Roast Cauliflower

"Cauliflower steaks" seem to be popular at the moment, so when I saw organic cauliflower at the Hollywood Farmers Market, I picked one up to make into "steaks".

I used the oven-roasting technique Marie Simmons describes in her book Fresh & Fast Vegetarian. It's still cool in the evening these days, so turning on the oven felt good.

The "steaks" are actually thick slices of cauliflower. This only works in the center section of the cauliflower. The outer florets fell off and got put back in the fridge to be steamed another day as a side dish.

Roasting the cauliflower until tender, then seasoning with lemon juice and mint from the garden, made for a really delicious side dish. I served it along with roast asparagus alongside a dish of millet and arugula. Vegetables are great!

Roast Cauliflower
1 medium cauliflower (about 1 lb)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1/2 lemon

Place a cookie sheet in the oven and preheat to 450°F for 10 minutes.

Rinse the cauliflower and place it, stem side down, on a cutting board. Cut straight down into 1/2 inch slices. The edges will probably crumble into florets. That's okay - save them for another dish. I got three good steaks out of my cauliflower. Brush the steaks on each side with olive oil.

Remove the hot cookie sheet from the oven and place the cauliflower steaks on it. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Roast until the cauliflower is getting golden on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Turn it over carefully using a wide spatula, and bake another 10 minutes until golden on the other side and tender.

Put the cauliflower on a serving dish. Sprinkle with mint and lemon juice.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Shopping

The spring sunlight slanted through the Hollywood Farmers Market at 8 a.m.. The produce glowed and beckoned. This is what we brought home:

snap peas and slender carrots from Finley Farms
4 pink lady apples and a dozen eggs from Ha's Apple Farm
5 small containers of plain St. Benoit yogurt
3 limes, 1 pomelo, 3 tangelos, 4 grapefruit and 1 haas avocado from Jorge
1 bunch of radishes from Flora Bella
a kabocha squash, parsley, 2 onions and 1 sweet potato rounded out the load

Russ sharpened two knives for me while we shopped

Greens and Rice

There is nothing better than looking in the fridge and seeing a container of cooked brown rice. Stirred up with some greens, it makes an easy dish for dinner.

The other day I cooked up a bunch of purple mustard greens along with the greens from a bunch of red radishes, then stirred in some cooked brown rice to dampen the heat a little.

It's a simple technique that can work for any cooked grain and any greens you have in your fridge.

Greens and Rice
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic
1 bunch purple mustard greens
greens from 1 bunch red radishes
2 cups cooked brown rice

Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onion and garlic until tender, about 3 minutes.

Wash the greens and cut into one-inch strips. Add to the pan, sprinkle on some salt, stir well and cover the pan. Let cook 5-10 minutes until the greens are soft and tender. (The time will depend on the type of green you are using.) Stir in the brown rice, cover and cook until the rice is hot and the flavors are blended.

Season with salt and pepper, lemon juice or hot sauce to taste.

Serves 2-3

Poached Eggs

One of my goals for 2014 was to learn to poach eggs.

I've tried a few times over the years - swirling the simmering water in a pan, adding a splash of vinegar to keep the egg intact, gently sliding in the egg - but I always ended up losing half the eggwhite in the water.

However, I was determined to master this technique because I really enjoy poached eggs. I often order them when we eat breakfast out, and I was aggravated that I couldn't eat them at home.

Then I found these nifty little egg poachers. They're ceramic non-stick dishes that keep the eggs intact while they cook in the water. I suppose technically the eggs are steamed, not poached, but the result is close enough for me.

First I butter the little pods, then crack in the eggs, I place them in a skillet of simmering water and cover with a lid. I check the eggs after 5 minutes - trying to remember that the whites will continue cooking after the eggs are removed from the pan.

We've enjoyed these poached eggs on toast, on cooked greens, on a bowl of rice, and on roasted root vegetables.

Very satisfying. I'll check that goal off my list.

Sunday Shopping

Vegetables, tulips and seedlings of peppers and tomatoes.

Spring has sprung at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Snap peas, asparagus, and more greens than I can name: It was tough to limit myself at the market today.

Larry would say I didn't - many pounds of produce came home with us. This is what we bought:

From Finley Farms I bought excellent heirloom spinach (to be used this week in stir-fries and salads), snap peas, tiny zucchinis and slender carrots (excellent for the lunch box) and 3 fennel bulbs.

Ha's Apple Farm had fragrant Pink Lady apples - I bought seven along with a dozen eggs (the picture at his stall of the hens eating their vegetables is priceless - we need to remember that chickens eat greens, not just corn, and that the more greens they eat the better the eggs are for our bodies). And Mr. Ha gave me an Easter gift of a bunch of lilacs that remind me of spring (May/June) in Montreal where they grow in hedges of scented purpleness. Our garden doesn't get enough chill for lilacs - Ha's farm is in the mountains where they get the chill they need to flourish. The bunch is on our hall table - sweetly scenting our whole house.

From Jared we bought a red onion, a yellow onion and 2 potatoes.

From Jorge we bought 16 oranges which made the most delicious juice ever for our brunch, 2 pomelos (including a really gnarly one which should provide me many ripe seeds for my future pomelo plantation) and 3 grapefruit for our breakfasts this week.

We bought 5 organic tangerines for Larry's lunches this week.

From Flora Bella in Three Rivers we bought beautiful bunches of chard and purple mustard greens.

South Central Farmers Cooperative had enormous bunches of curly kale that Larry had a hard time fitting into our cloth bags.

Two bunches of asparagus from Lompoc, a cabbage and small cauliflower, and a bunch of radishes rounded out the produce.

We also bought pistachios and walnuts. The walnuts are from a farm in Santa Rosa that has been growing walnuts since the 1800s. You might have heard we're in a drought. The biggest water consumers (farm-wise) are almond farmers - many of which have recently planted trees hoping to sell their nuts overseas for big bucks. Young trees are water hogs. Older ones have sent their roots deep into the earth and can handle drought better. So I try to buy nuts from old established orchards. I'm not sure about our pistachio supplier though. This eco-responsible thing is tough.

(Did you know residential - indoor and landscape - water use accounts for less than 10% of the water used in California?)

We also bought a loaf of bread so we could have toast under our Easter brunch poached eggs. And hot cross buns. Not healthy, but delicious.

And Russ sharpened three pairs of scissors for us while we shopped.

It was a good day at the Hollywood Farmers Market.