Over the years I have met many people who claim to dislike cauliflower, which never really surprised me as I had always found it a rather tasteless vegetable, nothing more than a vehicle for various qualities of cheese sauce, and if overcooked, downright unappetizing. But once again cauliflower season is upon us, and the beautifully buttery white heads stacked on the grocer’s stall could not look more tempting.
It should be said right up front that it is worth making an effort over cauliflower, for they pack a powerful nutritional punch and excellent locally grown varieties are currently available. They come in a variety of colors, most commonly white, though many that I have seen from small vegetable patches in Hualien have a lovely yellow or orange tint.
Cauliflower belongs to the Brassicaceae (also known as the Cruciferous) family, which includes cabbage, broccoli, collards, kale, mustard and many more healthy greens. Even among this impressively healthful lineup, cauliflower has a great advantage. According to Alan Davidson in The Penguin Companion to Food, the cauliflower is a plant “in which flowers have begun to form but have stopped growing at the bud stage. … The thick stems under the buds act as storage organs for nutrients which would have gone into the flowers and external fruits had their development not been aborted. [It is] therefore richer in vitamins and minerals than other brassicas.”
Photo: Ian Bartholomew
As one of the healthiest members of a nutrient-packed family, it really is a pity that cauliflower is often neglected, and my own experience of its use in Taiwanese cooking has not been very positive. Deborah Madison in her recent book Vegetable Literacy suggests that cooking cauliflower can take two directions, either as a very simple preparation, such as simmered together with leek, or steamed with butter and chopped parsley. The other option is to introduce the cauliflower to strong flavors such as aged cheddar, mustard butter or curry.
My own discovery is that cauliflower really comes into its own when roasted, a process that intensifies its subtle flavors. To my own way of thinking, boiling and steaming don’t do it any favors, and I have tasted too much waterlogged cauliflower in various lunchbox permutations to want to revisit that place.
That said, it is still remarkably versatile, and its firm texture when roasted have led to the creation of the cauliflower steak, in which a thick slice of cauliflower dressed with various herbs and spices can make quite an impressive vegetarian dish, and culinary maestro Yotam Ottolenghi does his own take on another party dish in which the cauliflower is roasted whole with a gratin coat.
Photo: Ian Bartholomew
These are all legitimate ways of accessing the package of nutrients and antioxidants contained in cauliflower. In promoting the benefits of cauliflower, The Healthiest Foods in the World Web site (www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=13) lectures readers about the importance of cauliflower to a long and healthy life: “If we fail to give our body’s detox system adequate nutritional support, yet continue to expose ourselves to unwanted toxins through our lifestyle and our dietary choices, we can place our bodies at increased risk of toxin-related damage that can eventually increase our cells’ risk of becoming cancerous. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to bring cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables into our diet on a regular basis.”
Many health Web sites tout the tumor and cancer fighting qualities of cauliflower, showing it to be just as good if not better than its more famous cousin broccoli. As a powerful anti-inflammatory, it also has an important role to play in maintaining a healthy heart. With a plentiful supply of dietary fiber, it is great for our digestive system and helps reduce the risk of a slew of inflammation-related health problems including insulin resistance, irritable bowel syndrome, metabolic syndrome, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes.
Cauliflower has had a pretty bad rap over the years, and is seen as a poor relation even to such humble greens as the cabbage. It deserves better. It is certainly not as robust as some of its relatives, and its white or yellow florets easily discolor, and when bruised it can look less than attractive. Use soon after purchase and whatever cooking method you choose, err on the side of less rather than more. And if cooking is too much of a chore, small florets of fresh cauliflower are perfectly lovely added to a salad.
Spicy Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Yogurt
Recipe
(Serves 2 as a main, or 4 as a side)
This dish can be cooked for a longer or shorter time depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables. It is a good accompaniment to all kinds of meats or can be eaten on its own served with rice. I particularly enjoy it with turmeric rice with raisins, which gives the whole dish a nice mixture of sweet and savory.
Ingredients
1 large cauliflower
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp chili flakes
1 lemon (zest and juice)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cups plain yogurt, strained
A handful of pine nuts and chopped almonds, toasted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 230c.
2. Wash the cauliflower and break into large florets.
3. Place coriander seeds, cumin, peppercorns, salt and chili flakes into a spice grinder and coarsely grind.
4. Place the cauliflower into a baking dish and coat with the spice mixture. Drizzle with olive oil, add lemon zest, and mix well using your hands.
5. Place the baking dish in the upper half of the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes, tossing once. The florets should be turning from gold to brown on the edges, and don’t worry even if there is a bit of charring.
6. Mix the yogurt with lemon juice and salt to taste. Set aside. (Homemade yogurt is often rather soft, and you can thicken it by simply straining it through a muslin cloth for an hour or two.)
7. Place the cauliflower on a plate, scraping out the spices from the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle with nuts and serve with the yogurt.
Ian Bartholomew runs Ian’s Table, a small guesthouse in Hualien. He has lived in Taiwan for many years writing about the food scene and has decided that until you look at farming, you know nothing about the food you eat. He can be contacted at Hualien202@gmail.com.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located