Spiced Caramelized Cauliflower

This cauliflower is like gold, however extra valuable.

That’s an inside joke between me and a long-ago school boyfriend. After I was 18 the 2 of us traveled from France to Greece and Italy and Denmark (!) on EuroRail passes and alter we discovered on the ground of the trains. Or so it appeared. We couldn’t have had that little cash, although, as a result of I managed to achieve about ten kilos in two weeks in Italy. I had by no means had gelato. It was a revelation. I ate it a number of occasions day-after-day. However I digress….

So we have been touring on a shoestring, because the saying goes, and we have been terribly younger and had just about no thought what the hell we have been doing half the time. So we did issues like not pay the additional couple of bucks for reserved seats. For almost all of our travels, this was high quality. For the packed in a single day practice from Zurich to Zagreb, it was much less enjoyable. Each seat was taken. Loads of different individuals within the hall. And tons and tons of Yugoslavians (as a result of that’s what they have been then, we knew not but of Serbs and Croats and the horror that may come quickly sufficient) heading dwelling armed to the enamel with the brilliant and glossy items of Western Europe. All these televisions and increase bins needed to go someplace – somewheres we may have been sitting. We ended up squished right into a nook of the vestibule on the entrance of the automobile subsequent to the toilet that might have been working higher.

That might by no means occur to me now, after all. Not solely would I reserve a seat as a result of I might do a teensy little bit of analysis – ask the station attendant, even – about the necessity to do such a factor, however even when I didn’t have a seat there isn’t a manner on this inexperienced earth that I might let somebody put their crap on a seat I may sit in and even when I ended up sitting within the hall, when the pushing and jostling began I might push proper again and refuse to huddle within the creaking, rattling, drafty vestibule subsequent to the leaky rest room. However, as I mentioned, we have been younger. We have been midwestern. We have been well mannered. We didn’t make a fuss.

We arrived in Zagreb sleepless and a bit worse for put on. We have been planning on staying a day or two, perhaps going to another Yugoslavian cities. We exchanged no matter pittance we thought would see us by way of that first day and have been handed a number of inches of bill-size paper that we may solely assume was their terribly deflated cash. We then spent the day witnessing what appeared like endless incidents of individuals kicking and spitting at “gypsies” (I didn’t know then that “gypsy” is derogatory and that they’re known as Roma).

It was all fairly upsetting to a pleasant, sleep-deprived lady from Minnesota, raised amongst so many good, restrained, liberal individuals. We determined to catch the night time practice south, this time snagging ground area away from the bathroom. It was one other lengthy, sleepless night time – with numerous stops and noise and confusion for us. We noticed a gaggle of individuals actually kick an previous Roma lady off the practice. At one other juncture a gaggle of passengers bodily blocked a Roma household from boarding the practice.

We didn’t converse the language or have any understanding of the tradition, so we sat – wide-eyed and horrified – as we rode the practice south to Greece.

Once we lastly disembarked in Thessaloniki, the contemporary ocean air hit us like a tonic.

We quickly purchased the most affordable phrase guide we may discover and have been delighted to seek out it stuffed with such helpful gems as “you dance like a fairy,” “will you marry me,” and “your hair is like gold, however extra valuable.”

From then on we described every thing good, every thing pretty, every thing that helped us overlook about that practice trip as “like gold, however extra valuable.”

This cauliflower will get its golden hue from a little bit of turmeric. It really works high quality with out the turmeric if you happen to don’t have any available, however have a look at that coloration! Why depart it out?

Spiced caramelized cauliflower

The wee little bit of sugar within the spice combine helps the entire thing brown and caramelize and crisp up ever so barely. I attempted making this dish with simply 2 tablespoons of butter, and it labored high quality simply completely high quality however was considerably much less like gold.

1 head cauliflower

3 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly floor black pepper

1/2 teaspoon sizzling paprika

1/2 teaspoon candy paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne (elective)

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon floor cinnamon

Warmth the oven as much as 450. Lower cauliflower into florets. I prefer to try to preserve issues pretty bite-sized so I additional divide the bigger items, however I’m positive you know the way you want your cauliflower minimize up.

Soften the butter after which combine it in a big bowl (sufficiently big to carry all of the cauliflower) with the sugar, salt, and all of the spices. Add the cauliflower and toss to coat the cauliflower as evenly as attainable with the spicy butter.

Lay the cauliflower items in a single layer in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet. Prepare dinner them within the oven till browned, scorching, and tender with crispy bits forming on the perimeters – mine took about 25 minutes.

Serve sizzling or heat. I feel they’d be reasonably good as a little bit appetizer – with toothpicks – with drinks.

We appreciated it with rice and brown butter dal, with a little bit contemporary inexperienced chile and pink onion relish (seasoned to style with salt and lemon juice) for freshness and coloration. This dinner? It wasn’t simply golden. It was like gold, however extra valuable.