Cauliflower wears the crown

Low in carbs, the pureed vegetable has become a star

By Alison Arnett, Globe Staff | May 19, 2004

http://www.boston.com/ae/food/artic...ears_the_crown/

"Training is everything," wrote Mark Twain. "Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." Twain's throwaway line mocks a vegetable often scorned, but it may also have been prescient.

Partly spurred by low carb diets that equate potatoes with lethal weapons, cauliflower steps into a starring role these days. Steamed and then pureed with a little no-fat half-and-half, the vegetable suddenly becomes South Beach's faux mashed potatoes. The cauliflower puree maintains that creamy texture that is one of the comforting aspects of mashed potatoes, and the flavor, while not potatoes, does have an elusive sweetness. Of course, the French knew this long before the South Beach diet. The late 19th century food authority Georges Auguste Escoffier describes it as puree a la du Barry, named for Louis XV's mistress Comtesse du Barry.

Whether served as a side dish, as a base for a soup, or under a thick pork chop -- as it is at the restaurant Spire -- cauliflower, once a bit player, has suddenly become a sought-after marquee idol.

Paul Booras, chef and owner of the Salt Box in Ipswich, says he's glad to substitute cauliflower for Atkins or South Beach dieters. Requests for Atkins-style main courses have been going up, and he estimates that 25 percent of meals going out of his kitchen are low-carb. Diners specifically ask "for that stuff that is kind of like mashed potatoes," he says.

Cauliflower, a cruciferous vegetable, is high in vitamin C and other antioxidants, is a source of iron, and is much lower in carbohydrates and calories than potatoes. But that's not really the reason Gabriel Frasca, chef of Spire, stacks a maple-brined pork chop on top of snowy white pureed cauliflower touched with curry. He just loves the vegetable.

And since he was cooking cauliflower four times a week anyway, the chef decided to be resourceful and find another outlet for the vegetable, so now there's a cauliflower soup on the lunch menu. It's as simple as can be, Frasca says. He covers cauliflower florets with whole milk and simmers them with bay leaf, parsley, onion, and a little curry powder. When the cauliflower is tender, he purees the vegetables with as little milk as possible to make a creamy soup.

"The South Beach Diet Cookbook" gives a simple recipe that calls for steaming 4 cups of cauliflower florets until crisp-tender, then pureeing them with 2 tablespoons of butter spray and 1 ounce of fat-free half and half in a blender. Booras's treatment is similar. He cooks the cauliflower until it's very tender, then purees it with olive oil and a little butter, adding salt and pepper at the end.

Cauliflower might seem to be a cold-weather vegetable; Sage chef and owner Anthony Susi adds pureed cauliflower to an autumn fish dish. But others don't peg it to a certain season. Michael Leviton, chef and co-owner of Lumiere in West Newton, thinks of cauliflower for summer when he puts a vichyssoise on his menu. "It's incredibly simple," he says, involving only leeks and cauliflower cooked until tender and then pureed with a little creme fraiche.

"We tried chicken or vegetable broth" in making the soup, Leviton says, "but they interfered with the flavor of the cauliflower." In the end, water was used to simmer the vegetables. The result, he says, is a "silky" vichyssoise, with the characteristic sweetness that cauliflower imparts when cooked. "The response is phenomenal."

Both Leviton and Frasca say some diners dislike cauliflower because they can't think of it without recalling childhood memories of the vegetable desperately overcooked. To tempt some customers, says Frasca, he often sends out a little side dish of pureed cauliflower to those who ask for substitutions in the entree. "It's one of the most underappreciated and underused vegetables," he says.

"It's such a happy coincidence that these vegetables are so good for us."

Cauliflower kicks potato's butt.

>>"no-fat half-and-half"

Isn't this kind of a contradiction in terms? If it's half milk and half cream, it should have fat. Isn't cream minus the fat just milk?

Once again a beautiful, lovely article ruined by references to milk and no-fat half-and-half (at least twice) reminding me of those desperate low-fat years that seemed to drag on into centuries.

