1080: Cauliflower Pie. Oh yeah.

I like funky savory pies -- crawfish pie, tomato pie, shepherd's pie, and the like -- so when I found a recipe for Cauliflower Pie in 1080 I knew what had to happen. When I first saw the recipe I pictured a deep, crusted pie full of whole cauliflower flowerets, a rich creamy sauce, and a few bites of chunky carrots. I suppose I pulled my idea from a chicken pot pie minus the bird, but the actuality is much more satisfying than my imagined dish. It's light, creamy, and full of air. Imagine a savory flan than melts into buttery polenta and you're getting close.

Before we get into the recipe, a little information regarding how to choose fresh cauliflower is in order. When selecting cauliflower, for this dish or any other, look for a head with green leaves still attached. The leaves are not eaten but their presence is a good indicator of the vegetable's freshness. Look for cauliflower that is crisp, very white, and has tightly clustered florets.

Cauliflower Pie

ingredients:

1 cauliflower, about 1 1/2 lbs, separated into florets

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 1/4 cups milk, plus a little to cook the cauliflower

2 1/2 Tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing

2 Tbsp sunflower oil

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

4 eggs

scant 1 cup grated gruyere

salt

*NOTE: When cooked, cauliflower releases magnesium and potassium, causing an unpleasant smell. To counteract this add a couple of bay leaves to the water. A tablespoon of milk will also lessen the smell.

Rinse the cauliflower florets in cold water mixed with the juice of 1/2 lemon. Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add the florets and a little milk and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, until tender.

Drain well, then refresh under cold running water. Pour onto a clean dishtowel to drain once more. Transfer to a bowl and mash with a fork.

(At this point you could just add a little butter, salt, and pepper and serve the mashed cauliflower as a side dish. It has a similar taste to mashed potatoes without all the starchiness. I'm a big fan.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a tart pan with butter. Melt the remaining butter with the oil in a pan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Gradually stir in the milk, a little at a time. Add the nutmeg, season with salt, and cook, stirring constantly, for 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Beat two of the eggs, then beat them into the bechamel sauce. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Stir in the gruyere and when thoroughly incorporated, add the cauliflower.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and place the tin in a roasting pan. (I didn't have a roasting pan that was large enough so I used a cookie sheet with a high lip. Don't skip this step. The water bath ensures even cooking throughout the pie.)

Pour in boiling water to come about halfway up the sides of the roasting pan and bake for about 1 hour, until set. The pie should be firm and golden on top.

To serve, run a round-bladed knife around the edge of the tart pan and turn the pie out onto a round serving dish.

Serve immediately.  (I plopped a little parsley on top just for kicks.)

My pie turned out beautifully. It easily slid out of the pan and held its form with no trouble. It's simplicity and the pale color reminded me of a goat cheese tart that I made earlier in the year. The goat cheese tart held its shape perfectly when sliced and looked lovely on a plate, though it did lack in flavor. I suppose I expected this pie to behave in the same ladylike manner so imagine my surprise when it collapsed upon slicing! I found it impossible to cut a pretty piece from the pie.

By the time a piece made it to a plate it had lost its shape completely and resembled a serving of grits or polenta. The texture followed suit. It's very creamy and rich because of the milk and gruyere, but the texture isn't quite as smooth as I expected, and I'm glad. It's much more interesting with a little grit.

I could not stop eating it. Seriously. I devoured this pie with very little help from anyone else. How can I possibly explain how luxurious this pie was? I had a couple servings the night I made it and enjoyed it tremendously then stuck in the fridge. Over the next few days I somehow managed to forget how sumptuous it truly is. Lucky me! I was blown over again when I reheated a little in a bowl with a sprinkling of sea salt, and after that it was all over. I consumed the remaining pie in ten minutes flat. I know this baby looks plain jane, but it packs a mean, buttery punch.

The recipe suggests pouring homemade tomato sauce on top of the cauliflower pie, but I think that would be overkill. This pie shines on its own. If I poured anything on top I think it would be pesto or something equally fresh, but it's probably best to just leave it as is. I'm still a little surprised by how much I loved this recipe. It spoke to my love of all things salty, starchy, and creamy. If you like cauliflower at all (or butter, or gruyere, or deliciousness...) try this.

