Couldn’t get a good picture of this…..oh well. That’s one of the frustrating things about posting recipes with pictures on a blog. A lot of the times the picture doesn’t do the food justice and the other part is that I know most of the people reading this won’t even make or taste the food I make so it’s a weird place to be in. Oh well.

Anyway, I have roommates that are vegetarian and Mindy had the night off because she wasn’t feeling so hot so I said I’ll fix dinner for everyone. I saw the cauliflower steak idea in Food and Wine magazine but I thought their recipe didn’t do the idea justice……see, that’s how this whole recipe thing is supposed to work! Anyway, what you do is take a whole cauliflower then cut two 1 1/2 inch center cut “steaks” out of them. I had to make four so I took two ears of cauliflower and had a bunch of flourets leftover so that’s where the gratin came into play.

A week or two ago I mentioned my frustration with vegetarian food always trying to convince vegetarians that they are still eating meat. Products like “ground beef” with throw away quality vegetables or tofu made to look like turkey. I’m a huge carnivore and one of the things I like about eating meat is the texture and resistance meat gives you when you eat it. This can be achieved in vegetables like cauliflower by blanching. So why does every vegetarian I meet tell me about how great those Morning Star products are when they taste like crap compared to fresh vegetables? There is a solution, have Eric cook for you.

Pretty much sums up my feelings.

Anywho, here is the recipe for:

Cauliflower steak on a bed of pinenut spinach topped with chanterelle mushrooms served with cauliflower gratin and salad.

Equipment:

• Saute pan
• Ramekins

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower!!!  Make sure you blanch them or don’t bother with this recipe.
• Chanterelle mushrooms
• Spinach
• Toasted pine nuts
• White wine
• Clarified butter
• Parsley, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Cut cauliflower steaks and flourets
2. Use this recipe for gratin (click)
3. Place butter on heated saute pan and cook seasoned (salt and pepper) cauliflower steaks for 1-2 minutes on each side then remove and place on plate
4. Cook spinach in same saute pan with a little butter, salt, pepper, and toasted pine nuts then remove and place on plate
5. Deglaze pan with a little white wine then add chanterelle mushrooms and parsley then cook those and place on plate
6. Serve all of this together, do a little dance, and eat!

This is the desired result. I cook, you clean, see ya!!!