Vegetable ‘cakes’

Robert Reynolds Chef Studio

The beauty of knowledge is that it’s cumulative. That means for me as well as for the students enrolled in the long-term courses whether full time during the day, or when they come to classes evenings and week ends. It means there is time to go into ideas, explore the structure of dishes, practice methods and techniques that make food taste, and get some sense of mastery of an idea. The goal is to become an independent thinker when standing in front of an onion, ready to chop and cook.

When you have time to ponder, certain ideas return, others open up. Inspiration comes in a million forms. I had great teachers. The honor of having Josephine Araldo as a mentor, and of having Madeleine Kamman shape my thinking means I have always had an excellent base of knowledge from which to draw. French and Italian culture were my inheritance from those teachers, and they are the gifts that I pass on.

Resourcefulness is key to French cooking. I will always hear Josephine in the kitchen saying “Any fool can make a roast, but it takes a genius to know what to do with leftovers.” Resourcefulness is grounded not just in parsimony, but in a respect for ingredient. If something is good enough for you to work with, you honor that it also came to you because of some one else’s labor. You don’t want to see your effort, or the effort of others, wind up in the trash can.

This past week we worked with simple ideas from a number of angles. We made ‘crepes’ from zucchini, bound with a small bit of flour and moistened with enough egg so they held their shape when contained in a small ring mold. As they cooked in a skillet the small amount of flour in the mixture browned nicely. Since the vegetable was box grated, it cooked pretty quickly. We served them as a garnish to  steak. It was just a way of giving an otherwise ordinary vegetable a new outlook on life. It was unassuming, and its charm was not lost.

We made fish cakes by binding cooked, flaked fish with cooked potatoes. They were shaped into cakes, breaded and crisped in fat in a skillet. Part of the beauty of knowing how to construct simple dishes is that a pound of fish can be made to serve 6 or 8 people and have them feel satisfied because the results taste good, look good, and seem a little out of the ordinary.

The dish I most liked however, was a cauliflower cake made pretty much the same way as the fish cake. I used cauliflower that had been blanched tender. I broke it up into little pieces because I wanted the finished ‘cake’ to have the texture. It was bound with enough potato puree to hold it together. The mixture was seasoned with salt, and flavored additionally with a bit of chopped thyme.

Once shaped into cakes, they were dipped in flour first, then egg, and finally bread crumbs. A mixture of butter and olive oil were heated in a skillet, and each cake was browned first on one side, then the other. The heat was turned down and allowed to penetrate gently. We served the cauliflower cakes topped with a small dollop of tomato sauce made from home canned tomatoes from last summer’s harvest. I simply cooked them in a pan until they gave up their water, and seasoned them with enough salt to round out the gorgeous flavor they offered. I could have used an aioli, a mayonnaise, a garnish of salad greens, but the simplicity of the tomato sauce, sitting brightly on top of the cake, appealed to everyone.

CAULIFLOWER CAKES

1-1/2 cups leftover blanched cauliflower, broken into small flowerets
1 to 1-1/2 cups leftover boiled potatoes, riced

½ to ¾ teaspoon excellent sea salt

leaves from 2 or 3 stems of thyme, chopped coarsely

Breading

Flour

1 egg beaten with a fork

1 cup home made bread crumbs

Olive oil and butter for frying

Place the flowerets in a 1-1/2 quart utility bowl, season lightly with salt. Gently mix with the leftover potato and add the chopped thyme. Work the mixture with your hands until you can shape it into a ‘cake’ an inch thick and about 1-1/2 inches across.

Arrange three flat soup bowl, one with about half a cup of flour, the next with the beaten egg, and the last bowl with bread crumbs. Dip each cake into the flour, shake off the excess, then dip into egg, and finally into the crumbs. Set them to rest on a wire rack until ready to use.

Heat about 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil, then another equal amount of butter in a skillet. When the butter foams, it is hot enough to add the cakes. Brown them carefully on medium heat without burning the butter or the breadcrumbs, first on one side, then the other.  Turn the heat down, and let it penetrate the cakes for another 3 or 4 minutes until they are heated through.

Serve the cakes as the vegetable accompaniment to any meat, or as a first course accompanied by a garnish of tomato sauce, or topped with home made mayonnaise, or simple garnished with green salad tossed with vinaigrette. The cakes can be served hot or cold. We served a rose wine from Provence with the cakes topped with tomato sauce and knew at once that it would make perfect summer food.

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