‘Cabbage with a college education’
MARK Twain called cauliflower a “cabbage with a college education” but it would seem to be the perennial student of the vegetable world as — yet again — food pundits are hailing it as a hot trend. This is the fourth year running that I have been aware of such pronouncements over cauliflower, so maybe it is aiming for “honours”.
Cauliflowers were developed by the Arabs in the Middle Ages and spread westwards through Europe. There is evidence of their being grown in Britain by the 16th century, but even as late as 1699, over 100 years later, the best seed still came from Aleppo according to the diarist, John Evelyn.
In her Vegetable Book, Jane Grigson wrote that a “JewishItalian traveller, Elias of Pesaro, wrote back home in 1563 from Cyprus that cabbages and cauliflowers were to be found there in abundance”. Some 400 years later, things had not changed much in Cyprus — on the cauliflower front at least — since she added, “The largest cauliflower I have ever seen . . . as about 45cm across. It was so large that the elderly Turk who was carrying it, in the outskirts of Nicosia, could not get his arm right round. Only enough to clamp it to his side, as he shuffled along in his droopy black clothes. A good omen. We were on our way to Kythrea [Değirmenlik], said to be the home of the cauliflower.”
While that final bit might not be strictly accurate, the huge size of some of the cauliflowers on sale in local shops and markets has not changed and is not just down to modern chemicals. Don’t be upset if you buy one and find it harbouring caterpillars or even small snails in among the maze of floret stalks. It’s annoying, but they are easily washed out and you can take comfort in the fact that any vegetable supporting that level of wildlife has not been “nuked” by dioxins.
We’ll start today with a recipe that I promised last summer when writing about Selin Kiazim and her Turkish Cypriot-inspired dishes, and I’m grateful to Selin for a her permission to reproduce it here. It features several of my favourite flavours and I think it’s delicious. If you are not sure, take Dr Seuss’s advice “and try it, try it” — experimentation worked for actor Jim Carrey, who is now a self-avowed cauliflower fan.
OKLAVA CHILLI-ROAST CAULIFLOWER
Half a cauliflower head, leave some of the green stalks on 2 tablespoons acı biber (hot pepper) paste
1 tablespoon tatlı biber (sweet pepper) paste 50ml extra virgin olive oil 5 tablespoons parsley leaves 5 tablespoons pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped Half a red onion, sliced as finely as you can
1 teaspoon sumac Salt and pepper to taste
Pre-heat the oven to180°C. Cut the cauliflower into four equal wedges, rinse under the cold water and pat dry.
Mix together the acı and tatlı biber pastes with 30ml of the olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Rub the mix all over the cauliflower wedges (you may want to wear gloves to do this) and place onto a lined baking tray. Place into the oven for around 1520 minutes.
Take out of the oven and place them into a dry hot non-stick frying pan for a minute or so on either side to achieve a slightly charred surface.
Place one wedge on every plate and top with the parsley, red onion and pistachios. Drizzle over the remaining olive oil and finally a sprinkling of sumac.
Of course, the classic partner for cauliflower is cheese and our next two recipes look at ways to enjoy the combination without involving a rich white sauce.
CAULIFLOWER CHEESE FRITTERS
250g cauliflower (trimmed weight), coarse stalk discarded 75g chickpea (gram) flour 3 eggs 75g white cheese, crumbled 40g kaşar cheese, diced Zest of a small lemon, coarsely grated Salt, freshly ground black pepper and grated nutmeg A handful of parsley, chopped Olive oil for frying
Chop up the cauliflower into small florets. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, tip in the cauliflower (including any tiny little bits left from the chopping), cover the pan and cook for three minutes. Drain well, then set the cauliflower aside in the hot pan to dry out while you make the batter.
Put the flour into a mixing bowl, season well with salt and pepper and add a generous grating of nutmeg. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until you have a smooth batter. Stir in the two cheeses, lemon zest and most of the parsley, then mix in the cauliflower so that all the florets are well coated.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan and spoon in dollops of the mixture, taking care not to crowd the pan. Fry for four or five minutes, until the fritters begin to look set on the top, then carefully flip them over and cook on the other side for another three or four minutes. Transfer the fritters to a platter and keep warm while you repeat with the rest of the batter.
Serve warm, scattered with the remaining parsley, with cacık or haydari on the side.
If your preference is for baked, rather than fried, try this variation.
Preheat oven to 200°C and line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment.
Cook the cauliflower until just tender. Drain well, cool slightly, and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Blot the florets with kitchen towel, then chop finely.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Taking a tablespoonful at a time, form the mixture into nuggets, using your hands to press them together as much as you can. You may need to add more breadcrumbs if your mixture is too wet. Arrange the nuggets on the prepared tray and spritz lightly with oil. Bake for 1520 minutes, until crisp and golden, turning once. Serve piping hot, with a home-made tomato sauce or chunky salsa.
All this week’s recipes should serve two to four as part of a main meal or four to six as part of a meze.