Roasted Garlic and Cauliflower Soup

I still can’t believe that I didn’t use any cream in this recipe - it turned out really thick and creamy solely from the veggies! This cauliflower soup serves as my next installment of "let’s make blended soups in all the colors of the rainbow." Of course white is not actually in the rainbow, but who's counting? Let’s get started...

For the garlic, slice the tops of the cloves while keeping the head intact and also peel off any loose paper from the head. Set it on a square of aluminum foil, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and fold up the sides leaving a little steam chimney up top. Throw this in a 400F degree oven for 45 minutes. After this, the garlic will have sweetened and mellowed and it ready to be squeezed right out of the bulb!



In the meantime, sautee 1-2 ribs of diced celery and the white part of some scallions in some olive oil for 5 minutes. I then diced up 2 small potatoes and added those (not too much --- this is just to give the soup more bones). Then add your cauliflower! I used an entire head that I had chopped up, but it was kinda scrawny so I added a few florets that I had in a frozen bag –shhhhhh! After the cauliflower browned a bit, I added stock to the top of the veggies and the roasted garlic, 5-6 cloves.



Along with some S&P and thyme, that was it for seasoning! I just let that simmer for 30 minutes and then gave it the ol’ blendaroo!

What’s next? A brown soup?? Mmmmmmm... mushrooms...

Roasted Cauliflower

Something about this dish makes me forget about carbs - since the only thing we had with it were M’s delicious boneless pork chops (brined, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and italian spices and seared, finished in the oven, and eaten with a little pan sauce/gravy... yummm!) and a glass of wine.

I took 1 ginormous head of cauliflower and cut it up into smallish florets. Into a 9x13 baking dish with the following: 1 sliced tomato (slices then cut into quarters), juice of 1 juicy lemon, 4 cloves of garlic cut into thick slices so they won’t burn to a crisp, some white pepper, several drizzles of olive oil, salt and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, remove and stir everything up, put it in for 30 minutes more or until fork tender.

This is a super easy dish... I love how the tips of the florets get a bit carmelized, bringing out the earthy sweetness in the cauliflower.

Who needs carbs?

What we've eaten...

Wow, it's been a while. What can we say - we've been busy. Busy with our new house, busy with weddings, busy with the summer. But also, busy with the new grill and other warm-weather-type cooking! We'll be better, we promise. Until then, here are just a few photos to catch us up...

BBQ-seasoned Pork "country style ribs" with Grilled Zucchini and Mashed Cauliflower... these are those fake, boneless pork "ribs" that you see in the store - I believe they are really just a pork loin cut up in a funny way. Regardless, the way it is cut is perfect for grilling:


Cajun Grilled Chicken Tenderloins with Fiddleheads and Spaghetti Squash - love spaghetti squash with parmesan cheese, and the fiddleheads are still in season! Finally ran out of our sampler of Penzey's Cajun Seasoning... need more!


Beer Can Chicken! - hahaha, it came out ok. We put some melted butter and fresh thyme in with the beer and cooked this thing on the grill. Flavor was nothing special - we are so used to brining our chicken at this point that I guess we are spoiled to any chicken that isn't! There is no other way to permeate chicken meat other than brining in some way, a fact of which we are thoroughly convinced. Because there is no fat to melt and carry flavor, you have to get flavor in there yourself. Next time, we'll brine the bird overnight first! Looked good, though!!!
yes, there's a beer can up in there...

Steak Tips, Collossal Freshwater Shrimp, Artichokes, Red Bell Pepper - All Grilled, of course! - I screwed up the artichokes, but we'll give that another shot. The easiest, best, tastiest grilled thing in the world: 1lb steak tips, in a freezer bag with a store-bought steak seasoning mix, a couple dashes of worchestershire, a dash of liquid smoke, a splash of olive oil, and a little gulp of beer. Roll up the bag TIGHTLY and let it sit for as long as you can stand. Grill for 8-12 total minutes - depending on the size of the tip strips - turning a few times. Cannot go wrong!


We go to the grocery store now and just look around, trying to think of anything that can go on the grill. Leave us some fun/exotic/interesting grill-item suggestions in the comments and we'll make them and post pics! Thanks and we'll be back again soon...

Braised Short Ribs and Mashed Cauliflower

Braised again??? Who do we think we are, Just Braise?

We swore last week that we'd eschew the braise for the roast - but alas the recipe for Braised Oxtail and Baked Eggs had us salivating... When it came down to it, however, we needed a dinner, not a brunch, and we decided to finally do what we've been pining to do for a long, long time - Braised Short Ribs. (We'll do the Oxtail recipe sometime soon.)

How easy is this braised short ribs recipe? On a scale of 1-10, this is a 4 on the easy scale. The hard part is starting early enough to let that tough meat cook to sweet, tender, buttery, fall-off-bone goodness. Give yourself a total of 3-4 hours from start to finish... The Faux Mashed Potatoes (Mashed Cauliflower) will only take up the last 1/2 hour of that time.

MEATS - 3lb Short Ribs - our butcher buddy at S&S cut these up right off a big hunk of meat in the back with that wonderful band saw. About $3.50/lb, could be cheaper - but still not bad.

We crusted this with a steak seasoning mixture - sea salt, garlic, onion, fennel, and black and red pepper - and pushed the seasoning well into the meat. Heated our dutch oven over medium high and added Can-Oil (that's canola) and seared the individual short ribs on four sides in two batches.

After searing all four sides for a couple minutes each, we removed them short ribs and set aside... then added celery, carrot, and onion to the pan and let those veggies brown. After a few minutes, added minced garlic, 1 cup vinegar*, 1/2 cup red wine (cabernet), 14oz can of diced tomatoes, several liberal dashes of Worchester, black pepper, and a big ol' bay leaf... stirred that all together as it starts to warm (scraping up the browned bits with that wooden spoon from the bottom of the pan that are left from the seared short ribs) and then finally we added the meat back in, settling them on the bottom with tongs. We ended up adding about two cups of beef broth, just until the ribs were covered with liquid.

Bring close to boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer 2.5 hours. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!


We don't eat lots of baking/white potatoes when we can use alternatives (Boston Chef #1 diet, Boston Chef #2 plays along...) so we do a mock one with frozen cauliflower (fresh sometimes, but that fresh cauli can be expensive) boiled and then drained. Add light cream cheese and seasoning and mash it up, just like potatoes. These are an excellent substitute for mashed po's!

Scores:
* Braised Short Ribs - 7 out of 10 - the texture was PERFECT, so tender, "falling off bone" is overused but true in this case - only 1/2 of the ribs actually hung onto the bone! The meat just stripped apart with the slightest touch - this would be perfect to add homemade bbq to the leftovers and make sandies. * Too much vinegar, however - next time 1/2 cup or less. The vinegar DID give it a great flavor, but the cupful was overpowering... The veggies came out great, too. Not mushy (because they were simmered, not boiled) and with lots of the beef and seasoning flavor.
* Mashed Cauli - 8 out of 10 - SUCH a great substitute for high-carb mashed potatoes... with a little of that beef juice spooned over the top, it is such a great side.

Also, Boston Chef #1 dragged Boston Chef #2 to the MALL where #2 was forced to buy new jeans... but it was worth it because we went into Williams and Sonoma with some $$$ left over on a gift card. We bought a great new 9" wok (we needed a wok!) that was on sale for $50 down from $110. So we'll be stir frying very soon and looking around for great recipes - got any? Post in comments!!! Thanks!

Leftovers tonight!!!