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Cauliflower Steaks, Mac’n’Cheese: Cookbook and Magazine Serve up Winners

It’s that blah mid-winter time of year and, for me, a bumpy patch on the mean­der­ing path of discovery.

The obvi­ous anti­dote: cook­ing up a storm in my com­pact Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket kitchen.

Much of this culi­nary cure for what­ever ails my trou­bled soul is inspired by recipes from cook­books and food mag­a­zines, both of which are on-and-off addictions.

So dear read­ers, as is my wont, I am about to share the fruit of my labours. In this case, it’s two recipes.

First, a superb dish called Roasted Cau­li­flower “Steaks” with Crunchy Parsley-Pine Nut Bread Crumbs from a big, gor­geous new cook­book called “Roast­ing” by Molly Stevens. These are so deli­cious, I won­der where this clever idea has been all my life. I now keep extra amounts of the crumb top­ping in my fridge to spin­kle on all man­ner of cooked veg­gies, salad, soup, meat, fish — almost any­thing except dessert.

Sec­ond is the delec­tably gooey, chewy Mac­a­roni and Cheese with Roasted But­ter­nut Squash that appeared on the cover of the Feb­ru­ary, 2012, issue of Chate­laine mag­a­zine. This is not a low-cal dish by any means but it is a tad health­ier than most ver­sions because of the chunks of roasted squash that inun­date it.

Here are the recipes, in both cases slightly tweaked by me. You’re welcome!

Roasted Cau­li­flower “Steaks” with Crunchy Parsley-Pine Nut Bread Crumbs

I make extra bread crumb mix­ture to scat­ter on any dish that could use it and use what­ever bread I have on hand, whirred in the food proces­sor, to make coarse crumbs. I used fresh corian­der instead of pars­ley and dried cran­ber­ries in place of raisins — I find both ingre­di­ents add extra zip. I stream­lined the method by toast­ing the crumbs and pine nuts in a skil­let instead of in the oven. Adapted from “Roast­ing” by Molly Stevens.

I medium head cauliflower

¹⁄₄ cup plus 1 tbsp olive oil

¹⁄₂ cup fresh (i.e. home-made) breadcrumbs

3 tbsp pine nuts

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¹⁄₄ cup chopped fresh pars­ley or coriander

3 tbsp golden raisins or dried cranberries

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Pre­heat oven to 450F.

Remove leaves from cau­li­flower. Cut core from base so it is slightly recessed but do not remove. Stand cau­li­flower upright and cut in slices about 3/4-inch thick. (Pieces will likely crum­ble off; don’t worry.) Place slices and crum­bled bits on bak­ing sheet lined with sil­i­cone liner or parch­ment paper. Driz­zle with ¹⁄₄ cup olive oil. Sprin­kle with salt and pep­per. Turn to coat.

Roast cau­li­flower in oven, turn­ing once or twice to brown evenly, about 30 min­utes or until tender.

Mean­while, make crumb mix­ture. Add remain­ing 1 table­spoon olive oil to medium or large skil­let. Add bread crumbs; cook over medium heat 8 to 10 min­utes or until golden brown. Place pine nuts in small skil­let; cook over medium-low heat until browned, about 5 min­utes. Cool crumbs and pine nuts.

Place pine nuts, pars­ley, raisins, lemon zest and a pinch of salt in food proces­sor. Pulse until coarsely chopped. Trans­fer to bowl. Add toasted crumbs; stir to combine.

To serve, trans­fer cau­li­flower to warmed serv­ing plat­ter. Just before serv­ing, sprin­kle with crumb mixture.

Makes about 4 servings.

Mac­a­roni and Cheese with Roasted But­ter­nut Squash

From Feb­ru­ary 2012’s issue of Chate­laine mag­a­zine. I roasted the squash slightly longer than the recipe pre­scribed, 30 instead of 18 min­utes. You could use any short pasta.

About 3 cups (half a medium) peeled, finely diced but­ter­nut squash

1 tsp olive oil

2 cups dry elbow macaroni

2 tbsp butter

¹⁄₄ cup all-purpose flour

2 ¹⁄₂ cups milk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

¹⁄₄ tsp salt

Pinch of cayenne pep­per (optional)

1 cup grated white cheddar

1 cup grated mozzarella

¹⁄₂ cup grated gruyere

¹⁄₃ cup panko bread crumbs

Pre­heat oven to 400F.

Toss squash with oil on bak­ing sheet. Bake in oven about 30 min­utes or until ten­der, stir­ring halfway through.

Cook mac­a­roni in pot of boil­ing water until al dente, about 8 min­utes. Drain.

Melt but­ter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Grad­u­ally whisk in milk, Dijon, salt and cayenne. Stir until mix­ture comes to boil. Remove from heat; stir in mac­a­roni. cheese and squash. Trans­fer to bak­ing dish. Sprin­kle with panko.

Place under broiler until top is golden brown, about 3 minutes.

Makes about 6 servings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted in Cauliflower ateaks with Parsley-Pine Nut Bread Crumbs, Man'n'Cheese with Roasted Butternut Squash, Molly Stevens, Recipe, Roasting and tagged cauliflower steaks. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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