Recipe: Cauliflower Puree

Oddly, this recipe comes from my Cuisanart manual's recipe section. As mentioned in my February Food Porn post, the pureed cauliflower truly tastes just as good as mashed potatoes and has less carbs. You could vary it using goat cheese instead of butter, and raw or sauteed shallots instead of garlic.

Note: This recipe requires a food processor and makes approximately six servings.

Ingredients
1 Large Cauliflower head
3-6 cloves garlic, to taste
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1/4c reduced-fat sour cream
3 tbls unsalted butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
-Cut cauliflower into florets.
-Place in medium-size saucepan with garlic and onion.
-Cover with water and bring to boil over high heat.
-Reduce heat to low, cover loosely, and cook until cauliflower is tender, about 15-20 minutes.
-Drain. Since you're going to put it into the food processor, you don't need to let cool much, just enough so that you can handle it.
-Using metal processor blade in work bowl, add in vegetables.
-Press the pulse button 5 times to chop the vegetables.
-Add sour cream, butter, salt, and pepper, then process for about 2 minutes until smooth and creamy (I usually taste once or twice to see if I've got enough salt, pepper, and garlic in).
-You'll likely need to microwave the puree in order to serve it hot.

You can definitely prepare this a day or two ahead -- it still tastes just as good.

Beet Soup, Just like the Picture!

My beet soup looks just like the picture in Bon Appetit, oui?

Kitchenware

Over the weekend, Jon and I returned a Pottery Barn lamp I'd bought online with the last of our wedding-related credits (the blue lamp base was not the same in person as it was in the catalog, which is silly since it was a non-store product!). We decided to use the credit at Williams-Sonoma to buy some fun stuff instead.

Note: My idea of fun stuff is different from what it used to be (a $50 meal out in NYC vs. $50 worth of kitchen gear, which will last much longer than one evening out!).

Items purchased:
-For salad dressing, I usually use olive oil, balsamic, salt, pepper, and sometimes lemon juice, so I've started experimenting with different varities of olive oil. Now there are separate oils for cooking and for dressings in the kitchen cabinet. I asked for a recommendation and ended up buying a small bottle of extra virgin Lungarotti, which comes from Umbria, and is "characterized by a noteworthy balance between fruitiness, bitterness and spiciness." Haven't tried it yet. Will let you know.

-"The peach-colored salt flakes from Australia have a rich yet delicate flavor," says the package of Finishing Salt. It's mild in flavor, heavy in saltiness, thick in texture, and doesn't have that girl holding an umbrella on it! I'll use it for fish, vegetables, and even steak. I really like to splurge on special ingredients as I'm more inclined to think of unique ways to use them when they're nicely packaged...or expensive.

-New, matching oven mitts. The ones we had weren't thick enough to fully block out the oven's heat and, well, didn't match. In a bad not matching way, not a cute, funky one!

-A high-fallutin' baking pan. I have two really old ones that are so stained, and this one is "commercial quality." It glistens, that's all I care about! How cool: "The extremely durable metal heats quickly and evenly to ensure uniform baking. With use, the pan darkens slightly, increasing its ability to absorb heat."

-Tongs made of stainless steel with heat-resistant nylon tips that are okay to use in our non-stick Calphalon. We've had to buy a couple of new utensils like that since you can't use metal with our new pots and pans. For my next kitchen splurge, I want a nylon-tipped whisk. I also need a larger liquid measuring cup and new 12-piece cupcake tins. I'm sure I'll come up with some other items as well in the meantime!

Obamarama

To celebrate President Barack Obama's inauguration, Jon and I threw a party in his honor, replete with many of his favorite foods. We relied on the blog ObamaFoodORama, and some serious Google research, to come up with the following menu.

-Obama's family chili recipe (link to the recipe here), which was very tasty. I'd definitely make it again.

-His supposed favorite snacks, Planter's Trail Mix and Dentyne Ice -- I'd never tried it before, but liked the gum a lot! We nixed the idea of Nicorette.

-Salted edamame: I'm pretty sure I read that Illinois is the fourth largest soybean producing state, though I can't remember where. Also, I hope that Obama will help figure out our fuel crisis and think that going back to (or starting with?) the basics is part of the answer.

-Make your own salad roll (link to directions here), because, as our new President says, "We can't allow any idle hands." Salad rolls are great to serve at a dinner party because they help people interact, though it's very time consuming to prep the vegetables. So much so that I watched a lot of the Inauguration proceedings with tomato seed-covered hands!

-Frittatas with a hashbrown bottom, and onion, red pepper, and spinach, which is our President's favorite vegetable aside from broccoli. Oh the shame -- originally I wanted to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus -- until I read he doesn't like asparagus!

-Cupcakes, because I kept watching TV segments and reading news articles about how they were hugely popular in D.C. leading up to the inauguration. And Whole Foods' sea salt caramels, as a nod to Obama's addiction to Fran’s Grey Sea Salt Caramels.

-PBR because it's Obama's favorite beer, and a cocktail called Obama au Lei. I came up with the very New Orleansy name -- we wanted to do something that honored his Hawaiian roots, so I used the site Drink Swap to find the perfect rum and pineapple-based cocktail recipe. I also added in ample doses of hope, change, intelligence, and charisma for equal measure. A few days later, I enjoyed getting a little tipsy on the rum-soaked pineapple pieces that were salvaged from the bottom of the drained punch bowl. Don't know if it was the rum, or the thought of President Obama, but along with being tipsy I felt quite hopeful and intelligent too!

Obama Family Chili Recipe

I forgot to take a picture until the very end. Guess everyone liked it!

I tripled the following Obama Family Chili Recipe for our Inauguration Party and made it with ground turkey meat. Due to time constraints, I used canned tomatoes. I chose not to purchase oregano or ground basil, served the chili with non-fat, pre-grated cheddar cheese and skipped the rice. The recipe doesn't include timing elements, but essentially, once you've got your meat browned, you're in good shape. Overall, it's about an hour to make and was very tasty, though a little heavy. The heaviness was balanced well by our Make-Your-Own-Salad-Roll bar.

Ingredients
-1 large onion, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
-Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
-Several cloves of garlic, chopped
-1 pound ground turkey or beef
-1 can red kidney beans
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
-1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
-1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
-1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
-1/4 teaspoon ground basil
-1 tablespoon chili powder

Directions
-Saute onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.

-Add ground meat and brown.

-Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat.

-Add red wine vinegar.

-Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down.

-Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes.

-Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.