Prime Cuts

This is a recipe that is about as easy as I will ever post but the bottom line is that it is extremely good.  I recently made roasted cauliflower as the vegetable of the day at Caminito, and made some for our end-of-night staff meals as well.   Naturally when I brought out a plate of cauliflower half of my staff said “no thank you” but me being the chef that I am, I made sure that everyone tried it anyways.  Everyone loved it!  It doesn’t taste like normal steamed or raw cauliflower when roasted at high temperature, it takes on a different texture and sweetness from the carmalization as well as some desirable char form the high temp roasting.

Try this next time you are looking for an easy vegetable side dish, you won’t regret it.

Ingredients

Serving size: 4 people

Large head cauliflower
Vegetable oil
Sea salt (preferably coarse)

Preparation

1. Start by removing the cauliflower flowerettes from the main stem.  I like to start by removing the inner stem with a paring knife, and then cut the main body of the cauliflower in half then, further break it down into pieces of about a 2″ thickness.  Cutting the pieces with a sharp knife rather than tearing or breaking it will create a better surface area to promote carmalization.
2. In a mixing bowl liberally coat the cauliflower pieces with vegetable oil and a decent pinch of salt.
3. Place the cauliflower with a cut side contacting the metal of the pan you will be roasting it in.  This contact with the metal will create the carmalization that you are looking for.  Make sure you use a thick metal baking sheet pan or cast iron skillet.
4. Place the pan in the 375 degree oven for 15 minutes.  After about half that time check the cauliflower and turn to allow a fresh cut side to contact the metal and carmalize.
5. After 15 minutes remove from the oven and check for doneness, it should be crisp but tender, and have the aroma of pop corn.

Enjoy watching your kids and other vegetable haters gobble this treat like it was candy!

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Photo by: su-lin

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