Last Night's Dinner: Afghan inspired Cauliflower

It was only a matter of time before the Missus got tired of jumping in the car and going to Aria on the chance that they'd have Her favorite cauliflower dish. This meant trying to make something that frankly, I wasn't too confident I'd pull off. But it came out much better than I thought it would.

 

I'm not really going to list a "recipe" for a couple of reasons. First I used regular off the shelf supermarket brand Curry Powder, ground coriander, and tumeric....... starting with a ratio of 2:1:1.

 

In the end, I ended up adding at least double that amount of curry powder to adjust the flavors. I don't feel comfortable advising someone to use off the shelf Curry Powder from a supermarket in the amounts I did. Second, the Missus swears that Aria uses Dill in their recipe, so I ended up adding 2 teaspoons of dill. The end product came out surprisingly good......quite a shock for me.

I started with 4 tablespoons of olive oil heated over medium heat, then added 2Tb Curry Powder, 1Tb ground coriander, 1 Tb ground tumeric, stirring the the spices into the oil to let them "bloom" for about 20 second or so until fragrant.

 
To this I added one large onion chopped, and seven cloves of garlic finely minced. Once the onions had started softening, I added 1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and the dill. Once this mixture started bubbling I added my cauliflower, the equivalent of one medium head of florets, mixing to coat the cauliflower. Once the florets were coated I added 1/2 cup of water, mixed well, tasted the sauce and added salt and pepper to taste, and adjusted the flavor a bit further with more (quite a bit) curry powder. I then lowered the temperature, gave cauliflower a good mix, and covered the dish. I'd open and stir every five minutes or so, and added water, in quarter cup portions twice to keep the sauce from getting too dry. After about twenty minutes or so, the cauliflower had reached the desired texture......soft and almost buttery.

 

A quick taste, and the addition of a bit more salt and fresh ground pepper and it was ready to go......

It ended up not being that difficult......

So did you try to cook anything new this week?

Comments

[kat]

boy that sounds good, I didn't do much cooking this week, it was a short week because Satoshi was off for 2 days and we ate out a lot :)

[Cathy]

The Mister made me basted eggs yesterday-first time basting and turned out very nice. He sauteed some mushrooms and tossed spinach with it along with some sesame seeds. Whole grain toast and it was breakfast. I'm going to work with some of the spices we bought at Penzey's the other day.

[Dennis]

Still haven't had a chance to try this at Aria Kirk. Looks much more stewy than Indian aloo gobi. Looks great!

[Kirk]

Hi Kat - Actually, that sounds like more fun than stirring cauliflower! ;o)

Hi Cathy - Sounds yummy!

Hi Dennis - This came out pretty well, and was much more substantial than what Aria makes.

[Lynnea]

It can be really fun to cook that way, but only if the dish turns out well. you are so good to remember the amounts of ingredients. I always forget by the time I'm done =)

[Pam from Santee]

I've been working my way through _Japanese Hot Pots_. Last night I made Gyu Nabe, and our favorite so far is Tori Mizutaki.

[Kirk]

Hi Lynnea - That's something I've gotta force myself to do.... especially when I'm making something I've never made before..... If I don't, and it turns out good, I won't remember how I made it; and it would be a "one and done" dish.

Hi Pam - Sounds delicious! I love a good chicken stew!