This recipe is a variation of Cauliflower Piccata by Hetty McKinnon’s by The New York Times. I changed a few things as I was going along.. I roasted the garbanzos with the cauliflower instead of just adding them from the can. I cut the amount of butter in half because I thought I had enough. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of flour to give the sauce some body. Those were the changes I made. Serving size is hard to judge. For me this made 6 side servings. But if you want bigger servings than me it will only make 4 servings. It also depends on the size of your cauliflower too.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 cauliflower – cut into florets
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is approximate and is for the cauliflower/chick peas and the frying of the shallots)
sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 (15 ounce) can chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed three times
1 shallot – minced
3 garlic cloves ground to paste
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon flour
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (feel free to add 2 more Tablespoons if desired)
2 Tablespoons capers – drained
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon (thinly slice the other half of the lemon)
1/4 cup parsley leaves – chopped for finishing
Directions
Turn the oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the cauliflower florets on a sheet pan mixed with the drained chick peas. Spray them well with the olive oil and season to taste with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Roast till golden and brown. Timing will differ….25-45 minutes. Remove when done.
Mix the flour with the vegetable stock and set to the side.
In a medium fry pan add a tablespoon of olive oil on medium high heat. When hot add the shallots and stir as needed. After about a minute add the garlic and stir. As soon as you smell the garlic (less than a minute) add the vegetable stock (mixed with 1/2 teaspoon flour) and let it reduce by half. Turn down to low and add the butter, capers, lemon juice and lemon zest. Season to taste.
Serve and finish with lemon slices and parsley.
Cauliflower Piccata
ENJOY!
A special THANKS to Hetty McKinnon and The New York Times for a great Recipe so I can do what I did!
There are several different kinds of restaurants out there. Most go under the categories of neighborhood restaurants….and neighborhood restaurants also are very good restaurants. We LOVE neighborhood restaurants……….but…… Some restaurants out there are destination restaurants. Destination restaurants serve the FANTABULOUS dishes. These are the restaurants that you drive across town for. We lost some of our destination lunch restaurants like Tarbell’s Tavern, Christopher’s and Vincent Market Bistro possibly due to the pandemic. Some restaurants have cut back lunch service to limited days. It is important that we still have some destination lunch restaurants. These restaurants are great for a special lunch out. Some only offer lunch on the weekends. Maybe you want to impress a friend or a relative. Maybe you want a special lunch for an anniversary or a birthday. Or maybe it’s for just because…….
Here they are in no particular order.
The Craftsman (lunch Fri, Sat. Sun.) in North Scottsdale offers some expectational cuisine. When you taste just even a salad you know that it isn’t ordinary. It’s the highest freshest quality.
crunchy quinoa salad with chickenCraftsman muffuletta with friesshipwright ahi saladtomato and melon burrata
www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com
We have Elements at Sanctuary (lunch Mon., Tue., Wed., Thurs., Fri.) in Paradise Valley with celebrity chef Beau Macmillan. The menu is ever changing and seasonal. But you are sure to find a variety of appetizers a special of the day, bento boxes, a very good exceptional chicken dish, and pastry chef quality desserts.
bento box house made cavatelli with duck confitseasonal chicken thigh dishfive spice beef tenderloinchef crafted dessert
www.SantuuaryCamelback.com/dining/Elements
Ocotillo (lunch Sat., Sun. subject to change) is a restaurant and more. It is technically also a coffee bar, cocktail lounge, wine bar, event space and park. They offer a mostly American menu laced with global cuisine. The menu offered is a large brunch menu of mostly sharing plates of salads, vegetable plates, sweets (breakfast), light plates, savory plates. I counted over 20 different plates to choose from. The menus are seasonal and do change. Also the hours change. Before the pandemic Ocotillo offered a great lunch everyday. Currently brunch is offered on the weekends of mostly lunch sharing plates.
house smoked salmon platecrispy chicken meatballstandoori chicken salad pita with tomato watermelon saladvanilia roasted pear with goat cheese and bitter chocolate with mintsmoked brisket on parmesan polenta, fried egg, crispy onions, brisket jusJapanese fish and chips
It’s easy to see why Ocotillo is a destination restaurant.
www.OcotilloPHX.com
Superstition Downtown Meadery (lunch 7 days a week) in Phoenix offers chef crafted food and award winning meadery (ancient honey wine). They offer sharing boards, small sharing plates and large sharing plates and food and mead pairings.
