Cauliflower and fennel cazuela

This dish is delicious but that has as little to do with the vegetables as lobster bisque has to do with crustaceans. Chefs joke that restaurant patrons love bisques because they're 95% cream. The authors of The Barcelona Cookbook disingenuously claim that cauliflower is surprisingly popular because this dish flies out of the kitchen. You'll see why.

You blanche a cauliflower cut into florets for 7 min., plunge in icewater and drain, then blanche a fennel bulb, trimmed of its fronds and cut in half, in the same pot of water, icewater, drain. Then you rub the fennel bulb halves with olive oil, salt and pepper and put under the broiler (or grill, weather permitting) for 5 to 7 min., then cut into 1/8 to 1/4-in. strips. Heat 1/4 c. olive oil in a large skillet and saute a thinly sliced onion for 10 min., add 4 cloves chopped garlic and cook slowly another 8 to 10 min. Add the blanched vegetables, salt and pepper, and cook slowly 15 to 20 min. Then add 1-1/2 c. heavy cream (!), 3/4 c. panko bread crumbs, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 3/4 c. grated Manchego cheese (!), 2 tsp. chopped parsley, 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme, check seasoning, then set aside.

Then you make a bread crumb topping warming 1/2 c. olive oil in a saute pan, then add 10 cloves of sliced garlic (my cloves were so big I used 5), and cook 5 to 7 min. until garlic is "honey-colored." Then add 3 c. panko crumbs, salt and pepper, and cook for 7 to 10 min., taking care not to scorch the bread crumbs. Add 3/4 c. grated parmesan, 2 Tbl. chopped parsley, and 2 tsp. chopped thyme. Spread topping over vegetable mixture in a casserole (or individual cazuelas) and put in 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 min. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle chopped chives over top and serve.

Now this was really scrumptious, but what you taste is the cream and cheese and oil. The fennel and cauliflower I sampled during cooking were quite good, and presumably those flavors are somewhere in there. But this could have been macaroni and cheese. I served a couple of slices of cold ham with it and it was a delicious dinner. I had planned to use my big cazuela for the final assembly, but it was too big, so I just used a regular oval casserole. I would do it again for company, but it's too much work for a weekday meal and there are presumably ways to cook vegetables where you taste the vegetables.

Scallops with Brussels sprouts

I like Brussels sprouts anyway but this recipe in The Barcelona Cookbook featured a novel way of using them. After you parboil just 1 c. of pared Brussels sprouts for 3 min. (they are at their greenest), drain and plunge in ice water (to keep them green), you then "separate the sprouts into leaves for cooking." I just sliced off a bit more of the root and the outer leaves came off easily, sliced again for some of the inner leaves, then threw away the small core attached to the root.

We love scallops but only splurge on them a couple of times a year. The recipe specifies "dry" scallops from a "reputable" fish store. Apparently a cheaper version is preserved in liquid and won't work in this recipe. The Fishery, being reputable, had dry scallops and I got 6 beauties for the 2 of us (the recipe calls for 12 to serve 4). I did the full recipe for the rest, because we weren't having any other accompaniment.

Heat 2 Tbl. of butter in a skillet over high heat, add 1/4-lb. slab bacon cut into 1/2-in. dice (I used thick slice bacon I had on hand, but it's probably better to make the effort to get the slab because my bacon got pretty crispy), cook for 2 min. and then put the scallops, salted and peppered, in the pan to sear for 3 min. Directions not clear whether you also sear another 3 min. after turning (in general, this great cookbook could have used another round of home kitchen testing and final style editing because it is not always clear), but these were big scallops and I figured they weren't going to get overdone with another 3 min. Then you add those separated sprout leaves, 2 diced shallots, and 1 tsp. chopped garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 min. while stirring. Then you add 3/4 c. dry white wine, bring to a boil and scrape to deglaze pan. Remove scallops and boil down wine by 2/3. Swirl in another Tbl. butter (I actually forgot this and didn't miss it). Divide scallops onto serving plates and ladle sprouts and sauce over them. Elegant, delicious, light, lovely.

I ordered this book after the short ribs recipe I got online was such a hit. The book is very nice and there are also great descriptions of Barcelona, Spanish cheeses, etc. though the title itself refers to a restaurant group in Connecticut.