it).

Now, about those 40 cloves of garlic.  In a bulb of garlic, Annalena gets 5-6 cloves.  Hence, she needed 7-8 bulbs.  It is NOT that hard to peel them.  If you use a garlic cannoli;

It is even easier.  If you do not, press on the cloves of garlic gently, with the blade of a large knife, and you will succeed in breaking skin.  Then pop them out (Of course, you COULD also follow the French model  and not peel them.  Annalena will not recommend that. 

You will have salted and peppered your chicken thighs at least an hour before you cook.  And when you do, set your oven  to 350, and get out a non stick pan if you have one.  If you don't, you'll be fine, but don't go too big.  Why?  Because you are cooking with butter, and butter will burn if you give it a surface. 

You are going to add only ONE tablespoon of butter to your pan.  When it melts, fill the pan with the chicken thighs, but do not crowd them.  Probably, you should be doing no more than 5-6 at a time (less, if they are larger). 

Why so little butter?  Well, under that chicken skin is a fair amount of fat.  And as you cook this chicken, you will get more and more fat in the pan, as we will see.  

Sear those thighs for about five minutes on a side, until the skin gets nice and dark:

Before you put them in this pan, turn them and cook for about two minutes. 

Remember Annalena told you about the fat?  Well:

She hopes you can see the half cup of fat that she recovered at the end of cooking the chicken.  That's all the stuff, drained.  

So now, put a fresh tablespoon of butter in that pan, and add your garlic cloves, stirring and tossing, for 2-3 minutes, so as to put some brown on them.  Then, spread them haphazardly, but evenly, on the chicken:

What you will do now, is add 1/3 cup of white wine to your searing pan, to loosen up the brown bits.  Keep stirring.  The wine will evaporate almost immediately.  Then add half a cup of chicken stock, and yet one more tablespoon of butter.  Let this come to a boil, and reduce by about a third.  Pour it over the chicken, and then add a few sprigs of fresh thyme (you could use another herb if you had it). 

At this point, Annalena's recipe caled for slicing up potatoes and cooking them with the chicken.  You could do that, but Annalena preferred not too. Rather, she had a tomato sort of like herself: large, overripe, and giving dirty looks to anyone who passed.  She simply cut that up, and put it over the chicken and garlic, before putting it all in the oven for 45 minutes

You are supposed to eat this garlic, which is very soft and sweet.  Usually, people serve toasted bread and smear the cloves on it.  And if you want to do that, go ahead.  Annalena just picked them up and ate them as they were, but as the adorable deplorables have been telling her all week, she is perverse. 

So, ragazzi, there is our first recipe of the week. There will be more.  Enjoy this one.