Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower was a weird vegetable for me growing up. My mom boiled the h.. out of it, and like many overcooked vegetables it went on my "I don't like that" list. Please DO NOT overcook and especially over-boil your vegetables. 
You can prepare cauliflower so many ways, or just eat it raw, but by roasting it whole like this you get a great nutty flavor, with a crispy surface with a tender and almost creamy center. It might be time consuming but its well worth the wait. 

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 large cauliflower, the one I used was yellow to start with

• olive oil

• salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven with a cast-iron skillet inside to 375℉ (190℃).

Break off and discard the outer leaves from the cauliflower. Cut off the bottom of the stem, being careful not to cut off any of the florets. Using a small sharp knife to cut out the hard core of the cauliflower.  

Rinse the cauliflower, not drying it again. Place the cauliflower core-side up on the cutting board, and drizzle it with olive oil. Rub the oil all over the surface, and sprinkle with sea salt.

Place the cauliflower core-side down in the hot cast-iron skillet. Place an ovenproof pan filled with hot water, to create steam in the oven. Roast the cauliflower for 1½-2 hours, basting it 2-3 times with more olive oil. You want to end up with a nice brown color on the surface and a nice tender inside. You can roast the cauliflower under the boiler for a brief moment in the end to add some more color.

Serve the cauliflower to your favorite protein.

Enjoy!

Mortens And - Roasted Duck

Duck roasting - from the oven cam.

Mortensaften - is celebrated on November 10th. 

The tradition that Danes and some parts of Germans eat duck on this night, dates back to before 1616. 

The story tells us that a monk called Martin or Morten in Denmark was forced to become a bishop, but he didn't want the job, so he hid in a pasture filled with geese. Not the smartest place, cause the geese honked and  Morten was revealed. As the tail goes Morten Bisp, now bishop ordered everyone to eat geese on November 10th as a punishment for the geese for ratting him out. 

Over time people switched to eating ducks, maybe because of the smaller size. 

The traditional way is to serve the duck with caramelized potatoes, pickled red cabbage and gravy, kinda the same way as the traditional christmas dinner/pork roast. To change things up, I caramelized an assortment of root vegetables and kept the red cabbage.

Ingredients:

Duck:

• 1 duck (7-8 pounds)
• 2 oranges
• 2 apples
• 2 handful of pitted prunes
• a handful salt and some pepper
• 1 star anise
• 3 whole allspice
• 5 whole cloves

Pickled Red Cabbage:

• 1 medium red cabbage
• 25 g butter, salted
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (I mixed half balsamic and half blackberry-ginger balsamic for a sweeter taste)
• salt and pepper to taste

Caramelized Root vegetables:

• 3 large carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 3 sun chokes (Israeli artichokes)
• 1 small root celery
• 3 small beets
• salt
• a splash of oil for the baking
• sugar and butter for the caramelizing

Directions:

Duck:

Preheat the oven to 265℉ (130℃).

Chop the oranges and apples in the size of the prunes. Mix star anise, allspice, cloves and the broken cinnamon stick with apples, oranges and prunes. Have the salt in a clean cup.

Take neck and giblets out of the duck. Make sure that all feather sacks are out of the duck, you don't want a hard part of the feather in the crispy skin.

Pad the duck dry with some kitchen towel. Salt the duck inside, and fill it with the fruit mixture. Close the opening with a  trussing needle. 

Truss the duck by placing the duck on a tray with the legs towards you. Tuck the wing tips under the duck. Cut a piece of cooking twine about 3 feet (1 meter), and center it on top of the neck end of the breast. Lift the neck end of the duck and pull the twine down around the wings and under the duck, then bring the ends up over the breast, towards you, and knot the twine, pulling it tight to plump the breast. Bring the ends of the twine around the ends of the drumsticks and straight up. Tie as before to pull the drumsticks together and form a compact bird; tie again to secure knot."

Well, I did it my way, and tried my best to get the compact duck. Sometimes I just pull the wing onto the back of the duck, and use a cooking rubber band to tie the legs together.

Salt the duck with a lot of salt. 

Put the duck in the oven, breast side down, and cook it like this for 3-3½ hours. Have a pan under the duck, and put the giblets, neck and water in it. This water/drippings will be the base for the sauce. 

After 3½ hours turn the duck breast side up, and roast it for another 1½-2 hours until the temperature in the duck reaches 158℉ (70℃). If the skin isn't crispy, give the bird a few minutes under the boiler, be careful not to burn the duck.