12 mead sampler $24.piri piri chicken & warm cannelli bean saladgorgonzola. & herb butter skirt steak blondies with cocoa nibs and Marion berry mead sauce whipped cream
www.SuperstitionMeadery.com
Another one of the top destinations for a special lunch would be the small restaurant in Carefree called Confluence (lunch Wed. Thurs., Fri., Sat.) They serve ever changing seasonal menus of elevated modern cuisine….You can order appetizers, lunch, and don’t miss dessert….because the desserts are equally amazing as the food.
Some of the amazing detailed and delicious lunches from Confluence that we tried were- –
kampachi crudo appetizermiso braised beef cheek (don’t miss out on any beef cheek you ever come across from Confluence) (this was only on the lunch menu maybe one week)Wagyu pastrami sandwich cubano sandwichBBQ chicken sandwich, celery root, spicy pickle, beet greens, smoked onion mayo, on a house made fontina roll (This might have been the most delicious sandwich that I have ever eaten anywhere)buttermilk fried chicken with broccolini, grits and chili tepin honey mustardmixed fruit granitespiced plum with black pepper oat crumble, sake poached cherry, candied manderanquat, mint, matcha creme anglaisechocolate mousse smoked toffee risotto, spiced pear, cocoa nibs, hazelnut, mint
www.RestaurantConfluence.com
These are some of the destination restaurants of metro Phoenix for lunch.
In no particular order-
The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen – (Fri-Sun.) North Scottsdale
Tap & Bowl is a unique small restaurant and bar located by the arts district and on the end of the waterfront near to Old Town Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant offers appetizers like dips, wings, and fried pickle chips. They also offer a variety of seasonal and some globally inspired bowls. They offer craft beers, cider, cocktails, hand crafted sodas and water filtered by an Italian soda machine.
You can sit inside at the bar, at a high top, on a sofa or booth. Outside on the shaded patio are traditional tables with bench seating.
On my last visit I tried a watermelon cucumber soda.
It was light refreshing and delicious.
This time I went with iced tea.
Both times here I had the Atlantic salmon & cali rice bowl. It is mostly riced cauliflower that is really pretty good and you almost forget that you are eating cauliflower…It’s almost like eating quinoa and it’s studded with edamame, carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms and maybe some seasonal veggies. It’s all laced with Asian tasting sauces.
Last visit Atlantic salmon & cali bowl
The recent Atlantic salmon and cali bowl did differ slightly but was still delicious.
The biggest difference between the two bowls was the salmon. Last time it was served medium-rare and this time it was served well done.
The meal my husband enjoyed last time (the chicken macaroni and cheese bowl has been discontinued so this time he ordered the puerco con masa (masa caked topped with pulled pork with pico, honey and hot sauce.
He said that it was very tasty. He also said that he thought the hot sauce was particularly good.
Tap & Bowl is a nice little stop that maybe you haven’t thought about. On both visits all the food was tasty and not too heavy.
That was just a Little Taste of Tap & Bowl in Scottsdale AZ.
I wanted to do something with parsnips today. I looked up recipes and found maybe ten different recipes that paired parsnips with sage and bacon…..So I thought of bonito flakes….Bonito flakes are shaved dried fermented and smoked tuna. They are almost like a mix of anchovy and bacon but more delicate. That makes bonito flakes more vegetable friendly than bacon. Bonito flakes are easy to find at your local Asian Market or you can buy them on-line. I didn’t measure this recipe exactly. The hardest part is peeling the Brussels sprouts. I had a one pound bag of Brussels sprouts and maybe peeled half of each sprout and cooked the centers latter for a separate dish.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 large parsnips – Peel and cut around the cores into small wedges something like French fry shaped.
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs sage leaves – pick off leaves
1/4 cup green olives – pits removed – rough chopped
2 cups brussels sprouts leaves
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
4 good pinches of bonito flakes
Directions
Set your oven to 400 degrees F.
Put the parsnips on a baking sheet and spay or sprinkle the parsnips well with olive oil. Most them for 15 minutes. (they aren’t done yet). Add sage and olives and roast them 5-10 minutes more or until the parsnips are cooked. Toss in the sprout leaves. This goes back in the oven for only 2 minutes to wilt the leaves. Sprinkle with lemon juice add salt and pepper to taste. Finish with bonito flakes.
