Roasting and Pureeing Cauliflower or March in the Sierras

***I originally wrote most of this post in Mid-March, but was unable to get Y!C!’s recipe and then I forgot about it until yesterday.  So, I am going to post it anyway.  Note that our activities occurred in early to Mid-March.***

We’ve been spending most of our spare time over at the Money Pit, trying to get it finished so that we can move in.  We are gradually taking our stuff over there so we can unpack while we are waiting for contractor mistakes to be fixed. Our patience is being challenged.  If you want to read about the details, you can go here: Keeping It Midcentury

So Yes!Chef! has not had a lot of time to cook and be creative.

He’s also been quite busy with his day job and doing quite a bit of traveling.  Leaves little time for cooking.

So, it was a pleasant change of pace to go to Tahoe to shoot a wedding.  I was second shooter to an outstanding photographer so I won’t be able to show any of the actual wedding photos. Suffice it to say that I was put in charge of the men and boys.  Although, I love to shoot brides, I adore shooting the men and boys of the wedding party.  They are usually way more relaxed and just generally more fun.  This particular wedding was held at a resort on the North Shore and the wedding party rented a room for us for two nights.  Yes!Chef! was great help to me and the main shooter by hauling around lights and other equipment.  It was a fun time.  And, of course, I could not just drive by some of the beauty of Lake Tahoe without stopping to take a few shots.

I’m not as familiar with the west and north shore of Tahoe as I am with the south and east.  I think this year I will concentrate more of my Tahoe photography on the west and north.  It is quite beautiful.

It was not cold or snowy or windy in Tahoe, which is unusual for this time of year, but it was still beautiful.

We’ve been eating very simple meals because of all the other things that are going on.  Also, we are on a Low Carb diet, so we eat vegetables, meat and some dairy.  It is quite satisfying and we are both feeling quite healthy.  Yes!Chef! is almost down to his fighting weight.

I brought home a head of cauliflower that I had purchased at Boa Vista Orchards, a local fruit and vegetable purveyor in Apple Hill.  I was thinking about making a faux macaroni and cheese recipe that I had seen on the web, but Yes!Chef! had a better idea.  He roasted the cauliflower (always a great way to cook vegetables) with some garlic and onion.

I like roasted cauliflower just by itself, with a little melted butter and sea salt.  It is quite sweet and I am able to taste the sweetness more these days because I have cut out sugar from my diet (except for the occasional piece of dark chocolate.)

However, Y!C! threw it all in a blender with some heavy cream and some herbs and spices.  He pureed it and served it with some of his famous pan-fried chicken. And because brown food does not photograph well, I chopped up some parsley and sprinkled it over the top. It was quite tasty and very simple to prepare.  There is no reason to eat plain old boiled cauliflower when you can roast it and puree it.

A couple of cooking notes: After Yes!Chef! was done roasting the vegetables, he tented it for a while to let it steam.  This softened up the fibers in the cauliflower making the puree much smoother than roasting alone.  Instead of adding heavy cream you could substitute sour cream or even Greek Yogurt or low fat milk, if you are watching your fat intake.  Yes!Chef! also used chicken stock in the recipe and he says you could leave out all the dairy, if you want.  It will not have the creaminess factor, but it is still quite tasty.

Here’s Yes!Chef!’s recipe.

Enjoy!

I’m trying something a little different with our recipes by placing them on Scribd.  I like being able to make document with my word editor rather than typing the recipe directly on to the blog.  We’ll see how it goes.