1080: Green Beans in Vinaigrette

One reason I like this month's cookbook club pick is because of the many and varied recipes for vegetables.  A number of vegetables have entire sections devoted to them which include information on the origin and season of the vegetable, selection, nutrition, a basic how-to-cook, and tricks particular to the vegetable.  I love that sort of thing.  I really do want to know how to glaze shallots, tricks for peeling carrots, and why the ancient Egyptians and Greeks loved fennel.  That's good stuff!

So, when I wanted a fresh, vegetable side dish I turned to this book and found Green Beans in Vinaigrette.  This recipe is as simple as the title suggests, and it's just bursting with freshness.  I served the beans as an accompaniment for dinner one night and sandwiches the next day for lunch.  Again, this is very simple but also very satisfying.   This recipe makes a lot so either half it, plan on having a crowd over, or take it along on a picnic to share. 

Green Beans in Vinaigrette

ingredients:

3 1/4 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed

2 Tbsp white-wine vinegar

6 Tbsp sunflower oil (extra virgin olive oil can be substituted)

1 Tbsp chopped shallot

1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

2 large firm tomatoes, sliced

salt

Fresh green beans are so lovely.  

If the beans are large, cut them into smaller pieces.  Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil.  Add the beans, bring back to boil, and cook, uncovered for 10 - 12 minutes, until tender, then refresh in cold water.  

Drain immediately and pat dry.  

Make a vinaigrette by combining the vinegar, oil, and salt and whisking vigorously.  

Put the beans in a serving dish and sprinkle with the chopped shallot and parsley.  Pour the vinaigrette over the beans and toss to mix.  Lightly season the tomato slices and use to garnish the beans.

I made a couple of slight modifications, per usual.  I was out of white-wine vinegar so I substituted champagne vinegar, which was lovely.  I also decided to chop the tomatoes and add them to the green beans so they were more incorporated.  Delicious.

1080, Take One: Salmon Medallions Cooked in Egg and Bread Crumbs

Recipe modification. We all do it, and there's no shame in that. However, it is important to remember that it isn't the recipe's fault when a modified version flops. In this case it didn't flop, not even a little bit. It was actually very good. It just lost a piece of its soul. Rather than following the recipe to the letter and deep-frying the salmon like it said I made the healthier choice.

Boy, if I have a pet peeve about cooking it's when someone modifies a recipe then complains that the food isn't any good because the recipe was bad. I know one person in particular who regularly substitutes skim milk for heavy cream, omits butter, uses fat-free versions of anything she can get her hands on, and leaves out any ingredients that she hasn't heard of. Needless to say, her food isn't very good, and I often bite my tongue when she blames the recipe for the failure. Don't worry, I'm not going to do that. Like I said, it wasn't bad, just lacking in depth.

Here's the deal. Last night I chose a recipe from 1080 Recipes (this month's Cookbook Club pick!) and prepared it for dinner. After some consideration I chose Salmon Medallions Cooked in Egg and Bread Crumbs. Charlie very sweetly offered to run by the grocery store on his way home from work (an offer I took him up on) and brought home a lovely piece of salmon along with the other needed ingredients. Then I read the recipe. Hmm...what's wrong with this story? If this story was drawn out in steps, printed on cards, then placed before a child for sequencing, a smart child would put "Read the recipe" before "Send husband to the store for ingredients". In this story the smart child outsmarts the lady.

After reading the recipe I learned that the salmon medallions should be deep-fried, and I wasn't up for that. I didn't want to smell up the kitchen, and I didn't want to eat deep fried food, so I modified. I pan-fried, and I (probably) killed the thing that makes this dish special. Like I said, it was still very good. Charlie really enjoyed the sauce (creamy and tart -- very nice), and I found the pan-fried salmon paired nicely with the mushrooms. I'd really never considered breading and frying salmon in any way, and it was tasty.

Salmon Medallions Cooked in Egg and Bread Crumbs

*modified from a recipe in 1080 Recipes

ingredients:

8 oz mushrooms (I used baby bella)

2 Tbsp butter

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 egg

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup bread crumbs

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lb salmon fillets, skinned

3/4 cup light cream

salt

*NOTE: The original recipe serves six. In addition to changing the preparation of the salmon, I also modified the recipe to serve 2.

