Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2007 11:15 AM
At this point, I had to open the kitchen windows because it was starting to smell like a bad Southwest Airlines flight I was on a few summers ago with a bunch of tourists who'd just eaten at Burger King before boarding the plane. [...] I also contemplated stripping the walls and repainting them to get the cauliflower stink out of my house. Instead, I just burned the whole place down. Kidding.
wrote Carol who cooked Thomas Keller's Cauliflower Panna Cotta with Beluga Caviar at French Laundry At Home.
I roasted cauliflower florets with olive oil in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 45-60 minutes until light brown. I brougth 250 gram of them to simmer with 2,5 dl cream and let them simmer for 15 minutes. I pureed the cauliflower-cream with a immersion blender, added salt for taste and 2,5 gram in cold water soaked gelatin. I spooned the cauliflower-cream in glasses and let it chill.
It didn't stink like Carol's did but possibly there is something wrong with my cauliflower aroma receptors. Or with hers.
I heated 0,65 dl water to boil, added 5 gram agar agar, mixed to dissolve and added 3,5 gramcocoa and 1/4 t glucose. Comparing the result with rubber is offending rubber. I should have tried again but I didn't. Instead I sprinkled cocoa powder on the cauliflower panna cotta.
The combination works like the combination cauliflower and nutmeg works [in the traditional Dutch kitchen] (masking both unpleasant sulfur components in [over]cooked cauliflower?).
Food for thinking about the combination 'caramelized' cauliflower & cocoa:
TGRWT #7 Hostblogger is Papin at Flavor alchemy.