I was reading recipes and I wanted to do something great with cauliflower. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Gordon Ramsey, and another chef George Blanc do cauliflower with caper raisin sauce (so that must be the thing that makes cauliflower sing?). The caper sauces differ slightly and one chef pickles the cauliflower and the other chef frys the cauliflower (I haven’t found chef Blanc’s recipe yet). I had three kinds of cauliflower so I thought that I should do three different cauliflowers. I roasted around a third of the cauliflower, pickled about a third of the cauliflower and pureed a round a third of the cauliflower. I picked Jean Georges Vongerichten’s recipe for the Caper Raisin Sauce because it sounded tastier to me.

Ingredients for around 12 servings

3 heads of cauliflower (I used one large white and a small purple and small green cauliflower) – break down to florets

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/2 teaspoon granulated onion

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

around 3/4 of a cauliflower (for puree)

1 oz unsalted butter

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cream cheese

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons boiling water

2 pinches saffron

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 red onion thinly sliced

1/3 cup capers – drained

1/4 cup golden raisins

3/4 cup water

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter – room temperature

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

Directions

Pickle around one third (or a little less) of the cauliflower. Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, hot pepper flakes, granulated garlic, granulated onion, ground mustard, ground black pepper, ground coriander, and Old Bay Seasoning. Bring this mixture to a boil and then pour it over up to a third of the cauliflower florets. Let this sit out an hour. After an hour you can drain it. Either use it right away or refrigerate.

Make the cauliflower puree. I guess it doesn’t matter what color you use but I wouldn’t mix up the colors. I had a very large white cauliflower so I used maybe three quarters of the white cauliflower for the puree. Put the florets in a sauce pan with the butter and milk. Cook till soft on medium high. Then blend with the cream cheese and white pepper.Use when ready or refrigerate.

Make the saffron smoked paprika roasted cauliflower.

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the olive oil, boiling water, saffron, and smoked paprika.

Spread out the cauliflower florets and red onion slices and pour the saffron smoked paprika mixtures evenly over the florets and onions. Place pan on a middle rack in the oven and cook till cooked threw and slightly charred. (this took 20 minutes in my oven…yours may differ)

Make Jean-Goerges Vongerichten’s Caper Raisin Sauce

Put the drained capers, raisins, water in a sauce pot and simmer for around 15 minutes. blend and slowly add the butter one tablespoon at a time while blending. Add the sherry.

Serve together.

A special Thanks to Jean George Vongerichten for sharing his FORKING amazing Caper Raisin Sauce recipe so I could come up with this.