Petits propos culinaires

[shewhomust]

poliphilo posted recently about how sometimes he thinks he's going to post about something, and then when he sets out to do it, the post doesn't want to be written. That happens to me, too.

But sometimes I think I'm stuck, and then I find a new way in to the topic, and the post just takes shape.

What brought this to mind this morning was thinking about what to cook for dinner. There are quite a lot of vegetables left from my last delivery, and I should cook those before ordering more. In particular, there's a romanesco cauliflower, which ought to feel like a special treat, but felt like an obligation. I could serve it as a side vegetable (there are burgers in the freezer ...) or curry it? I suppose so. Or cauliflower cheese? No, don't feel like it ... And then I thought that we had several tins of anchovies, and there's some parsley (I wonder whether Ocado know, when they try to tempt me with special treats, how glad I am that they stock curly parsley?) - and suddenly I had the makings of agrodolci, and a whole new way in to the meal, and feeling enthusiastic about it.

Plus this post just cooking itself up out of thin air.

Comments

[anef]

Mm, sounds lovely!

[shewhomust]

Thanks - it did turn out very well (accompanied by a nice bottle of Falnghina), but that was a bonus: the main thing was the sheer satisfaction of having come up with a good idea!

[cellio]

I got a romanesco in my produce box once, marveled at its fractal beauty, and then said "but what do I do with it?". I ended up roasting it whole to preserve the nifty shape until serving time, but your approach sounds tastier. :-)

[shewhomust]

I have never succeeded in roasting any sort of cauliflower.

With the romanesco, I always aim to cut it into wedges, which retains that wonderful shape while creating flat surfaces to make good contact the sauté pan: this one fell apart a bit (creating fractal miniatures of the original, so not a disaster).