“Americans love fat, they just don’t want to see it,” a cynical (and very successful) chef once said to me. He was instructing me, I think, to trim the excess fat off a ribeye steak. Because his restaurant was Italian, customers assumed there was little butter or cream in his food, but in fact most dishes were finished with butter and cream: There was even cream in the risotto (“Venetian”, the chef assured me).
He was right, though. Except for the craze for bone marrow and pork belly in a few big cities, American diners have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude toward fat. This is a shame; it means that rather than enjoying and celebrating the taste of a high-quality fat — the aromatic gristle from a dry-aged steak, a soft-ripened ash-covered goat cheese — we allow our food to be laced with the fats we don’t want to know about — hydrogenated oils and our waxy, flavorless American dairy fats.
At home, my wife and I like the flavor of assertive butters, especially Irish farmhouse butter like Kerrygold and the Scottish butter whose taste is such a part of the distinctive flavor of Scottish shortbread.
We also love to use brown butter in our cooking. Butter in which the milk solids have been allowed to brown has a big, nutty flavor and is superb in nut tarts, with sweetbreads or in this cauliflower puree that I like to make at the restaurant.
This recipe is probably based on a taste memory of my mother’s favorite way to prepare cauliflower, browned in butter with a scattering of bread crumbs. Cauliflower Brown Butter Puree is best with veal (especially veal sweetbreads), pork or even with scallops.
John Broening cooks at Duo restaurant, .
Cauliflower Brown Butter Puree
Makes 3-4 cups.
Ingredients
1 head cauliflower, cut into 1-inch florets
1 medium Yukon Gold potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Fill a nonreactive pot (see YouFood, at right, for more) with about 2 quarts of water. Add a tablespoon of salt, and bring the water to a boil. Add the cauliflower and potato, return to a boil and simmer about 30 minutes, until completely tender. Meanwhile, place the butter in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. When the milk solids in the butter have turned a uniform light brown, transfer the butter to a small bowl to keep it from cooking further.
Drain the cauliflower and potato, and shake off any excess water. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor and puree well, at least 3 minutes and up to 5 minutes. Pour in the melted butter, being sure to add all the browned milk solids. Season to taste.
