Thermomix Cauliflower Pilaf

Well, back in 2001 at Tasting Australia in Adelaide, Juan-Mari Arzak and Ferran Adria were invited to give a presentation for chefs and media on the Sunday morning. Being neither a chef nor in the media I should not really have been there, but some friends said that nobody would notice and so I sat through an interesting couple of hours. The air was redolent with orange essence to make you think that you were in an orange grove near Seville.

That was the start of foam mania in Australia, and many chefs who I heard laugh and condemn on that day, have since adorned dishes with a variety of foams.

Something that did not go down well at all, was the idea of using a microplane to produce shavings of cauliflower that were then presented to the diner as "cauliflower risotto". I have since seen a number of negative reviews from people being presented with such cauliflower risottos in other restaurants.

Well, I had a cauliflower in the fridge, and decided to see how it would go in the Thermomix.

Using the Reverse setting and putting just the tops of the florettes into the bowl resulted in the following product, which I then steamed in the Varoma and made a "cauliflower pilaf"


It may be something that used with milk to cook the cauliflower for just a minute or two could be used to encourage children to eat their vegetables.

There are probably a myriad of other dishes that people can make with the cauliflower "rice". I roughly chopped the remaining cauliflower stalks and put them into the Thermomix bowl and made cauliflower soup while the "pilaf" was steaming.

Cauliflower Pilaf

Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsps coriander seeds
2cm piece fresh ginger
1 medium onion, cut into quarters
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 Tbsp cashews
2 Tbsp currants
1 medium cauliflower
salt
pepper

Method:

Place the cumin and coriander seeds into the TM bowl and dry roast for 8 minutes at 100°C on Speed 1. Set aside and put the ginger into the TM bowl, grate for 5 seconds on Speed 7. Add onion and chop for 10 seconds on Speed 5. Add the oil and saute for 7 minutes at 100°C on Speed 1.

Add the turmeric, cashews and currants and mix for 15 seconds on Reverse and Speed 5. Place the mixture into a bowl that fits into the upper Varoma tray.

Cut the tops off the florettes of the cauliflower off and place batches of about 150 grams in the TM bowl. Blitz each batch for 3 seconds on Reverse and Speed 5. Place each batch into the base of the Varoma dish. When finished, place tray into the Varoma and place lid on Varoma.

Place 600ml water into the TM bowl, position the Varoma and steam for 10 minutes at Varoma temperature on Speed 1. You may need to carefully turn the cauliflower "rice" over during cooking to ensure even cooking.

Once the "rice" has steamed, carefully remove the tray and cauliflower and mix together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.