Take the duck out and let it rest. Pour the drippings from the pan through a strainer into a saucepan. Skim the fat from the surface. I use a fat separator, which makes this process a breeze. Save the fat in the refrigerator or the freezer. Duck fat is a flavorful fat, and is perfect to roast potatoes in.

Add some cream, blue cheese and red currant jelly to the drippings and thicken the sauce.

Remove the twine and carve the duck. 

Red Cabbage:

Remove outher leaves of cabbage, and cut cabbage into quarters and remove the white core. Thinly slice the cabbage across the quarters width-wise. To get uniform slices I use a mandolin.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and sear it for a couple minutes. Add vinegar and sugar.  Simmer the cabbage for 10-15 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Season with salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar. Serve heated to pork roasts or roasted duck. 

Caramelized Root vegetables:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Peel the root vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Keep the beets separate even during baking, to prevent all the vegetables from turning red. Dress the vegetables in oil and season with salt. Bake the vegetables in ovenproof dishes for about 30 minutes until tender, but not soft. Cool the vegetables. Just before you are ready to serve, heat a large skillet over high heat, pour in the sugar and melt it. When the sugar has turned the color of light amber, add the butter and stir with a wooden spoon. Carefully pour the vegetables into the hot caramel. Lower the heat and make sure the vegetables get covered in the caramel and get heated through. Serve immediately, otherwise the vegetables looses the shine.

Enjoy!

Roasted Hokkaido Pumpkin 5-Grain Salad

Roasted Hokkaido Pumpkin 5-Grain Salad

This is a perfect side to your fall roasts. It's colorful, healthy and has great texture. Hokkaido pumpkin is a mild pumpkin, not overly sweet like other pumpkins and winter squashes. This makes it easy to season so that it goes well with many different cuisines. This time I seasoned it a little to the mild side, and it went perfect with our rotisserie chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Hokkaido pumpkin/red kuri squash
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• ½ teaspoon piment d'espelette
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 250 g (8.8 oz) 5 grains (mix of spelt, barley, whole grain long rice, Kamut and oats berries)
• 1 large handful Italian parsley, chopped
• 15 g roasted pumpkin seeds
• 1 orange, peeled and cut into filets
• salt & pepper to taste 

Directions:

Cook the grains according to package instructions. I cooked it in chicken stock. Drain and let sit to cool.

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). 

Peel the pumpkin, cut it into two halves and scoop out seeds. Cut the pumpkin into ¾-inch cubes. Coat pumpkin with olive oil, rosemary, piment d’espelette and salt. Bake the pumpkin in a large ovenproof dish in a single layer, for 30-40 minutes. Let the pumpkin cool before mixing.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, grains, parsley, orange filets and pumpkin seeds. Season the salad with salt and pepper. You can dress the salad with a lemony vinaigrette that you like.

Enjoy!

Garlic Green Beans

Garlic Green Beans

For the longest time I have been making a bean salad with the same ingredients. It is a really easy salad that pairs perfectly with simmer foods. But instead of boiling water to boil the beans in, we now have to conserve water, because of the severe drought here in California, so why not just cook the beans in oil, and season the beans. This must be a win-win situation.

I like to just heat my beans through without getting them soft and soaky. I want my beans to be crispy and have somewhat of a bite.

Ingredients:

• 300 g fresh green beans
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Break off the ends (tops and tails) of the beans. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the beans and cook them over high heat, until they start to get some color, and they are heated through. Remove from heat. Season the beans with garlic, salt and pepper.

Pour the beans into a warm serving dish, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Sorbet

Chocolate Sorbet

Whatever the question, Chocolate is the answer!

The first time I heard about chocolate sorbet was at the Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz. And even though I'm not a huge chocolate fan, I really like the flavor. This is my version of a chocolate sorbet.

Makes about 1 liter (1 quart)

Ingredients:

• 500 ml (2 cups+1 tablespoon) water
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar
• 75 g (⅔ cup) unsweetened coco powder, I use Valrhona
• 1 pinch salt
• 160 g (5⅔ oz) dark chocolate, I use Valrhona
• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1 tablespoon coffee

Directions:

In a large saucepan, whisk together water with sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Bring to a boil while whisking frequently. Let it boil for about 30 seconds, then remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into an stainless steel bowl, and stir in the chocolate until it's melted, then stir in the vanilla paste and espresso. Chill the mixture before freezing. Freeze the sorbet in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.