Here’s a piece of non-news: I am food- obsessed.
But it’s more specific than that. I am also ingredient-obsessed, one ingredient at a time. I’ll go through a whole week where I think about nothing but white beans, say, or treviso, or pork belly, or scallops.
I’ll order them wherever I see them on the menu, seek them out at the grocery store, scour recipe books for ideas on how to prepare them, and generally over-indulge in my obsession-du-semaine until I can’t stand to look at the object of my obsession anymore.
Currently, I’m obsessed with cauliflower, which is strange because I’ve spent most of my life being horribly bored with the mere notion of this blandly colored kissing cousin of broccoli.
Not so when it’s roasted and tossed with cracked bulgur and farro, or doused with yellow curry, or suspended in a gratin, as in the following recipe, an unbelievably decadent and absurdly delicious perfect-for-winter dish from Jamie Oliver’s new book, “Cook With Jamie.”
(And, keep in mind, even though in this recipe it’s loaded up with cream and cheese, cauliflower is still an excellent source of vitamin C and other important nutrients.)
Cauliflower Dauphinois
Adapted from “Cook With Jamie,” by Jamie Oliver, serves 4-6. Serve this with an oven- roasted rack of lamb.
Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 bay leaves
1/4 nutmeg nut, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/2-inch thick
1/2 large cauliflower, trimmed and thickly sliced
A few sprigs fresh thyme
A handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the cream, milk, garlic, bay leaves and grated nutmeg into a saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and discard the bay leaves.
Rub a large earthenware dish with the butter. Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom, sprinkle on some thyme leaves, then add a layer of cauliflower, another layer of potatoes, and so on, finishing with the potatoes. Carefully pour in the infused milk and cream. Oil one side of a piece of aluminum foil and cover the dish, oil-side down, then place in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Remove potatoes from oven and use a dish towel to carefully push down on the potatoes to make it more compact. Then remove the foil.
Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes or until beautifully golden.
Tucker Shaw: 303-954-1958 or dining@denverpost.com