That's South Beach for you. The one thing I really object to in that program is it's fat-phobia, especially to sat fat.

And apparently, in the second edition, the author's much less fat phobic than in the first edition. But a lot of people read the first one and don't realize he lightened up on fat.

About six months ago I talked with a guy who was doing South Beach and he was eating non-fat yogurt and talking about low- and non-fat foods as being a major part of his diet and how bad sat fat is for you.

Admitedly, I haven't read the book.

No fat half and half?! Ha! What "makes" the mashed cauliflower for me is the ton of butter, cream cheese and sour cream I add (not to mention the layer of cheddar cheese baked over the top!). I've had the mashed cauliflower at Ruby Tuesdays twice and it was the most horrible thing I have ever tasted. Kind-a like nursing home food. I'm sure a lot of people order it hearing it's good and are very disappointed. Gives a bad name to the otherwise delicious "faux potatoes!"

The real trick to good mashed cauliflower, or cauliflower in general, is that it be fresh, and it's not a vegetable that tastes better the next day. Plus, frozen cauliflower doesn't always taste fresh. It's very possible that Ruby Tuesdays is using frozen cauliflower. They may also be using a low- or non-fat recipe and cauliflower definitely fares better with real cream or half & half and butter and cheese.

I was just taken aback bu 'butter flavored spray' doesnt that have trans fats in it anyway? (not to mention it really isnt fat free or calorie free, it just has mono and diglycerides that they arent counting)

butter flavored spray brings back horrible memmories! Who wants to eat 2 Tbsp of that junk anyway!

I think the LF "trailer" is just a CYA because people are only half-listening. In the world of dieting, many people just hear "low" and the second word is in one ear and out the other. So sprinkling a little LF homily into the article keeps some reading, etc.

My wife makes potato latkes, except there ain't any potato: Use shards of caulflower mixed with some onion and add mashed-up cauliflower [like in Ruby Tuesday where she got the idea]. Use eggs to bind it all together and make in a frying pan with liberal amounts of butter. [Cheese optional.]

Best served golden brown. Tastes like a cauliflower-potato latke; you can't avoid the welcome cauliflower taste, but you do get the potato-original consistency!

Also try broccoflower for a taste and color variation.

cjl (cruciferous 'R us)

Early on I tried these and they were good but there was a side taste I couldn't quite get passed. But they didn't last in the fridge for a couple days like real taters..lol!

Sorry, I think this recipe like some others and even "low-carb" candy is just a way to try to remember the things we used to love and the things that used to make us fat. I guess for me its hard enough to look forward to the new WOE without having recipes remind us of the old.

Sorry, not knocking it, if it works for you, great, but it doesn't for me.

Very good points, MyJourney. Cooking sprays use ridiculously small serving sizes to claim no fat/no trans fat/whatever. The truth is that they are 100% fat and that getting honest info about the real levels of trans-fat out of them is near impossible.

Since the barbecue season is upon us (and for some of us really die hard barbecuers, it never really ended even during knee deep snow), small blanched cauliflower florets make an awesome salad for a side dish to your grilling. I use the same other indredients that I used in potato salad (mayonnaise, celery, green onion, radish, mustard, salt and celery seed) and when I serve it many of my friends actually prefer it over the standard potato salad. Yum!
I don't call it "mock potato salad" because, face it, it's cauliflower not potatoes. It still tastes great no matter what you choose to call it, but this is cooking, not alchemy.

I agree with you Yoda_san, in my case, I never really liked mashed potatoes so I don't view cauliflower as a replacement.

But I like cauliflower for itself -- and I used to hate it when I was a kid. I like to use it to "thicken" cream soups and by itself with butter and cheese. I've found other recipes to use it in too.

I have also used it to "replace" rice in Oriental dishes -- it works pretty well as a filler in that case, but I've gotten used to eating Oriental dishes without rice so I don't do it often.