What would I do without Dani, my trusty
assistant cook? She loves learning about
making Israeli couscous, one of her favorites!
My goal for the weekend was to cook without going grocery shopping- using everything we have in the house. Re-visiting one of my favorite new cookbooks, Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi, we prepared the roasted Saffron Cauliflower with Red Onions, Raisins and Olives. I've been more than a little obsessed with saffron lately, so this dish provided a fix of saffron and it just so happens that we picked up a cauliflower at River Valley Market this week. We didn't have olives, so I subbed in a mix of capers and caper berries. With the addition of russet potato and tomato it came out wonderfully. We had a little heavy cream, so, I also made a Saffron Cream sauce to drizzle over the cauliflower dish for a little extra sauciness and sassiness!
The cauliflower was a perfect counter-balance to another dish, Israeli couscous with Porcini Mushrooms and Chestnuts. We really dig porcini and chestnuts. Two true stories:
True Story One: Half of our grocery shopping budget was spent at RVM's Member Appreciation 10% off sale by buying six containers of porcini mushrooms. Believe it or not, I never had porcini until about 5 years ago when our friend Stephen whipped up a fabulous Pasta with Porcini Cream Sauce for us in Atlanta.
True Story Two: One of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes is our friend Eric's Jerusalem Artichokes with Chestnuts. Tucking into this about 7 years ago is where the love for the almighty chestnut all began.
So, there it is: Cauliflower & Israeli Couscous
We also had a Mediterranean salad of cucumbers with greek yogurt, scallions and cilantro. It was seasoned with aleppo pepper, cumin, salt, pepper and garlic.
Mediterranean Cucumber Salad
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