Cauliflower Fried Rice
After seeing the innovations with cauliflower at the Fancy Food Show, we naturally had to try our hand at home. First up was cauliflower fried rice. You can buy “cauliflower rice” in your produce department but since it’s nothing more than grated florets it’s very easy to prepare cauliflower rice at home. Takes about 2 minutes to grate a pint using the second-largest holes.
Cauliflower rice: output from two minutes of grating
I did a typical fried rice prep where I sautéed up some garlic and onions in bacon grease and added the cauliflower rice along with a beaten egg, soy sauce, salt and pepper and some bean sprouts. The dish came together well except that the vegetables threw off a good amount of water which I left in the pan. I served this up and my diners didn’t know it was not regular rice. So I guess that’s a success.
Cauliflower pizza crust after cooking. Note holes.
Next, we tackled our own version of the cauliflower pizza from Outer Aisle. Cauliflower was steamed then we squeezed out as much water as possible and ground to a not-quite puree. We mixed this with a beaten egg and grated mozzarella in a ratio of about 1 part cheese to 2 parts cauliflower. We added some Italian seasoning and salt, pressed into a shape resembling a pizza, then cooked in a 350 degree oven till it resembled the Outer Aisle product, about 45 minutes. When cooled, the result was easy to handle without falling apart but there were many tiny holes where the water had evaporated. We went ahead and added marinara sauce, tomato and fresh mozzarella to make a Pizza Margherita. The tasters liked this quite a bit, though not as pizza. It was a flavorful wrap or wafer they’d eat again.
Cauliflower Pizza Margherita
We also made cauliflower bread using the Caulipower Baking Mix, which is supposed to be used the same as regular flour in recipes on a 1:1 basis. Bread was not listed among the applications on the package, and the only bread recipe on their website is a breadstick made with baking powder. We followed a recipe for Italian bread including salt, olive oil, yeast and a pinch of sugar. The dough was thirsty, requiring a good deal more water than you’d use for a wheat flour dough. It never generated gluten, of course, and the texture when we finally stopped mixing was similar to modeling clay which you can easily break into clumps with your hands. It did rise and was eventually baked in a 400 degree oven. The result was dense but not unpleasant. You could use this for sandwiches.
Cauliflower bread made with Caulipower Baking Mix
However, we had in mind turning it into bread crumbs for the preparation we’ll talk about next time: Cauliflower Rice Balls (don’t call them arancini)!
