Peace, Love, Granola

Granola is the CC's favorite breakfast cereal. The CC doesn't eat breakfast very much but even so over the years he's bought tons of this stuff from various places. He finally decided to make his own.

The concept is really simple. It's just basically toasted oats. The rest is all putting a bow on top - nuts, dried fruits, sugar, fats, salt. You are making a pre-made ready-to-eat nutritionally complex mixture.

It's already cooked so when you either eat it with yogurt or milk, it hardly matters. You could eat it straight up but it would be too dry.

The recipe is from a famous three-Michelin star restaurant in New York. They apparently hand this out when you leave for your breakfast the next day. (The CC doesn't know. He hasn't been.)

It looked terrific and the CC had all the ingredients in-house. It definitely tastes terrific.

(Source: Eleven Madison Park.)

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup pistachios
1 cup coconut chips
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 tbsp kosher salt

1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil

3/4 cup sour dried cherries

Note 1: The three groups in the ingredients are deliberate in the recipe.

Note 2: You can substitute the sour dried cherries for a mixture of raisins, dried cherries, and barberries.

Note 3: This is deliberately not too sweet. You can always add more honey when you are eating it.

Note 4: There are two kinds of "kosher" salts. Ones that have been pressed and hence are more salty and others that are not. You want the natural kind here otherwise you will have a salty mess.

Note 5: You can totally gild the lily in the last step by adding roasted sesame seeds and slivered almonds .The CC did.

Recipe

Combine the first group - oats, pistachios, coconut chips and pumpkin seeds - in a bowl.

Mix the brown sugar, maple syrup and olive oil in a pan. Heat till dissolved. (You can also do this in a microwave on low heat for about 90 seconds.)

Pour this mixture all over the mixture in the bowl. Combine thoroughly.

Spread it on a pan and bake in the oven at 300°F for about 30-40 minutes. You will need to keep mixing and spreading the mixture every 6-7 minutes. (Yeah, a bit of a pain but otherwise it'll burn.)

Add the sour dried cherries and combine again. Let it cool to room temperature.

Store in a sealed container in a cool dry place.

Roman Inheritance

If you look back far enough, human taste hasn't changed much and you can spot the modern in the ancient and vice versa.

Apicius refers to a collection of Roman recipes compiled somewhere in the late fourth to early fifth century. It's attributed ot Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmand who lived in the first century (and hence the collection is extraordinarily unlikely to have written by him.)

Recipe 89 goes as follows:

Coliculis conditis ut supra superfundes alicam elixam cum nucleis et uva passa; piper asparges.

Over the young cauliflower, seasoned as above, pour boiled spelt with pine nuts and raisins; sprinkle with pepper.

The "as above" refers to an earlier recipe (87) where the sauce consists of garum, olive oil, wine and cumin topped with fried leeks.

Even though the CC has translated coliculis as "cauliflower", it could equally well have been cabbage or broccoli, or even all of them (all members of the brassica family really.) There is considerable leeway here.

You can see the similarities in a classical Sicilian recipe that uses pasta instead of boiled spelt (perhaps couscous would be closer?) with cauliflower, onions (substituting for leeks), anchovies, raisins and pinenuts. The only difference is the seasoning which calls for saffron not cumin, and the tomato paste which is entirely New World for reasons explained here.

The anchovies are the exact replacement for garum which is nothing more than a fish sauce made with anchovies. The Thai nahm pla or the Filipino patis are the closest modern equivalents.

You too can eat like a Roman gourmand. Indulge!


Pasta with Cauliflower, Anchovies, Raisins, Pine Nuts & Saffron

Ingredients

2 cups rigatoni (or penne.)

1 head cauliflower (separated into medium-sized florets)
1 large red onion (chopped)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup raisins
6 anchovies (preferably salt-cured)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp saffron

olive oil

sea salt
black pepper

breadcrumbs

Recipe

Toast the breadcrumbs and set aside. Toast the pine nuts until golden. Be careful not to burn them. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil at medium heat. When shimmering, add the cauliflower and fry languidly for 6-8 minutes. Add the onions and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, and the anchovies and fry. The anchovies will "dissolve" as they fry. Add a cup of water, the raisins, sea salt, and black pepper, and let cook at low heat.

Meanwhile make the pasta until al dente. Drain.

The cauliflower mixture should be just slightly on the wet side. If dry, add some more water.

Toss in the saffron, and the pasta, and mix thoroughly.

Serve with the roasted breadcrumbs on top, and more black pepper if you like.

Pasta with Cauliflower, Raisins and Almonds

This recipe is so awesome that the CC has already posted it.

Twice.

Clearly, there was no response. So it's time for more high-pressure tactics. If one of you readers don't make it, and share in the mind-blowing gloriousness that is this recipe, and share your foodgasm with the rest of us, the CC will torture you by posting this recipe again and again until one of you surrenders.

The recipe has even been optimized for you slackers - you know who you are!

Yes, the CC has no shame! (But he does have cauliflowers.)


Ingredients

1 large cauliflower
1 large red onion (cut into very thin semi-rounds)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup raisins
4 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 cups whole wheat pasta

4 tbsp capers (in salt not vinegar, finely chopped)
4 tbsp chives (finely chopped)
4 tbsp tarragon (finely chopped)
4 tbsp parsley (finely chopped)

parmigiano-reggiano
olive oil
salt
pepper

Recipe

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Stick the almonds to roast while the oven is preheating (roughly 10 mins.)

Toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake in the oven until roasted and browned (roughly 40 mins.)

Meanwhile, put the raisins in vinegar, and add about a cup of water. Bring to a light boil for about 7 mins to plump the raisins. (Hint: the microwave is awesome at this task. Use it!)

Make the pasta just under al dente.

Heat some olive oil in a pan. Fry the onions until they are limp. Add the cauliflower, the raisins (with the liquid), all the herbs, salt and pepper, and the pasta. Toss well.

Serve topped with the roasted almonds, grated parmesan, and plenty of black pepper.

Pasta with Cauliflower, Almonds & Raisins

(Recipe: link)

Hey! You people want entertainment daily but the CC only has so much time. At least, the photographs are a lot better!

Pasta with Cauliflower, Raisins & Breadcrumbs

Quite simply this is a sensational dish. It takes a little more time than a simple dish but the tastes and textures are simply out of this world!

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pasta

1 cauliflower (cut into florets)
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup raisins
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 tbsp capers (chopped)
4 tbsp parsley (chopped)
1 tbsp tarragon (chopped)
1 tbsp chives (chopped)

olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Lots of steps but eminently parallelizable. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Mix the cauliflower with some olive oil and salt and plenty of black pepper and roast for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile in a skillet, roast the almonds for about 8-10 minutes at medium heat. Set aside.

Roast the breadcrumbs for just 15-30 seconds. Set aside.

Mix the raisins with some hot water and the vinegar. Set on a low boil for 5 minutes. (Incidentally, this is one of the rare cases where the microwave excels!)

Chop the almonds coarsely.

Cook the pasta in heavily salted water under al dente. Mix all the ingredients (including the water of the raisins) except the breadcrumbs. Top each dish with the breadcrumbs.