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Daily Maverick
20-05-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
Souper Tuesday: Mildly spicy cauliflower soup
This comforting soup is built on a base of onion, celery and carrot and is finished with a touch of cream. The spicing is gentle but clearly evident. And it starts with roasting the cauliflower. It starts when you buy a head of cauliflower, planning to make cauliflower purée to serve slices of that sirloin on for supper. Then you stop and think… Does cauliflower purée really go all that well with steak? Well, it could, and I've had fillet atop a cauliflower or celeriac purée at fancy restaurants. But. Hmmm. So you move on, and the sirloin (which is a big slab of sirloin roast) is served with green patty pans instead. Patty pans? Why!? I never cook nor eat patty pans, it is my least favourite vegetable. But I've decided to try to like them, so you may find them again here, soon. Maybe. Anyway, the cauliflower stayed in the fridge till Sunday, when The Foodie's Wife said, 'Don't forget you need a soup recipe for Tuesday.' 😮 Sunday evening, as of a week earlier, had been designated Soup Night, but a week later it seemed to have escaped my mind. On such occasions, I have a look around to see what's in the house. That cauliflower glared at me. You'll do, I said. It yawned and looked away. There were carrots, celery, and red onions. There was crisp, plump garlic. I had some cream left over from the Peppermint Crisp muffins that had flopped on Sunday morning. 🙈 I also wanted colour in this soup, so my mind went to turmeric. But turmeric is so very dominant in a dish so I wanted it to be mild, and to be tamed by other spices. All of which — turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and mustard powder — would work in harmony to create a subtle spiciness that was neither obviously turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, red pepper or mustard. Just vaguely spicy. And it worked in the end. Note that the half-teaspoon each of various spices that go into the baste for the cauliflower are also the spices that flavour the soup. Add more if you want something spicier. Tony's mildly spiced roasted cauliflower soup (Makes 3 to 4 portions, or 2 with seconds) Ingredients For the cauliflower: ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil ½ tsp ground turmeric ½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp cayenne pepper ½ tsp ground grated nutmeg ½ tsp ground mustard powder 1 tsp salt to taste 1 tsp ground black pepper 1 large head of cauliflower For the soup: The roasted cauliflower 3 Tbsp butter 1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced 1 large carrot, or 2 medium, diced 3 celery stalks, diced, including leaves 2 fat garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped 1 litre vegetable stock (I used 2 Ina Paarman vegetable stock sachets dissolved in 1 litre of water, because I wanted the stock to be mild) 100ml cream Salt and black pepper to taste Cayenne pepper and grated nutmeg for garnish Method Add the olive oil and spices to a bowl, then the salt and black pepper, and stir. Trim the cauliflower of its leaves and stems. Place the florets in the bowl and roll them around in the spiced oil, ensuring that they are thoroughly coated. Retain the remaining oil for garnishing the soup later. (Add a bit more oil if it's all been used up.) Preheat the air fryer to 200°C. Place the coated florets in the basket and roast for 20 minutes at 200°C. Turn half way. Melt the butter in a heavy pot and add the onion. Sauté until softened, about 3-4 minutes, and add the garlic, celery, and carrot. Continue to simmer, stirring, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and the roasted cauliflower florets, stir, and bring to a boil. Season with salt. Reduce to a very low simmer, put the lid on, and cook gently for about 20-25 minutes. Taste, and adjust salt if more is needed (it was in my case). Also season with black pepper to taste. Blend the soup until it is fairly fine. Add the cream, stir well, and return the soup to a simmer for 3 to 4 minutes while the cream amalgamates properly. Ladle the soup into bowls. Using a teaspoon, create an attractive swirl of the remaining spiced olive oil that you basted the cauliflower with before roasting. Grate nutmeg on top and sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Daily Maverick
19-05-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
Lekker Brekker Monday: An easy, cheesy, breezy scramble
This breakfast wasn't planned. But when the dish I had made for breakfast on Sunday turned out, let's say, less well than expected, I quickly scrambled for something else to replace it. Things don't always work out according to plan. And I don't mind owning up to it when it happens. Which is not often. About 99% of my recipes, as thought out and written, and then executed, turn out well. This means that you know that if I write and publish a recipe, it has been tested and turned out as intended. When it doesn't go well, you usually don't hear about it. This one – built around eggs, chiefly – did go well. But when I got up on Sunday morning and made coffee, I then set about making the breakfast I had planned the day before. What was this sedentary Sunday-morning repast, you may ask? Peppermint Crisp muffins. That's what. Here's what went wrong: I miscalculated how much chocolate there is in a standard 49g bar of Peppermint Crisp. And I used six of them. On reflection, there must have been a fair weight of chocolate in there – enough to weigh it down and throw the batter out of balance. This means that I can now recalculate it and hope that they come out next time. But what happened on Sunday was that the chocolate in the mixture gathered together and melted, forming a rich, oozy pool of chocolatey deliciousness in the middle of the 'muffins'. Yes, you see where I'm going. These were virtually chocolate fondants. The muffins collapsed. We had a couple of them as breakfast dessert. Yummy. So good. But I could not in all conscience pass them off to you as the muffins they had been intended to be. Defeated (for now), I cast around the room. There were five eggs in the egg basket on top of the fridge. (Yes, we keep our eggs in a wire egg basket, which we keep on top of the fridge.) There was an onion. There was Cheddar cheese. And there was butter. (Obviously – there's always butter in my household. I look for special offers and buy it in bulk. Butter freezes perfectly. We do that with bacon special offers too. Butter + bacon = living.) But here's the thing. The balance here is tilted towards the cheese, not the eggs. I used two cups of Cheddar (when grated) and only five eggs. Because that's how many eggs I had. And the onion plays an important role too: it needs to be caramelised, golden and sweet. Like a Sunday morning. Tony's easy, cheesy eggs, cheese and onion scramble (Serves 2) Ingredients 3 Tbsp butter, and then 3 more (you'll see), and then more again for the toast 1 onion, peeled, sliced in half and sliced thinly 5 eggs 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese 4 slices of bread, toasted and buttered Salt and black pepper 2 chives Method Slice the onion, grate the cheese and have the eggs and butter to hand. Toast the bread and butter it. Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a pan and add the sliced onions. Sauté, stirring now and then, until golden brown and smelling sweetly enticing. Add the 3 extra Tbsp butter, let it melt, then add the eggs, while moving the mixture around with a spatula, and then immediately add the cheddar, stirring until it has melted and everything has combined. Move the mixture around until it is cooked but still moist. Spoon the scramble onto the buttered toast. Season with salt and pepper. Top with chopped chives. DM Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023
