Experiments in the kitchen
Trying something new with cauliflower crowns lead to amazing results
There are times when I’m in the kitchen, and I wonder what if?
What if I try something new?
Now, this can be a bit intimidating in the kitchen when we think about the money we spend on our groceries. For me, I’ve found that with these experiments, whether they are successes or epic failures, I always learn something valuable.
Like most chefs, I have a notebook where I write down my ideas, my experiments and the recipes I come up with that I think are worth duplication.
I have several notebooks that began when I started culinary school, which now seems to be a good time ago. By extension, these notebooks serve as a sort of journal capturing the eras of my life where specific techniques and cuisines served as my muses.
After my time apprenticing in Italy, many of the dishes I “created” had heavy influences from Tuscany and its nuanced cuisine; this practice continues to this day. During my first trip to China, I spent over two weeks in the Sichuan province, and this proved to be monumentally inspiring to my cooking long after my time in Pixian.
Sichuan cuisine is one that is well-loved and celebrated across China but, as anything, experiencing it from the source is best. I fell in love with prickly ash and the fiery red chili dishes that would often feature this mouthnumbing spice.
One of the most ubiquitous condiments you will find on the table of a Sichuan restaurant, and home kitchens, is chili crisp. Chili crisp is comprised of many spices, such as clove, black cardamom, prickly ash, sesame and dried red chili flakes. These spices are then doused in smokingly hot oil, whereby the chili and accompanying spices become
crisped. This chili oil is most often used as a garnish for soups, dumplings and noodles, but I found that this magical concoction has farreaching applications.
One afternoon, while I was working on a paper for my post-graduate studies, my thoughts began to wander, as thoughts are expected to do when reading lengthy journal articles featuring quantitative data. I started thinking about what I wanted to eat, as I was starting to get a bit hungry. I had a crown of cauliflower in the fridge, and I started to think fondly about a cauliflower stir fry that featured chili oil. I didn’t have the time or energy to prepare that dish, but I wanted to reap the flavour benefits.
This is where I decided to try something new. While roasting cauliflower is hardly new at all, I wanted to move away from the typical Italian flavourings or the buffalostyle versions I made regularly. I ended up making a concentrated flavour paste with sesame paste, chili crisp and sugar. I lavishly brushed the crown with said paste and roasted it for about 35 minutes. The results were absolutely moreish. I shared a picture of my little cauliflower crown on Twitter, and many responded that they had to have the recipe. So, here it is: