Roasted Cauliflower Puree
During lunch service today, I said just five words to the restaurant General Manager, “It’s starting again isn’t it?” and he got this big grin on his face but didn’t say anything. He knew exactly what I was talking about. Ahhh, yes, the holiday season is upon us!
I swore that I’d never work another November, December or January in this industry, but here I am again, coming into my third season—kill me now! The first year was incredibly challenging because the pastry cook quit December 3rd (on a Friday night) and the day I returned from Thanksgiving vacation. The executive chef asked me if I would take over pastry production for a couple of weeks until they found a replacement. I agreed because I had minimal pastry experience and I knew that this would be a great opportunity to learn. Little did I know that I would be working 70 hours a week in December and most of January. However, it was a wonderful learning experience and I am thankful that I had the opportunity and looking back it wasn’t all that bad…haha. I tease our current pastry cook about what lies ahead, but she’s very talented and knows what she’s doing and so it will probably be a piece of cake for her—no pun intended. I remained the pastry cook until April the following year, until I finally threatened the executive chef that I was going to quit :-) unless he found someone to replace me; which he did. And so here I am, a line cook, and still dreading the upcoming (now holiday season.) What’s that saying…”what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Today we had a 22 top, a 14 top, a 10 top and an 8 top, all at the same time. Plus, there was a conference in town and the walk-in reservations filled the restaurant to capacity. And this is two weeks before Thanksgiving! Needless to say, I have been very busy and as such my specials have been on the back burner. But I did make a delicious soup today that I’d like to share with you, Roasted Cauliflower Puree. And I know what you’re thinking “cauliflower?”, but this is really delicious and it’s so easy to make.
Remove the core from the cauliflower and chop into large pieces. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a sheet pan until golden brown and somewhat charred. Meanwhile, rough chop onions, celery and garlic and caramelize until golden and deglaze with white wine. Add the roasted cauliflower, chopped thyme, bay leaf and chicken stock to almost cover. Cook until all vegetables are really soft and then add cream, salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaf before blending and blend until really smooth, adding more cream and butter for consistency (should be like thick cream) and salt and pepper for flavor. Finish with a small amount of lemon juice to bring all the flavors together.
I had wanted to garnish this soup with chive oil and minced chives, but we didn’t have any chives and so I used oregano oil and microgreens. I thought that it would be really nice to combine contrasting textures such as a smooth chive oil and chopped chives together. Either way, the soup is delicious and looks beautiful. It was a sellout today(!) and tomorrow I’m working on Caramelized Onion and Pancetta Tarts…until then…
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