Put the mushrooms, butter, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt into a pan and cook over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, for 6 minutes.

Remove from the heat and keep warm. Beat the egg in a shallow dish, pour the flour into another shallow dish, and pour the bread crumbs into a third. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers and a cube of day-old bread browns in 30 seconds. (At this point you may choose to heat 4 cups of sunflower oil in place of the olive oil in order to deep-fry the salmon.)

Cut the salmon fillets into medallions and season with salt.

Coat first in the flour, then in the beaten egg, and finally in the bread crumbs.

Add the fish to the hot oil, in batches, and cook until golden brown.

Remove from oil and keep warm in a serving dish while you cook the remaining fish. Return the pan of mushrooms to low heat, gradually stir in the cream, and heat gently but do not let boil.

Pour the mushroom sauce over the salmon and serve immediately.

It was better served over soft basmati rice. The rice absorbed the sauce and tamed its acidic qualities. Steamed broccoli also made a nice accompaniment.

Don't get me wrong! It was good! It's just that I think I removed a tiny piece of its midnight-dinner-before-the-club, deep-fried, tapas-loving soul. So, I have this to say. Make this dish. Make it any way you like. But, if you want it to speak to you, deep fry the damn fish.

Spatchcocking a Chicken or How to Crash and Burn

This week's theme for girls night was Grills Gone Wild!  Yes, that's right. My friend Gabi had everyone over, and we grilled out on her rooftop swimming pool deck that overlooks the city. It was beautiful!

I decided to take a brined spatchcocked chicken to grill and checked this month's cookbook club pick (Martha Stewart's Cooking School) for instruction.  Brining sounded difficult but proved to be very simple.  Preparing the chicken (I refuse to say dispatching the cock, which is technically accurate) was also a snap.  Everything went super well until I got to the actual grilling part.  I'm a lousy griller.  I can use my indoor grill pan like a pro, but real grills freak me out, and I never feel confident using them.  In this case I was reminded of why I should not be confident when grilling. 

But...back to brining.  Brining is done to keep the chicken juicy and tender.   A very simple brine can be made of only salt, sugar, and water, and that will work, but what not spice it up a little?  I used the brine suggested by M.S. and was not disappointed.

For brine:

finely grated zest of one orange

finely grated zest of one lemon

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup coarse salt

2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

2 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled

4 cups water

4 cups ice cubes

Place all ingredients except ice cubes in a large stock pot and heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar and salt have completely dissolved.  Remove from heat, add ice cubes, and stir until completely cooled.  

 

Not a beautiful picture but that's what it looks like!  Also, it smells pretty great.  If you can handle that then you can brine.  Now you need a spatchcocked chicken.

How to spatchcock a chicken:

Place the chicken on a clean work surface, breast side down.  Use kitchen shears (make sure they're sharp!) to cut along both sides of the backbone and remove it.

Flip the chicken over and press firmly to flatten.  

And...that's it.  So far everything was going really well.  I had brine.  I had a spatchcocked chicken.  Great!  Let's keep going.

As directed, I submerged the chicken in the brine, breast side down.  The chicken should stay in the brine for at least one hour but no more than three.  Any less than an hour and it won't have enough time to do its thing.  Any longer than three and the texture of the chicken can become unpleasant.  I put the brine and the chicken in a portable container and set out for Gabi's beautiful apartment.  Once there we heated up the grill and plopped it on, breast side down.  I then drizzled a citrus glaze (1/4 cup honey, 3 Tbsp orange juice, 3 Tbsp lemon juice beat together) on top.  It smelled great!

A few minutes later I opened the grill to check on it and...

it was sort of on fire.  Bummer.  This picture was taken after we put out the fire and flipped it over.

So, after flipping it we closed the grill top again and waited another 20 minutes.  The grill hissed a little as the glaze dripped off the chicken, but after a few minutes it was silent.  Of course I didn't notice that it wasn't making any sound because I was gabbing with my friends.  The twenty minutes passed, and I checked on the chicken only to discover that the grill was no longer on because somewhere along the line it ran out of fuel.  

