Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens
I’m on the fence about this vegetable dish. I didn’t love it or hate it. It made a nice side to hamburgers, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to make it again. To me, cauliflower tastes best when simply roasted with salt and pepper.
In Stevens’ recipe, you start out by frying traditional Indian spices such as cumin, coriander, ginger and tumeric in vegetable oil. Then cauliflower, potatoes and water are added to the spices and braised until the veggies are tender. At the end of the braise, peas are added to the dish.
I like your suggestion about broiling the cauliflower dish. That might give it some texture and a little more depth of flavor. I just happen to have an excess of celery, so I think a braised celery dish is on the horizon. Thanks for the recommendation!
I am a HUGE fan of this cookbook; I’ve given it as a gift to 5 or 6 people. I happened to be making this for the first time tonight.
This was not my favorite so far, but I think I know why. I think if one lengthened the braising time before adding the peas, then very briefly broiled at the end (I’m talking a minute or two about 8 inches from the broiler), it would have the delicious barely-mushy texture of home-cooked Indian dishes similar to this, and would also get the extra caramelization from the broiling.
That said, my wife always yells at me for being too self-critical about my cooking, and she was very happy. I made a similarly-spiced carrot-ginger soup for an appetizer, then the entree was this dish alongside a leftover piece of an excellent roast chicken she made a few days ago. Everything went together nicely.
If you haven’t done so yet, make the braised celery that is in the book immediately before this. I am bored with making it because everyone who has ever tasted it insists that I bring it to every dinner and every potluck. I follow the recipe fairly exactly, and use cave-aged Gruyere as the cheese. I tried using half Parm-Reg (because I love that cheese), but I was surprised that for once I preferred Gruyere. In fact, I’m making it again tomorrow to take it to a Thanksgiving dinner, by request.
Also, a friend to whom I gifted the book absolutely swears by the coq au vin; says it is the best recipe for it he has ever made. That one is on my short list.
Cheers all!
I like all the stuff in this recipe but together with ginger and stuff just doesn’t sound like something I would like. Could be wrong after tasting it tho.
This doesn’t sound good to me. I like cauliflower sparingly when it’s roasted in the oven, potatoes too. (Them, pretty much fixed any ole’ way.) Now peas… I’m still working on those. Did you hear about the really yummy blue berry muffin recipe listed on here????? LOL