Cauliflower

Mark Twain once said that, Acauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.@ Most people say it=s one of the blandest foods available. But if you can find ways to un-bland it, cauliflower is a good source of fiber. Cauliflower comes from a single species of plant called Brassica oleracea, which has yielded a number of vegetables with which we=re familiar. Such vegetables as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi come from the Brassica family. Food historians tell us that farmers over time learned to cluster the flower off the stem of a cabbage, condensing it tightly enough to give them cauliflower, with the meaning of the word being Astem flower.@The farmer shields the white floret to prevent it from developing brown spots, which ruin the sales of the vegetable. That extra work of shielding explains why cauliflower is more expensive than other members of the cabbage family. When buying cauliflower don=t worry about brown spots on the floret, as it means that it was hit by direct sunlight. There=s no harm to that. But if the floret shows yellow, and if it feels flabby, it is too old to make a worthwhile purchase.

There are many ways to cook cauliflower: Bring salted water to boil and blanch the florets for a couple of minutes, get rid of the water then use the florets in whatever dish you are cooking.  Supposedly this method gets rid of the gas-forming sulphur compound. I won't stake my reputation, for whatever that's worth, on getting rid of the gas. But if you intend to fry the florets, boiling them first first, will use less oil. You can bread the florets and deep frying or broil until golden, which I do.

 

When my mother cooked cauliflower I always knew it was laundry day because it was the original fast food in our home.  It took only a few minutes to cook, which gave her more time to finish her laundry.