I have no idea how to change the gas tank on a grill, and, frankly, I don't care to learn.  Fortunately, there were other people around who do know how to do those sorts of things and ten minutes later we were back in business.  I had no idea how long the grill worked before running out of fuel so I decided to cook the chicken for another ten minutes and call it a day.

After ten minutes I took it off and cut into the brined, glazed, spatchcocked, blackened chicken to make sure it was cooked through.  Of course by now the sun had set and I had only the light of a tea light candle and the warm glow of my iPhone.   It looked like it was probably cooked.  Maybe.  Really, I have no idea.  

The girls discussed and decided it was probably cooked.  We cut it up, passed it around, and everyone marveled at how tender and juicy it was.  Everyone agreed that it had been on the grill for awhile and it was probably fully cooked.  Surely it was so tender because of that wonderful brine!   

It did have a nice flavor, and no one got sick so I must assume I did alright.  Still, not exactly a success story.

There's nothing quite like thinking you might be serving your friends raw chicken.  I really need to work on this grilling-out thing.

Herbed Rosti with Wild Mushrooms

So...the picture doesn't do it justice. I made a rosti the other day, and it was splendid...earthy and texturally interesting. But wait! I'm getting ahead of myself; let me back up a little.

**NOTE: I'm drinking sweet tea vodka lemonade while writing this so if it goes a little haywire, well, what can I say?!

A girl friend of mine recently suggested the formation of a cookbook club, and several friends (including me) jumped on the idea. Our first pick is Martha Stewart's Cooking School. For the next month everyone who is participating in the cookbook club is supposed to cook from the selection as much as possible. At the end of the month we will meet, discuss what we cooked, and bring a dish we've prepared (from the cookbook) to share. Sounds like fun to me!

I've tried a few things from the cookbook, including this rosti. Honestly, I had never even heard of a rosti until I flipped through the book, found a picture of one, and said "Hey! That looks tasty!". I have since learned that a rosti is a German/Swiss dish consisting primarily of potatoes that are shredded and pan-fried. In a nutshell, it's a giant latke. Mmmmm...

Without further ado, here is the recipe with pictures and commentary:

Herbed Rosti with Wild Mushrooms

Ingredients:

2 large russet potatoes (about 1 1/4 lbs)

1/2 small leek, while and pale green parts only, washed and cut into julienne

1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 small leek, while and pale green parts only, cut into julienne and washed

4 oz fresh chanterelles, wiped clean (halved if large)

1/4 cup chicken stock

2 oz fresh goat cheese, softened

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel potatoes and grate on the large holes of a box grater. Soak in water to cover for five minutes. Lift out with your hands, and squeezed out liquid, then squeeze out excess liquid in a clean kitchen towel or paper towels. You should have three cups potatoes.

Toss together the potato, leek, and thyme, and season with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Melt 1 Tbsp each butter and olive oil in a 10-inch ovenproof pan over medium-high heat, swirling to coat evenly. Add potato mixture, and cook, pressing down lightly with a large spatula, until bottom is golden and releases easily from pan, about 4 minutes.

Invert rosti onto a plate. Add remaining 1 Tbsp each butter and oil and swirl to coat pan. Carefully slide rosti back into pan uncooked side down and cook until starting to brown underneath, about 3 minutes.

Transfer to oven and cook until deep golden brown and cooked through (it should offer no resistance when pierced in the center with the tip of a paring knife), 12 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute mushrooms. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook leek until translucent, stirring, about 1 minute. Add chantererlles, season with salt and pepper, and saute until golden, about 3 minutes.

Stir in stock and cook until reduced and slightly thickened and the mushrooms have softened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Slide baked rosti out of pan onto a serving platter. Spoon dollops of goat cheese in center of rosti and spoon mushroom mixture over top.


Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

I served the completed rosti with baked flounder (tossed with a little lemon juice, paprika, salt, and cayenne pepper) and a green salad (spinach, Belgian endive, Bibb lettuce) with blueberries, sunflower seeds, and a honey-lemon vinaigrette (pictured below).

The rosti was delicious. The actual potato pancake was crispy on the outside with a tender inside, and the leeks added a quiet sweetness. The goat cheese and mushrooms brought out a woodsy quality that grounded the dish. Adding a salad with nuts (well, seeds) and berries added to the earthy quality of the meal. Mmmm...I could eat this every night!

