Seasons by the Sea: Cauliflower Power!
Cauliflower is one of Long Island’s best-known crops. Our climate, with cool evenings and moist air, is perfect for growing firm, sweet, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis.
I love cauliflower. It is one of the most versatile and healthy vegetables. You can eat it raw, pickle it, roast, steam, stew, bake, puree, and grill it. There are even some vegan and vegetarian recipes using cauliflower as a substitute for pizza crust and risottos with cauliflower in place of Arborio rice. More on those later. . . .
Cauliflower is a member of the cabbage family, along with kale, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. Other family members are mustard greens, cresses and arugula, turnips, horseradish, and Asian greens such as tatsoi and mizuna. There are also accidental hybrids such as rutabaga and the intentional hybrid broccolini. If you are one of those people who can’t stand the smell of any cabbage-y vegetable cooking, you should be happy to know that cauliflower is very low in the amount of “sulphur pungency precursors,” rating a mere 2 compared to 35 for Brussels sprouts, according to Harold McGee in his “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.” It is interesting and ironic that these vegetables, which nowadays are so revered for their health benefits, were also used during World War I to formulate poisonous mustard gas.
My favorite methods of cooking cauliflower are roasting and pureeing. To roast, I simply toss the florets with olive oil, sliced onion, salt and pepper, and a bit of curry powder. Easy peasy! My favorite puree is Daniel Boulud’s recipe, which has apples and onions and pairs beautifully with duck and pork.
In India a different variety of cauliflower that can tolerate the less hospitable growing conditions is extremely popular and is incorporated into all kinds of curries and bharwan gobhi, gobhi masaleder, tandoori gobhi, and more.
The health benefits of cauliflower are impressive: It is full of vitamin C, antioxidants, essential micro-nutrients, and fiber. The sulfuraphane in it is a cancer-killing compound and helps lower blood pressure.
It is popular as a pizza crust substitute, rice substitute in risotto, and roasted whole with mustard and spices and then sliced like a big albino steak.
In my dreadful attempt at cauliflower pizza crust I came upon an abominable recipe on a paleo diet website. First it suggested mixing it with a “healthy” fat, such as butter or lard. Then it recommended topping it with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, chicken sausage, and prosciutto. Apparently, these are all acceptable foods on the stupidest and most dangerous diet fad since the Atkins diet. Other recipes for the crust, such as Rachael Ray’s, are a wee bit better. Unfortunately, if you are going to try this, be prepared to spend a lot of time and toil and a lot of your kitchen equipment because it is labor intensive.
First you grind up the cauliflower in your food processor, then steam or microwave it, then cool it and wring it out in several dish towels, then mix it with eggs, cheese, and spices, then bake anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes depending on which recipe you believe, then add toppings, bake some more, and nap, ’cause that’s what I had to do after three hours of this. My guinea pig son described the final product as tasting like the inside of a vegetable lasagna. I am definitely going to try the cauliflower risotto, because that sounds like a lot less work and quite delicious.
When buying cauliflower, look for creamy white heads with no little black spots. The green leaves enveloping the head should look fresh as well, not yellow or wilting. Cauliflower keeps well in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, and once cooked, about two to three days. And by all means, seek out the beautiful green, orange, and purple cauliflowers at the markets.
Maybe cauliflower is “nothing but cabbage with a college education” as Mark Twain wrote in “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Extraordinary Twins,” but that is probably what makes it the most feisty and versatile of all the cruciferous vegetables.
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