Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower
• 4 T butter, cubed
• s&p
• 3 leeks*
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 green pepper
• 1 lb. Andouille sausage, chopped
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
• 6 c shrimp stock** (any stock will work)
• 1/2 lb. okra
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 T Old Bay
• 2 t Quatre épices***
• 3 green onions

Method

Get your oven to 450°F. The food processor is going to be your BFF for this recipe. Get it out! Cut out the core and leaves of the cauliflower. Roughly chop and, in batches, process the cauliflower until it resembles rice. Place on a baking sheet. Toss it around with the butter and some s&p. Roast the cauliflower rice until it’s a nice pale yellow-ish color and doesn’t taste cauliflower-y, making sure to toss it one or two times while it’s roasting. About 25 minutes.

While the cauliflower is going, add the andouille sausage to a soup/stock pot, at least 5 quarts. Saute until it’s browned, remove from the pan and place on a “holding” plate. Add the chicken and saute until it’s done…if you’re a little shy of done, no worries, it’ll continue to cook in the soup. Remove the chicken and add to the plate with the sausage.

Add the green pepper, celery stalks and leeks to the food processor and blend until everybody is in small, itty-bitty pieces. Add to the stock pot and saute until everybody has softened. Pulse up the canned tomatoes in the food processor too–I don’t like when they’re too big in the soup, I like them evenly sized and textured within the soup. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the sausage and chicken, and simmer until the okra has softened, about 20 minutes. Don’t be afraid to taste the okra for the correct done-ness–soft, but still has a crunch to it.

To serve, place a scoop of cauliflower rice in the center of a bowl, ladle around the gumbo and sprinkle with green onions. You will have more gumbo than cauliflower. So leftovers will be “soup.”

*Leeks are dirty little suckers. To clean them: Cut off the root and to the top where it starts to get really, really green. Slice lengthwise and toss into a bowl of water. Use your hands to jiggle them around and that should remove virtually all the dirt.

**So here’s the deal with shrimp stock: I made the faux-viche one night and used shell-on shrimp. I saved the shells, added them to 3 quarts of water, simmered for 3 hours, strained and discarded the shells. Incredibly easily, and might I add, very resourceful.

*** Quatre épices is a french seasoning mix: white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cloves. It’s not a necessary component, but it’s a nice addition. I found mine at World Market.

Antipasto Salad

Ingredients

Pickled Cauliflower and Carrots

• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped small
• 2 carrots, sliced thinly
• 1/2 c white wine vinegar
• 1/2 c red wine vinegar
• 1/2 c water
• 2 T salt
• 1 T sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed

Antipasto

• 6 oz.  salami, pepperoni or other cured meat, chopped
• 1 can quartered artichokes, chopped
• 1/2 c roasted red peppers, chopped
• 1/3 c pistachios, chopped
• handful of basil and oregano, chopped
• 3 T pepperoncini, chopped
• olive oil, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• other ingredients that you may like: red chili flakes, capers, red onions, kalamata olives, feta cheese

Method

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients for the pickles, place in fridge and let marinate for at least 24 hours. Toss the cauliflower/carrot mixture with a spoon a few times when you go in the fridge. Us a slotted spoon to remove the cauliflower and carrots from the brine. Be sure to remove the garlic if you don’t want it, it’s camouflaged really well by the cauliflower. We chopped the garlic up and put it in the salad, but it’s a bit spicy still, even pickled.

Place the cauliflower/carrots in a large bowl along with the rest of the chopped anitpasto ingredients. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for a week or so.

Pork Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground pork
• 4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
• 1 shallot or 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 inch long piece of ginger
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 2T + 2T wheat free soy sauce
• 1T + 1T  chili garlic sauce
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 eggs

Method

In a saute pan add the pork and break it up into pieces with your spatula. Let me school you real quick in extracting flavor from ground meat–let it cook until it’s brown. That means, don’t stop cooking it until you physically see a brown crust on it, just like if you were searing a steak or chicken.

While the pork is browning, chop the cauliflower head into chunks and throw into your food processor. Pulverize until it’s turned into crumbles, this shouldn’t take but about 2 minutes. Remove the cauliflower and reserve in a bowl. Since the bowl of the processor is already dirty, you might as well let it do some more work for you and pulverize the ginger and shallots.

Once the pork is brown, brown, brown add the mushrooms, 1/2 the green onions, 2 T soy sauce, 1T garlic chili sauce, and the shallots and ginger. Let it come together and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove the mixture from the pan and put into your serving dish.

Add the cauliflower to the saute pan. What you’re trying to do is cook the cauliflower crumbles. Keep your eye on it and stir it around every minute or so. It should be finished in about 8 minutes. Taste it to make sure it’s soft and doesn’t have an over cauliflower-y taste. Add 2 more T of soy sauce and 1 more T of chili garlic sauce. Place the cauliflower into the serving bowl.

In a small bowl, crack 2 eggs and whisk together with a fork. Add the eggs to the saute pan and constantly stir so the eggs scramble into small pieces. They should finish cooking in about 2 minutes. Add the eggs to the serving dish.

Add the other 1/2 of the green onions, toss everything around to coat and serve immediately.