A very tasty curry

I recently purchased a cookbook called Curry Cuisine: Fragrant dishes from India, Thailand, Vietmnam, and Indonesia. It's a collection of curries from a number of contributors, and I've been itching to try a few of them. I started with Green Shrimp Curry with Fresh Dill (Gang Keo Goung), but I modified it considerably. The results were terrific, and I changed it up enough that I feel I can call it my own.

This is a wonderful spring dish, and the curry tastes surprisingly complex considering how simple it is. If you try it out yourself, please let me know what you think!

Shrimp Curry with Fresh Dill

ingredients:
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
5 Tbsp red Thai curry paste
1 Tbsp sugar
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 - 2 Tbsps fish sauce, or to taste
2 large yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 lb raw tiger shrimp, peeled
1 bunch dill
basmati rice, as an accompaniment

Heat the oil in a pan over moderately high heat and stir-fry the curry paste for about 2 minutes or until just golden and fragrant. Add the sugar and stir fry for 1 minutes or until fragrant. Reduce the heat and add the coconut milk, chicken stock, lime zest, and fish sauce. Add the potatoes, cover the pot, and cook for 20 minutes.



Add the shrimp and stir well, then cover again and cook for about 5 minutes or until they turn pink. Serve hot, garnished with fresh dill.
This is best served over basmati rice.



If you've never tried a curry, this is a good place to start. It's simple, and the results are very satisfying. I can hardly wait to try out a few other recipes from the cookbook. I may have a lot of curry dishes ahead of me this spring!

(Not so) Little Cheese Fillo Rolls

Last week, I picked up Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden from the library. Not only is it a beautiful cookbook, but it also provides a lot of information on the cooking styles of each country mentioned in the title and how outside influences have shaped the region's cooking. The cultural information presented is really interesting. Also, the photographs are gorgeous, and I immediately picked out a dozen recipes I want to try at home.

Last night I tried the Little Cheese Fillo Rolls found on page 176. Here is the recipe:

Little Cheese Fillo Rolls

Ingredients
7 oz feta cheese, mashed with a fork
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp chopped mint or dill
8 large sheets of fillo
1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter, melted

For the filling, mix the mashed feta with the egg and chopped mint or dill. Take out the sheets of fillo only when you are ready to use them since they dry out quickly. Cut them into 4 rectangles measuring about 12 inches x 4 1/2 to 5 inches and put them in a pile on top of each other. Brush the top strip lightly with melted butter. Take a tablespoon of filling. Place it at one short end of the strip in a thin sausage shape along the edge, about 3/4 inch from it and 3/4 inch from the side edges. Roll up the fillo with the filling inside, like a cigar. Fold in the ends about one-third of the way along to trap the filling, and then continue to roll.
Do the same with the remaining strips of fillo and cheese filling. Place the cigars, seam side down, on a baking sheet and brush the tops with melted butter. Bake at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

I had a large bunch of fresh dill in my refrigerator so I decided to use that instead of mint. The filling was very simple to make, and the fresh herbs smelled really good.



The recipe suggests that it makes 16 canape-sized rolls. I did not read very carefully and mis-cut the fillo. Instead of putting a tablespooon of filling in each roll, I put more like three.



So, I ended up with 5 very large cheese rolls.





I think the smaller rolls would be a little crunchier and would certainly be easier to eat, but I'm not sure that making a larger size is all bad. One of the larger rolls would be really nice with a salad as the start to a meal. Just the same, as an appetizer it would be necessary to make them much smaller.

My taste testers (Charlie and Mark) had mostly positive remarks. Mark commented on the nice texture, and I agree. The flaky fillo paired with the creamy filling is immediately satisfying. It's kind of a like a spring roll without the greasiness. The only real suggestion for improvement was the addition of another herb or spice to create a more complex flavor. There's definitely room for experimentation there. I also think trying out a number of soft cheeses is in order. Perhaps a peppery goat cheese, a creamy bleu, or even a brie or Camembert?

This recipe is definitely a keeper, and I believe it will make an appearance at a dinner party very soon. Does anyone have any suggestions for other fillings? I would love some fresh ideas!