I found this bag of Deep River Snacks Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips at Marshall’s. I thought this flavor seemed different and fun so I gave them a try. The bag is different.
The top of the bag reads, “Because we give a chip.” What it means is that they donate from their sales to a charity to feed children.
Then I look at the ingredients.
Seems safe to eat.
I open the bag and it smells like mustard.
Spill some chips out.
These are very small chips. They look fingerling sized??? They are extra crisp, very thin and slightly powdered.
I eat a few.
They really taste like Chinese mustard with that slight horseradish flavor.
Now I go to eat one real slow…………can’t………..the flavors are too strong that way….These you just have to eat.
I have to say these Select Edition Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks are Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
If you are a fan of Chinese Mustard and Crispy Potato chips you might want to give this bag of potato chips a try.
Here is a delicious Indian Style nut butter tomato sauce that I made for a roasted cauliflower. It’s a delicious, creamy, fragrant, sauce that gets creamy from grinding some nuts into it so you need a spice grinder. It’s trendy to roast a whole cauliflower head but I’m sorry that I did it that way because it takes much longer to roast it that way. I would suggest roasting the cauliflower in wedges or even florets. I had some leftover turmeric pickled onions that I added that I thought would be good here. The onions were a big onion sliced, zest from one orange, with juice of the orange, 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. Mix and let sit a 1/2 hour and then refrigerate. For the cauliflower you can use whatever kind you get. I do note that purple cauliflower are the most delicate and roast for less time in a slightly lower oven. I used an Italian green fancy cauliflower today. The other cauliflower that comes out the best is the orange cauliflower…but really any cauliflower will be fine. Serving size will differ. Every cauliflower is a different size and you might want a big portion or maybe only a small side order. I used 2 small cauliflowers and got 8 small servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
1 large or 2 small cauliflower – cut in serving size wedges
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is what I guessed I used to spray down the two cauliflowers well.
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper- to taste
3 onions – sliced thin
4 Tablespoons canola oil
pinch sugar
pinch salt
28 oz can Italian crushed or chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
20 almonds – ground with a spice grinder
20 cashews – ground with a spice grinder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch cinnamon
garam masala – to taste for finishing
optional – 3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F
Get out a baking sheet.
Spray the cauliflower well with the olive oil. Salt and pepper the cauliflower to your taste. Put the sheet of cauliflower on a middle rack of your oven. Roast till the cauliflower has brown edges. (timing may differ but this takes around 45 minutes…it could be more or less)
Mesquit Fresh Street Mex is a small local chain of eight (subject to change) casual-quick Mexican Restaurants in Metro Phoenix. They offer tacos, burritos, protein bowls, quesadillas, burritos, sides, Mexican beverages and more! Mesquite Fresh Street Mex has earned awards from the Phoenix New Times for Best Street Taco and Best Tortilla.
It’s very casual.
There is a window that you walk by where they cook the steak, chicken, and vegetables. It was empty when I walked by so there is nothing to see or smell.
Then you order.
It is Chipotle Style and they add sauces or vegetables to what you ordered. You then get either a bottled soda or water or order from the beverage station.
Then you seat yourself.
I went with a chicken bowl with salad instead of rice and beans. I added cilantro, pickled onions, and red and green sauce.
JEEPERS….The red sauce is too hot for me and I usually like hot.
The green sauce is ok……the guacamole sauce is smooth like a smoothie. I like the pickled onions. The chicken is tender and some pieces are seasoned more with a salt seasoning than other pieces. My chicken lacks mesquite taste. It is also cold. I told the person working there that it was cold.Not just cool but actually like refrigerator cold. She said that she took the chicken from the bottom of the pan to try to get the warmer chicken……………. That is an odd thing to tell me. I now know that the food they served me was mishandled. The food should have been properly heated up first before being placed in a steam table. The steam tables function is not to heat up food but to keep food at a proper temperature. It’s going to take a long time for that steam table to get that big pan of chicken hot. I hope they don’t make people sick here. I mean I sure hope that they change their ways and do things the right way next time.
My husband had a chicken and steak quesadilla. He thought it was ok…..It’s wasn’t bad…..but didn’t have much flavor.
