Cauliflower

I think it is my second favourite vegetable. Seriously. Second only to peas (both frozen and fresh). Garlic, onions and tomatoes don't quite count. Certain vegetables are only excellent during their peak season and don't have an all year presence, like asparagus, so I'm not counting those either. So yes. Cauliflower is my second favourite vegetable.

How fabulously versatile is it? How many wonderful things can you do with a brassica that is, to be honest, a little dull. It's not something I sneak into the kitchen to nibble on (peas in pods don't last a day in our kitchen and cherry tomatoes are so very poppable) because on its own it is a bit bland. But the flavours it works with! And the processes and things you can do that turn it into magic. Here's to the mighty cauliflower!

The reason I am excited about cauliflowers is because I finally got around to making this sephardic dish of battered and fried caulflower in a lemony tomato sauce. I've had the recipe in my 'Make Me' pile for ages but it seemed like it might be a bit finnicky. It wasn't. You should make it.

You quickly blanch your cauliflower florets then drain them and mix them into a simple batter (half a cup of flour with some salt and pepper, tossed, then two eggs beaten with a bit of water, toss the floured cauliflower with that, then another half cup of flour - get in with yout hands!) then fry them up to golden and lovely. (I also dropped little blobs of batter into the oil.) You slip the crispy golden florets into a very simple tomato sauce with lemon zest and a squeeze of juice and let it barely simmer for ten minutes then eat it covered with parsley.

(Here's a link to the recipe proper on Michael's Herbivoracious blog.)

How good is that?

C declared it was his second favourite way to eat cauliflower. His favourite? Roasted and dipped in spicy ketchup. Yup, we're fancy.

Roasted Tomato and Sausage

When does a recipe become your own? How many times do you have to make it without following the original step by step to call it yours? How many changes, however slight, give you ownership of a set of instructions?

I think about that often while reading food blogs.

After the April sausage making class we had an abundance of sausages. In fact the freezer was quite full and it's only now that the numbers have dwindled enough for me to think about purchasing sausages again. For awhile we ate our homemade, artisan sausages with glee and they did in fact taste delicious - pride does add flavour! But then I started getting bored and looked around for sausage inspiration. I found a recipe on Jamie Oliver's site for sausages roasted with tomatoes to form a lovely sauce. Excellent. I followed the recipe and made the dish. Great - delicious, absolutely a make-again. And dead simple.

So the next time I glanced at the recipe and then went forth and made some changes. And then I made it again and didn't consult the recipe. And now, while the inspiration may have come from Jamie Oliver, the recipe is mine and it is one of my favourite comfort foods at the moment.

For two

Four sausages (Italian, cumberland, whatever. Preferably homemade ;)
A small mountain of cherry/grape tomatoes. I usually use a punnet and a half or so.
4 cloves of garlic, still in their skins
Herbs!
Rosemary, a sprig or two, finely chopped.
Thyme, three sprigs or so, finely chopped (or about a teaspoon of dried).
Oregano, half a teaspoon or so
Olive Oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper

The tomatoes get thrown into a roasting tin, the herbs sprinkled over top, douse with a bit of olive oil, be generous. Then add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Mix about. Toss in the garlic.

Roll the sausages in the oil and place them on the tomatoes. This whole thing goes in the oven (180 degrees) for about 45 minutes. Turn the sausages and mix up the tomatoes about half through. You want them to roast and blacken a bit. Sometimes my sauce is too watery and then I pop in on the stove to boil away and simmer, adding the sausages at the end to warm up before serving.

It's unctuous and herby and warm and served over polenta that's got a shocking amount of butter and cheese in it it is one of my favourite meals of the moment.

The thing is, we are actually almost out of sausages and while the class was fun I don't really see us going back... so we'll have to BUY sausages like regular people. Ew. How common.

Candied Tomatoes

At the height of summer tomato season, or when I get a bit overexcited about tomatoes and buy £20 worth of them from the nice guy at The Tomato Stall, I have, on occasion, wound up with too many tomatoes. Tragic. Especially if you're buying organic, kissed every night by virgins tomatoes. Those things should not go to waste. So I have had to come up with different ways to eat them that will encompass a whole glorious tomato feast. We do roasted tomato soup (last time we did it with feta cheese and dill sprinkled on top before serving which was excellent), the salad thing, fresh tomato pasta sauce, you know, the basics that you turn to when you have an abundance of tomatoes. But. What if you can't actually eat them that day. What if you're going out, and you know that the tomatoes sitting on the counter (because you and I both know we would NEVER EVER put tomatoes (or bananas) in the fridge - it makes me cringe when people do) will not make it until your next meal at home - which could be days away?

You roast them and turn them into little bundles of tomato candy. Then you can use them rather like you would sun dried tomatoes, except you made them yourself so they taste a bit sweeter and a bit more like win.

Or you could just eat them on their own. Pop them into your mouth. Like candy. Because they really are that sweet.

The idea is all over the place in various cookbooks, blogs and whatnots but the inspiration for this came from A Year in my Kitchen by Skye Gynell. The book is on my cookbook shelf and I am at my desk so here's a rough estimate of what I do.

Take tomatoes.
Cut in half.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar, olive oil.
Toss in preheated to 200 oven.
Immediately turn oven down to 150.
Do not open the oven door, let the heat stay inside.
Leave.
Go out for dinner with friends.
Enjoy.

Stumble home and peak in the oven - tada! Candied tomatoes! They should be shrivelled and not dry. Test one. If it's delicious test another, just to be sure. Toss in a jar, cover with olive oil and keep in the fridge.

I'm not sure how long they last because I eat them so quickly.

Biscuits & Late Summer Tomatoes

Even though it was hot out today, you can still sense the change. The students are back, apples are appearing at the farmer's market. Fall is sneaking into Toronto.

We got home from the market with hot, luscious tomatoes that taste like the very essence of all that is good in a tomato and a big glorious bunch of basil that perfumed our walk home. And we were hungry.

But, despite our visit to the market, we had virtually no other food- no flour, no sugar, no butter, no bread, no crackers, no cheese- with which to make lunch. So I made biscuits with self-raising flour, margarine (I know! I know! but it was all we had!) and left overs bits of bacon, leeks and cheddar cheese. Sliced open while hot and layered with thick tomato slices and basil ribbons, annointed with sea salt, pepper and olive oil.

I'd have served them to Gordon Ramsay for a light lunch.

Biscuits

1/4 cup shortening
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup milk (about)

Work the shortening into the flour until it resembles oatmeal.
Pour in milk and stir until just combined.
Turn out dough onto counter and knead in left over bits of flavour stuffs.

Make into biscuits (I made 8 largish ones) and bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Roasted Tomato Soup

The last tomatoes of summer are starting to make their way to the market and I want to eat as many of them as I can. As it started to get colder tonight I decided to make some soup and use up some of the multitudes of tomatoes on the counter.

The soup was essence of tomato - roasted with a bit of red pepper, a hint of garlic, a handful of onion and lots of freshly chopped basil. Drizzled blue cheese cream sauce leftover from our pasta lunch and reheated the bread sticks from the day before. Simple but so incredibly delicious and lovely.

No recipe, just tasted and balanced.