Roasted Cauliflower Puree

I'm so lucky to have people in my life who will indulge my food obsessions.  I grew up watching cooking shows on PBS with my Dad, can talk for hours with my Aunts about what to cook, and have one of the best cooking buddies in the entire world, my friend Brad.  We met in college in our intro to engineering class and have been close ever since.  Our junior year, we had a French cooking night where we made duck a l'orange, garlic roasted potatoes, haricot verts, and red wine poached pears.  It is in my top five of meals I've ever made or eaten in my entire life and we still talk about it to this day.

When he moved to the DC area last year, we started cooking together a couple times a month.  Wednesday nights were reserved for our most interesting of culinary creations.  The notable meals have included chorizo spiced mussels, beef wellington, and a fall inspired pork chops with apple cider gravy.    Right before Christmas, we attempted a roasted cauliflower puree that I could not get out of my head.  It was rich, flavorful, and the perfect complement for a great piece of steak!

I had to bring home this dish to my family for Christmas, but I wasn't as pleased with the texture this time around.  I think that our oven may have been a bit hotter than Brad's so the outsides of the florets got the beautiful caramelization provided by roasting but were still a bit "al dente" in the middle.  Not great for a puree.

Being a person who can't let sleeping dishes lie (read: two batches of bacon caramel in one week), I tried one more time.  This time?  I steamed the florets for about 5 minutes, dried them in the oven on a baking sheet at 400 F for five minutes, and then coated them in a little olive oil to roast at 400 F for 10-15 minutes until the florets developed some gorgeous roasted color:

While still warm, I put the (fully cooked!) florets into a food processor and added a little butter, a splash of cream, a couple cloves of roasted garlic, and salt and pepper (white pepper if you've got it).  Buzz it up until you have a smooth puree, adding a little more butter if you want a silkier finishing texture.  The results are incredible, described by my sister as "heavenly."  It's always high praise when a formerly picky eater loves your food; I will never stop delighting in any yum I elicit out of her.

Welcome, Brad, to your first of many posts on Everything in the Kitchen Sink!  Insert obligatory picture of us as babies in college…

Broccoli and Zoodle Summer Salad: 38 Power Foods - #5 Broccoli

When I was younger, I wasn't a broccoli fan.  Shocker, right?  It had absolutely nothing to do with the taste or me being a picky eater but a family story involving broccoli cooked so long that it turned grey.  Adding to the prejudice was the oddly sweet broccoli salad my mother would bring to picnics (sorry, Ger) and a green jello concoction with broccoli in it appropriately called "Green Stuff."  Seriously, how was a kid supposed to like broccoli when the adults insisted on mistreating it?

I grew up and so did my palette, and now I thoroughly enjoy broccoli and broccolini.  Which is great because it boosts immunity with beta-carotene, perfect for a lady who works in a hospital.  It also has been shown to regulate blood pressure, aid in dieting by providing fiber, and contains an antioxidant indole-3-carbinole that is anti-carcinogenic.  Good stuff, but probably not found in the cooked-to-death grey broccoli.

This salad was a result of overzealous purchase of local veggies and garlic in the kitchen transition.  I also picked up some nifty new peelers: a julienne peeler and a serrated peeler!  The serrated peeler will be able to get soft skins off of fruits while the julienne peeler makes adorable noodle like strips from hearty vegetables like zucchini and squash.  Before we switched to the linky party format for foodie friends friday, I featured a recipe about "zoodles" from Angie at A'lil Country Sugar and I've been thinking about using the zoodles in a faux pasta salad ever since!

They are a snap to make: just peel the skin and the "peel" with the julienne peeler.  To avoid the potential sticky zucchini juice, I put the strips into a cold water bath before blanching in salted boiling water.  Fresh local corn, cremini mushrooms, and broccoli florets were sautéed over medium heat in olive oil and added to the blanched noodles.

The star of this dish, however, is definitely the roasted garlic vinaigrette.  I bought about 10 heads of garlic because they were on super sale so I roasted half for an hour at 400 F (full instructions here) to freeze and store.  Roasted garlic, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil buzzed up with my immersion blender was a revelation.  I need to make this dressing every week!  It was mellow and sweet from the garlic with the bite of lemon that pairs so well with broccoli while getting all into the nooks and crannies of the florets.  Seriously, go make this now!

Also, it may be before my time, but I had Dana Carvey's chopping broccoli song stuck in my head whilst writing this post . . .