Now that I’ve set up a shady place to work, I hope I can cultivate more patience for my dial-up connection. After all, what’s the hurry? While I wait five minutes for a photo to load, I can listen to cicadas singing, wrens scolding, and hummingbirds hovering nearby, trying by to buzz me out of their territory. So I’ll try again to make brief, but regular posts on yurt living and kitchen gardening at 3800 feet from the canyonlands of northeastern Oregon.
Here’s what I’ll be harvesting this week:
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
My favorite way to cook cauliflower is a spicy, Nepali style. Broccoli I usually stir-fry with red pepper and garlic. I have limited cookbooks out here and don’t have the patience to search recipes on the internet with this slow connection, so if you have any other creative ideas for how to prepare either cauliflower or broccoli, please leave a comment below.
Here’s a south indian recipe for the cauliflower. You’d probably have to make a trip to the indian store for some of the ingredients
cut the cauliflower into florets.
In a pan, add about a teaspoon of cooking oil and to it add some mustard seeds and split skinned urad dal (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urad_(bean) – the picture of white lenthils is the one you need) and a dried red chilli. Keep the pan on low heat.
When the mustard begins to pop, add the cauliflower florets and some peas.
Add some salt, a pinch or two of turmeric powder and a pinch of asofetida.
Add a little water, cover the pan and let the cauliflower cook.
The water should be just enough to allow the cauliflower to cook wthout getting mashed. Ideally once the cauli has cooked there should not be any water left; if there is, heat the pan without the lid and let the water evaporate.
Ta-da! Your cauliflower peas dish is ready.
Thanks Arati. Sounds delicious and very simple to make. I’m at least two hours away from any Indian grocery store but do have most of the ingredients (except the urad dal) ) on hand since I do a lot of South Asian cooking. Perhaps I’ll figure out something to substitute.