That was my trip to Mesquite Fresh Tex Mex – Newly Opened in North Phoenix
Chantico is a Mexican style restaurant, bar, and event space located in Phoenix Arizona close to the Biltmore area. Chantico is a sister restaurant of Ocotillo in Phoenix and Starlite BBQ in Scottsdale. The signs for Chantico are easy to miss when you are driving up Camelback Road to get there but when you see a large building with lots of trees and plants that resembles Ocotillo you are there.
side of Chantico
Chantico is large with three main dining rooms, a few patios, a bar (maybe more bars?) and I noticed another smaller dining room. It looks like this when you walk in and you are asked if you want to sit at a table or a booth.
Behind this glass wall are the tables and behind this room is a patio. To the right is a large dining room that was closed at brunch time. The booths are in a bar area.
On the brunch menu are a long list of appetizers that sound like things that you might find on Ocotillo’s menu sometimes such as – a fancy detailed Chantico salad, spicy halibut ceviche, a beet dish, short rib appitizer, charred sweet potato, and grilled cauliflower.
The brunch dishes offer lots of variety……..You can get entrees like an anchiote chicken or a grilled New York steak. They have blue corn pancakes. They offer Mexican style dishes and some include eggs like burritos, chicken flautas, tyludas, chimiquiles, a shrimp relleno, and a pibil sandwich. If you order the Chantico Breakfast you get birria tacos, broth, scrambled and a beverage of coffee, agua fresco, or horchata. If you order the tacos you get three tacos that come with sour cream guacamole and your choice of sangria, Mexican beer, or a margarita.
Then they serve us fresh hot chips and salsas.
The chips are delicious. One salsa taste like ground tomatillos. The other salsa taste just like enchilada sauce.
We ordered and I picked the crispy chicken tacos and I picked the margarita that came with the tacos.
The margarita is really good! It’s made with fresh tasting juices. It’s better than some $12.00 margaritas from some places and it’s included with the $15.00 tacos..WOW!
We did order a grilled cauliflower appetizer but our brunch items came out first.
My husband tried the pibil sandwich.
pibil sandwich
It’s anchiote pork, scrambled eggs, grilled onion on a roll. It’s suppose to be spicy with habanero sauce but either they were extra light with the sauce or maybe the sauce might have been forgotten? A-OK here.
I got the crispy chicken tacos.
crispy chicken tacos
I got three good sized very crispy tacos with a good amount of sour cream and guacamole. This is a very large portion of food for brunch. The chicken in the tacos is tasty and crispy. (this is a lot of food and drink for only $15.)
It a good amount of breast meat fried crispy with skin topped with some shredded cabbage…..These tacos are kind of plain but you can add some of the salsas from the chips to add some additional flavors.
Then our grilled cauliflower arrives. Our server was very apologetic about forgetting to order the cauliflower. He said he was taking it off our bill. I said that he didn’t have to take it off but he did anyway.
grilled cauliflower
The cauliflower has mole negro, tomatillo pico, cilantro and crispy corn on it. This is tasty and spicy……My husband added that this was much spicier than the pibil sandwich he had.
This was a little taste of brunch at Chantico in Phoenix AZ.
Chef Paxx Caraballo Moll was named a “Best New Chef” by Food & Wine Magazine. I thought his recipe for skirt steaks with carrot puree and braised cabbage sounded interesting. I didn’t do his skirt steaks because I just made an eye roast called FORKING GREAT Eye Roast with magical delicious rub (You can find on my blog in search) that I thought would go well with everything else from this recipe. I did only minor changes to his recipe….The recipe does have more steps than your average dinner but all the steps are very easy and most of them don’t really need directions. I wrote this as a dinner Idea because I think this same plate would be great with any grilled meat. You will want to do something similar over and over again. (For the photo I didn’t put much meat there because I wanted you to see everything else…The meat has it’s own recipe page.
FORKING GREAT Eye Roast with Magical Delicious RubFORKING GREAT Eye Roast with Magical Delicious Rub
Pickled Orange turmeric onions
1 large white onion – sliced thin
1 orange – the juice and zest
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Mix together in a small bowl. Let sit out 30 minutes. Refrigerate and use when ready.
Basic carrot puree
1- 2 lb carrots peeled and rough dice
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 small brown potato – peeled and rough dice
Place in sauce pot covered well with water. Bring to boil. Medium boil for 15 – 20 minutes. Drain but save carrot water. Blend with a small amount of butter and add a small amount of honey. Add reserved carrot water till a smooth consistency.
