Cauliflower with Jerusalem Artichoke Puree and Pickled Okra | You've Got Meal!

Vegetarians out there, rejoice! You might make a meat free man out of me yet, but you still have a long way to go regarding dairy. This vegetarian combo was both light and fulfilling, which I can’t say about a lot of meatless meals I had. You can make this recipe vegan all the way, but removing butter from the puree wasn’t really an option for me.

You’re going to need: 

• 1 small cauliflower, broken into small florets, 
• cumin seeds, 
• chick peas, 
• parsley, 
• olive oil, 
• equal quantities of Jerusalem artichoke and potatoes (about 350 grams each), 
• butter, 
• salt, pepper
• (optional) goat cheese.

1. Mix the cauliflower florets with the cumin seeds, salt, pepper and olive oil and cook in the medium hot oven for 20 minutes. 
2. Add in a handful of chickpeas from a can and cook for another 5 minutes, just enough to heat through – careful here, the more you let the beans in, the drier they will get. 
3. Put the cauliflower and chickpeas on a plate and sprinkle goat cheese and chopped parsley on top.

1. For the puree, clean/peel the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes and boil them in some salted water. 
2. When boiled through, remove the water, add some more salt, a dash of pepper and about 50-75 grams of butter. 
3. Use a fork or a masher to make your mash – or a food processor.  

What can I say about the pickled okra, except the fact is awesome and it goes really well with the vegetarian feel of the whole dish. What’s not to love: okra pickled in apple vinegar with sugar, celery, bay leaves and lots of chili and just a hint of garlic.

Enjoy,

Chorizo, Cauliflower and Porcini Risotto| You've Got Meal!

Cooking rice is something that doesn’t happen nearly enough in our kitchen, so, when we had to plan a meal for a couple of guests coming over, this risotto dish came to mind. Maybe I was influenced by the fact that we had all in the ingredients in our pantry or fridge, but who knows?

So, a nice piece of spicy chorizo sausage, about 200 grams, cut into slices, 

200 grams of cauliflower florets, 

300 grams of porcini , cut into big chunks (that’s the way I like them, feel free to change it), 

1 large onion diced, 

3 cloves of garlic, diced, 

about 220-250 grams of rice (use a risotto appropriate variety), 

100 grams of a good quality dry white wine, 

400 ml of vegetable or chicken stock, 

100 grams of butter and 

your heart’s desire of parmesan, salt, pepper and olive oil.

 Start of by cooking the onion and garlic on high heat for a couple of minutes, until they start softening. Add the meat and cook it for another 3-4 minutes, after which add the mushrooms and give those another 4 minutes, making sure that they are coated in the chorizo infused oil in the pan. Throw in the cauliflower and cook that for another 3-5 minutes. Add the rice, salt and pepper and cook it without liquid for 2 minutes, constantly stirring so that it mixes with the rest of the ingredients. Add the wine and reduce it on high heat down to about a third. Add the stock, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until the liquid has reduced enough and the rice has a creamy rich consistency. If necessary, add more stock.

Right at the end, put in the butter and whisk it in so that it melts and mixes in uniformly. Remove from heat and add the grated parmesan, whatever quantity you feel like and some parsley (optional, our guests didn’t need it). If you feel that the chorizo doesn’t hold the spicy kick you need in this risotto, add a diced red (for visual purposes) chili with the onion and garlic.

 To serve as a salad for this risotto, I opted for a very nice lemony, crunchy blistered  broccoli. I already explained how to make that in this recipe, the difference in this instance being that I didn’t add garlic but only lemon, some more olive oil, salt, pepper, chili and some tomato tiny cubes. If you have some nice salad leaves (some lola rosa works nice for taste and it brings a nice visual upgrade) you can mix them in for a more salad-ish feel to this broccoli.

  

Enjoy,

Cauliflower and Cumin Fritter with Lemon Yogurt Dip- Appetizers August (5)

To keep going (rather slow) with our Appetizers August, I was thinking of a nice dish with vegetables, to take advantage of the summer goodies. Cauliflower is not something I always loved, when I was a kid I would only eat it pickled. Now, we came to better terms and I appreciated now.

I always like when I think of a vegetable to know at least 3 totally different ways to cook it. Fritters and patties are always a nice solutions, you can serve them cold, you can pay with size and serve them as appetizers, you can take them the next day to work/school for lunch. So, I found in Ottolenghi, The Cookbook a recipe that was promised to be very flavorful.

I followed the recipe completely and I'm showing it to you exactly like that.