The Escoffier Series continues with Chapter 13, Vegetables and Farinaceous Products
The Escoffier series continues with broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
I know that’s already a non-starter for some folks. I think these preparations will make the willing new fans to these vegetables.
You might discover some new ways to approach other vegetables, too. The sky is the limit on cooking innovation.
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The Escoffier series continues.
In the last Escoffier episode, I stopped to save broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts for this episode.
I’ve mentioned before that broccoli and cauliflower are in the cabbage family which is Brassica. It’s a pretty big family and maybe the most notable traits of that family are aroma and odor, to be gentle. The smell of it cooking is too much for some and the smell of it after eating is too much for most everyone. A bit of the wind, as they might say.
Escoffier offers recipes for cauliflower and not broccoli. He writes that any cauliflower preparation is suitable for broccoli.
Since Escoffier wrote his book a lot has changed in the production of both vegetables. He identifies a few varieties which maybe can be found in the store now and again. I don’t know what those he mentions are. Broccolini is one kind of broccoli that looks a little bit like rapini, or broccoli rabe, another cousin.
In both cases, for cauliflower and broccoli, the recommended cooking procedure is in salted boiling water until tender. Remove and refresh which means shock in ice water to stop the cooking. Remember he’s writing for cooks and service. At home, an ice bath may not always be necessary.
I want to talk about cooking various vegetables in various kinds of water, specifically alkaline and acid. Mostly that’s a tease for an upcoming episode. There’s a lot there and it’s worth covering. The one thing to add here about that is to avoid adding acid to water for green vegetables. At first, the color is amazing green then not so much. The other big problem is slime. The green vegetable–we tested green beans in culinary school–gets a slime that is entirely unappetizing.
Escoffier puts thought into the presentation and that’s why some of the cauliflower procedures indicate boiling the whole cauliflower. That’ll take some time and you may need to add more boiling water to the pot to keep the cauliflower submerged.
One complaint is cauliflower has nearly no flavor. I can agree with that when discussing boiled cauliflower. It’s pretty bland and the flavor is mostly subtle cabbage. Not a big selling point to most people. Add a Cheddar cheese sauce and you might get some attention.
It could be that everyone forever thought cauliflower as is can be a bit dull. Escoffier had a solution. Cauliflower gratin. For you playing the home version it is procedure 4067
“Arrange the bouquets in a suitable-size round bowl to reform it to its original shape, filling the centre with a few tablespoons of Sauce Mornay. Coat the bottom of a gratin dish with Sauce Mornay and demold the cauliflower on top, Cover completely with more sauce, sprinkle with a mixture of grated cheese and fine dry white breadcrumbs, and with melted butter, and gratinate.”
The key in all of Escoffier’s cauliflower procedures is fat. Butter specifically since fat adds flavor and veggies love butter.
Two more to mention that are easy to do at home. If you have a large party, rearranging the cauliflower back into a round head is fine, accepting you have a service bowl suitable to hold such a thing. In most cases, we will serve on a plate or platter for a passed plate service or arrange the plates in the kitchen.
Cauliflower Milanaise and Polonaise both use browned butter and that’s where the similarity ends.
Cauliflower Milanaise, “place the cooked and well drained cauliflower in a buttered dish sprinkled with grated cheese. Sprinkle the cauliflower also with grated cheese, add a few small pieces of butter and gratinate in the over. On removing from the oven coat the cauliflower with a little brown butter and serve immediately.” That can easily be done in small oven-safe dishes or one larger casserole dish for self-help service. It would also look impressive. He doesn’t say so, but chopped fresh parsley for green is a good addition.
Cauliflower Polonaise is at least one more step but worth the effort. “Drain the cooked cauliflower well and place in a buttered dish; sprinkle with mixed chopped hard-boiled egg yolks and chopped parsley. At the moment of service, coat with brown butter in which fine white breadcrumbs have been fried to a golden brown.”
