Cauliflower Curry

Saturday December 8

Holt has always made a damn good cauliflower curry, using coconut and orange juice. Problem is, when we had the cauliflower and were ready to go, he couldn't remember where he got the recipe, or what else was in it. So he consulted a bunch of cookbooks (Moosewood, New Joy, Veggie Epi, Madhur Jaffrey) and came up with something totally off the cuff, and what's more, still delicious. Here's how it went.

We chopped up three small onions and separated the cauliflower into small florets. We then ground about 4 TBSP of cumin seed with about 3 TBSP of coriander seeds. Added 1/2 tsp. cayenne and all the turmeric* we had left in the house, maybe 2 tsp., all attractively spread out on a plate, so we could admire their colors.
A glaze of oil went into the big skillet, and he browned the onion in these spices, then added the cauliflower. After everything was well-mixed, he spooned in the top half of a can of coconut milk and sautéed everything in that (à la Thai cooking) and then added the rest of the coconut milk. He covered and simmered the dish until the cauliflower was tender. With a slotted spoon, he removed the cauliflower, piled it on plates, and boiled down the sauce for a few minutes, until it was thick. It was then poured back over the cauliflower.

That's all she wrote.

*Note to self: Buy more turmeric.