#ewew cooks (Daphne Brogdon Inspired) Best Cauliflower Dish

Feelings of guilt for over-indulging during the Christmas festivities have seen me eating a lot of salads lately.

Usually it'd be from a packet of triple-washed salad leaves with an additional pack of rocket leaves (which is good enough for 4 servings).  Sometimes a protein of shredded omelette or lean chicken fillet is added and tossed with either Kewpie's Roasted Sesame or Thousand Island dressing.  

But I grew tired of eating it for two consecutive weeks....and that's when I remembered this recipe from one of the latest cooking shows I'm following...Daphne Dishes!  She's a blogger, married to an award winning chef, mom to two adorable kids (and one cute dog)...and she's even done stand-up comedy.  That's why I love her show so much coz she's really funny.  Plus her dishes are easy to follow (at least some of them from what I've seen) which revolve around family-friendly meals (that she cooks with her two kids in mind).

This Daphne inspired Best Cauliflower Ever is my first attempt to try out one of her dishes....and to great success I might add.  I have to say I was simply blown away by how such a simple dish can taste so good! ^.^

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower (about 600g)
1 medium red bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp silken tofu
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
Some red pepper flakes
Salt & black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Cut up the cauliflower into smaller florets.  Wash and make sure you drain really well as we want the cauliflower to char (not steam) when we saute them later on.  Deseed and quarter the red pepper.  Chop up 2 cloves of garlic.

Method:

Throw the cauliflower florets into a non-stick pan with some olive oil to saute until it's well browned and tender.  Season with a good pinch of salt and some freshly cracked black pepper.  This will take about 20 minutes.  Start with medium heat to get a good char on your cauliflower, then lower the heat to allow it to slowly soften.

You can (of course) put a lid on it to help it soften quicker but I wouldn't recommend it as your cauliflower will steam.  The slow sauteing method gives it the nice grilled flavour, so you need to be patient with this.  Do a taste test to ensure that you've got the cauliflower softened to a level you like and the seasoning is right.

At this point (with some sauteed garlic), the cauliflower is certainly good enough for eating.  I've eaten it this way many times as I find it a whole lot nicer because of the grilled flavour it imparts (rather than blanching the cauliflower in hot water and then stir-frying it with garlic).  Some might even want to blitz it up to make cauliflower rice.

But Daphne took it to another whole new level by making a sauce and so I followed suit.  I lined the quartered red pepper on a sheet pan and roasted it at 220°C for 20 minutes until charred (you can also roast the pepper under an open flame if you're using a gas stove).

Remove from the oven and roughly chop them up.  Some of you might want to remove the charred skin but I like the little bit of burnt flavour it imparts, so I'd leave it on.  As you can see, I didn't quite get the amount of charring I desired...and that's because I was trying to be a smart alec and thought that I could increase the temperature and cook it for a shorter period of time.  I got better charring when I made roasted peppers previously by using 200°C for 30 minutes (so, in future, I'm gonna stick to that temperature+timing and add a drizzle of olive oil to get it going).

Drizzle more olive oil onto a non-stick pan and saute the cut up roasted peppers with the chopped garlic briefly.  This is just to allow the raw garlic to warm up a bit in the olive oil.

Pour the contents into a mini blender and blitz.  When it's blended, it turned into this creamy sauce and the colour was very vibrant (only marred in the photo due to the lighting).

At this point, to make the sauce even creamier, Daphne added something unconventional...silken tofu (2 tbsp of it or about a third of a 300g pack)...and it's genius!  Blitz again.

Pour the sauce over the now softened cauliflower.

Give it a good stir and add in 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs, 1 tbsp of sesame seeds and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes for some heat.  If you don't have breadcrumbs and sesame seeds at your disposal, you can omit them. These two ingredients just give the dish a little bit more texture.

Give it another quick stir to ensure everything's well mixed together.

And my Daphne Brogdon inspired Best Cauliflower Dish Ever is ready =)

The dish starts with this soft but still slightly crunchy texture of the cauliflower followed by the nice roasted flavour of the pepper-made sauce.  Then you get this little bit of crunch from the sesame seeds and ends with a little kick of the red pepper flakes.

When I took the first bite, the dish tasted so creamy and decadent that you'd think it had some calorie-laden cream involved...but there was obviously none.

Not only did the silken tofu add creaminess to the dish, it's also a very healthy option to use instead of cream. It's perfect for those who seek a low-carb or gluten-free meal.

And then Daphne asks, "Is it the best cauliflower dish you've ever had?  I might be bias but I think so."  And I couldn't agree with her more.  It was certainly the best tasting cauliflower dish I've ever made (with her recipe).....and eaten! ^o^

I guess I'm never going back to my boring blanched, steamed or stir-fried cauliflower ever again.  I implore you to give this a go (if you love cauliflower)....and I can assure you that you won't regret doing so...plus the recipe is actually pretty simple to nail.

With this dish being such a success, it looks like I'll be trying more of her recipes in future! ^_*

Serves 4 (as a side dish) or 1 (as a "carb less" meal...which I couldn't finish in one sitting)