At the Governors’ Club, we added Cauliflower Polonaise to a chicken dish with a few adjustments. We used the whole hard-cooked egg. The yolk was passed through a fine screen and the white was chopped with a knife. We also mixed the toasted breadcrumbs and parsley with the cooked egg, seasoned the mix, and then waited. On each order, some of the mix was sprinkled onto the cauliflower piece and heated in the oven to get hot and gratinèed in the salamander. It looks nice and the crunch of the crispy breadcrumbs is a good added texture to otherwise pretty soft cauliflower.
Sauce Mornay is Bechamel with Gruyere cheese. You can easily make Cheddar Cheese sauce or any cheese sauce you prefer. Cheddar Cheese sauce sounds especially good on broccoli. I think broccoli au Gratin would also work nicely.
Before we leave cauliflower I want to add this process. It’s not in his book and it’s a flavor powerhouse. It’s not in his book since there seems no easy way to make the presentation pretty.
This process does create some cauliflower trim. You can chop them or food processor them to make your own cauliflower rice. The main part comes from the middle. From a whole head of cauliflower with the stem side up, cut along the core straight down creating those loose pieces. Next, cut planks of cauliflower through the core about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick. You’ll only get a few of these per head. Lay the planks flat and season with salt and pepper.
Here’s one time a hot pan doesn’t mean smoking hot. It does mean as hot as the medium-low setting will get it. In a pan over medium-low heat, add some coconut oil or clarified fat, bacon fat, tallow, lard, or ghee is fine, add the planks to the hot pan. Allow to cook so they brown. Low and slow is the key to developing the rich, deep flavor cauliflower has hidden away. I use a 10″ cast iron and can sometimes get three planks placed flat. Sometimes only two. This is a test of patience and trusting the process. Allow the cauliflower to get as dark as the brown leather of a bombardier jacket. What happens when it gets that dark is an umami shows up that can’t be found any other way. Turn it over. It’ll probably fall apart a bit and brown the other side. You may need to add a bit more fat to avoid burning. It’s done when the bottom is good and brown and the core is tender. Use a fork to test. Push into the core. If the core is soft, the plank is done.
What the heck do you do with this? Place a chicken or beef curry on top. Add sausage and eggs. When it is well cooked, it’ll break easily. At that point, add blanched cherry tomatoes, some water, or stock, and it’s a pasta sauce. That’s gonna be a shock of flavor. Add a bit of extra virgin olive oil to the sauce in the pan to finish it. It really is something else.
I use coconut oil because I use that caramelized cauliflower as the base for a curry. If I keep saying how amazing it is you are not going to believe me.
Brocolli can be caramelized like cauliflower. The flowerettes aren’t as amazing but the stems, which need to be peeled, are very nice when caramelized.
Brussels sprouts are very nice au gratin, Milanaise, or Polonaise. My go-to preparation is to caramelize them, big surprise, right, in bacon fat and finish them in the oven. Then add chopped bacon and bleu cheese and mix. Ideally, some of the cheese will not melt so there’s a temperature contrast and the unmelted cheese has a different tang.
One other way which works for broccoli and cauliflower is baked in a cream sauce. In all cases, the veg should be cooked about 75%. Since I prefer my veggies hammered, I make sure they are at least that. Allow the veg to drain well then arrange it into a casserole which has either been buttered and sprinkled with grated cheese or prepared with a thin layer of cream sauce. Add the drained, cooked veg, one layer if possible, and cover with the cream sauce and bake till hot and lightly browned. You are free to add cheese to the top for better browning and more flavor.
No doubt foes of these three veggies may show reluctance at these new preparations. No preparation makes the flavor go away; these are only meant to enhance the flavor they have. I realize that’s a losing position for some folks and that’s fine. More for you. My brother was firmly opposed to bacon with Brussels sprouts since the bacon flavor overpowered the sprouts. I see his point and never once agreed. Thinking something is going to overpower a Brussels sprout seems kinda silly. So, bacon it up.