Basic gremolata (gremolata is usually just parsley lemon and garlic…..This one differed so I made it different too)
1/2 cup parsley leaves – chopped
1/2 cup cilantro (fine stems ok) – chopped
1 lemon zest
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
2 Tablespoons scallions – chopped
4 Tablespoons oil (I used cilantro oil that I made from a previous recipe)
Mix the above together in a small bowl.
Braised cabbage…..not sure but I think there was a misprint in the magazine because plain thin cabbage was to go in a dry fry pan for 4 minutes until soft.????????????.
1 small head purple cabbage sliced thin.
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon sambal oelek
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
I would do this different next time……and just roast the cabbage with these flavors.
I started the cabbage in a pot and on high heat for around 5 minutes with the soy sauce. Then I added the rest and reduced to medium heat till liquid was absorbed.
Optional – I thought the cabbage was too soft so I crisped it up in a 400 degree F oven for around 20 minutes and I thought it was better.
Put it all together with whatever protein or grilled protein you made.
FORKING GREAT eye roast with braised cabbage, carrot puree, gremolata,and orange pickled turmeric onions
A Special THANKS!!!! To chef Paxx Caraballo Moll and Food & Wine Magizine so I could come up with what I got here.
Goldbelly is an on-line marketplace of special foods from special restaurants from around the country.
Zahav in Philadelphia PA is a multi award wining and James Beard award wining Modern Israeli restaurant by James Beard multi award wining chef and co-owner Michael Solomonov. In 2019 Zahav earned a James Beard Best Restaurant in the Country Award.
Years ago I found out about Zahav Restaurant on the Travel Channel watching an Anthony Bourdain show. I knew one day that I would dine there (since I am from Philadelphia) and I did. It truly was an amazing experience. We had so many small plates to share and each and everyone of them was delicious and awesome. It truly was one of the most amazing dinners that I ever had to this day. They were all so nice to me there too. They treated us like VIPS too! We got to sit in front of the exhibition kitchen and watch all the magic. We watched as breads were baking in an Arabic wood oven called a taboon and we watched cooks acrobatics with skewered meats and fish were cooking on live coals. The funny thing is that I didn’t recognize the chef but he looked so familiar to me. I honestly thought maybe he was someone that I used to work with long ago in a restaurant in a suburb not so far away. The chef looked at me maybe because I was looking at him……I was trying to figure out if I knew him. Anyways he sent out some extra food to us and the management and host(s) were very chatty with us.
This is my photo of the salatim (small plates of salads) we enjoyed from Zahav in Philadelphia that you start out with….
Zahav Restaurant Philadelphia PA
www.OnlyInYourState.com also used my photo.
I had gift credit to buy something from Goldbelly and picked the salatim from Zahav that includes their best in the world hummus. ( it’s made with special sesame seeds that are grown and made into tahini for this restaurant.) I measured out the hummus in 2 oz portion cups and figured that I got twelve generous portions of that special hummus. I also got twelve large pita breads that are two servings each for me so I did have a lot of hummus and pita to freeze for latter.
It doesn’t look very attractive when it arrives.
Everything is numbered so you can look up what each bag contains on a cheat sheet.
It looks better in your own dishes. You can eat it after it sits out for an hour to warm up slightly.
I was so anxious to taste the hummus that I didn’t wait for it to warm properly. I wasn’t thrilled as I remembered but then when I tried it again warmed up then it was like 10 times better and closer to what I remember but it still does differ slightly from Zahav. The Hummus at Zahav is made fresh in the morning and doesn’t get refrigerated. It’s made the highest quality ingredients that can be grown and is topped with a high quality olive oil. They did serve the hummus to us with laffa bread at the restaurant. It’s a more delicate thin bread than pita bread we got packaged for Goldbelly.
Our mutual top favorites were the hummus, schug sauce, harissa, twice cooked eggplant, and spicy fennel…..But everything was very good….The beets taste more like the hummus than beets….so I liked them a lot. These dishes brought back the memory of the amazing food from Zahav.
It’s so cool that you can order food from famous restaurants from all over the country on Goldbelly. ……
Goldbelly.com brings you a taste of Zahav – James Beard Award Wining Restaurant.
