Recipe of the Week: Curried Cauliflower & Shallot Salad

In light of the Thursday night, owner and chef, Paul Rosenbluh, offered up a curried cauliflower with gingered chickpea puree, pickled tomato and crispy shallot-cilantro salad recipe for Patch readers. He served up the summetime appetizer at the event last week using fresh ingredients from local farmers. 

For starters, we'll make the curried cauliflower. You'll need:

6 cloves of Garlic

3 shallots                       

2 in. chopped ginger                         

1 tbls. curry powder

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. ground bay leaf

½ cup oil

Pinch of salt

Puree all of the ingredients until smooth. Then, cut one head of cauliflower into florets. 

In a mixing bowl, combine cauliflower with enough puree to double coat. Sprinkle with salt. Place cauliflower on a sheet pan and roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until cooked through and beginning to brown.

To make the chickpea puree, you'll need:

½ yellow diced onion

1 tbls. chopped garlic

1 in. chopped ginger

2 cups chickpeas

1 tbls. Ajwan seeds toasted (found in Indian grocery store)

Pinch of salt

In a sauté pan, cook the onion, garlic and ginger until translucent. Add the chickpeas and cook another two minutes. Remove from heat and place in a food processor with salt. Puree contents until smooth. You may need to add a little water to help smooth it out. Pour into a container with Ajwan seed and adjust for salt.

For the pickled tomato, gather:

2 quartered, cored and sliced tomatoes.

4 cloves garlic

2 tbls. Coriander seed

1 tsp. chili flakes

1 cinnamon stick           

1 tsp. pepper corns

2 bay leaves

2 tbls. brown sugar

1 tbls. salt

1 ½ cups red wine vinegar

½ cup  water

Bring everything except the tomatoes to a boil. Then turn off heat. When pickling liquid has cooled, pour over the tomatoes and let stand for one hour before using.

Lastly for the crispy cilantro shallot salad, grab:

¼ cup crispy shallots-sliced and slowly fried in a pan until golden brown

1 bunch cilantro-picked

1 tbls. lime juice

In a mixing bowl, add a couple tablespoons of shallots with an equal amount of cilantro. Sprinkle with lime juice and place over top of cauliflower.

To Assemble:

Take a crostini, toasted nahn or cracker and smear some of the chickpea puree over the top of it. Place some of the curried cauliflower on top with a slice of pickled tomato over that. Make your cilantro salad, and place a small amount over this and eat.

Have a recipe you'd like to share? We'd love to include it in our new weekly feature. E-mail me at Kristen.Lepore@Patch.com.