Technically, only technically, your average cauli is in fact a summer vegetable – however they go into a sort of stasis in the field when the day light and temperature drops and lose almost no condition until hard frost hits them (By which time the farmers have got them off the fields and into cold store) and it is for this reason you will notice that they are more expensive than other brassicas in the winter.
Anyway, onwards with the foodie bit, If like me you tire easily of brussels sprouts and kale fatigue is kicking in, then some cauliflower could be just the ticket to save you reaching for the imported veggies, but I am always surprised how few folk will roast a cauli – it really is a game changer and the way the ESSE can keep in some of the steam as you cook them is a big help too. Here I have gone spicy to try and liven things up a bit and also, well, because sometimes a bit of spice can lift a whole meal from the tolerable to the excellent and cauliflower LOVES spice.
Serves: 6 as a starter, 4 as a main, or 8 as a side
Main oven, 180 degrees (ESSE dial guide MODERATE), steam cap closed for the first ¾ of the roasting process.
Prep and cook time, around 50 mins
Ingredients
- 1 cauliflower
- 1 teaspoon harissa paste
- 1 bulb, yes bulb, of garlic
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- A handful or two of watercress or winter cress, or even rocket at a push
- 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon of tahini
- A little water
- Some extra good olive oil for drizzling
- A few leaves of sage
Method
- To begin with you need to find a decent baking tray, then it’s time to gather the ingredients and set yourself up ready to so some chopping – start with the cauliflower and I like to divide it first in half, saving the leaves and stems and slicing those more finely then the “curds”, which I will divide into wedges.
- Toss the chopped cauli under the cold tap in a colander to remove any traces of unpleasantness and then pop them in the baking tray, drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and the harissa. Now sprinkle over half the spice seeds, it’s starting to look quite funky already, isn’t it?
- Tumble that all around and add a good few sea salt flakes to help season things up. Fling the whole tray in the oven and close the steam vent – it’s going to want around 30 mins of uninterrupted oven time to get going.
- While that happens, peel and roughly chop your garlic, finely chopping 1 big clove to go in the tahini mix in a minute.
- Juice the orange and take a few swipes of zest too.
- Make the tahini dressing; In a small bowl, add the tahini, 1 finely chopped garlic clove, the remaining spice seeds and some water to create a light but glossy dressing, season this with salt, but no pepper – remember that harissa on the cauliflower.
- Open the oven and give the cauli a good ‘shuggle’ about, now open the steam vent and to the baking tray add the sage leaves, the orange zest and juice and all that roughly chopped garlic, make sure the cauli looks like it still has enough olive oil and pop the tray back in the oven – this time for just 20 mins, it may want a little longer, but you do not want to burn that garlic.
- Find a nice flat serving dish, scatter the now fully roasted and spicy cauliflower over this, adding any oil or juices in the tray over the top.
- Fling the green leaves over the top, drizzle with the tahini dressing, scatter over the remaining seeds and then relax, it’s all done and it’s not quite like cauliflower as you thought you knew it.
Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.
Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.
