Recipe

"Smoked" cauliflower with cumin, pepper, and cilantro

"Smoked" cauliflower with cumin, pepper, and cilantro
  • This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Cauliflower Recipe
  • Chef

    sarah_wallace's Notes: In this dish of Indian (ish) origin, the fragrance of whole spices sizzled in oil and butter permeate cauliflower florets as they are slowly roasted stovetop. The simplicity of the ingredients...

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Serves 4

  1. Break the cauliflower into medium-size florets.

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  2. Heat a largish, lidded saute pan, and then add oil and butter till smoking.

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  3. Turn the heat down to medium, and add in the whole cumin and peppercorns, stirring. The spices will sizzle and be immediately fragrant, but keep stirring them until the cumin seeds have darkened, but not so long that they burn, about 30-45 seconds. At the end of this time, the oil should be fragrant and start to smoke a bit.

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  4. Immediately add in the cauliflower florets and firmly yet carefully fold in the florets into the spices and oil. Each floret should be slicked with oil and studded with a few peppercorns and cumin seeds. Salt to taste.

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  5. Tightly cover the pan, turn the heat down to medium low, and let the cauliflower cook for about 20 minutes, stirring every so often.

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  6. At the 20 minute mark, stir in the chopped cilantro, and continue to let cook, covered, for another 5-7 minutes.

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  7. The dish is done when the cauliflower gently yields to pressure while still remaining toothsome, and has a few roasted edges.

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  8. Pile the cauliflower, toasted whole spices and all, onto a serving platter and enliven with a squeeze of lemon juice. This dish is delicious hot, room temperature, or cold.

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2 Comments on "Smoked" cauliflower with cumin, pepper, and cilantro

Summer_2010_1048 Reply

Sounds great!

Sarahingingerfactory Reply

Thanks Midge. Typically, homemade clarified butter would be the fat of choice, but a mixture of oil and butter works well too!

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