Cauliflower is nothing like avocado; there cannot be two vegetables more different, you challenge.
Avocados are buttery, and I have always thought of cauliflower as a being slightly buttery when steamed.
That would be the hollandaise your mother slathers it with. Beside which, the avocado is, technically, a fruit.
So are cucumbers and tomatos, but we put them in salads just the same.
They have different growing seasons, something you wouldn't know.
During the cool growing season of cauliflower, we get avocados from Mexico. And in the avocado season, we get cauliflower from Washington State.
As natural as flying.
This warm salad is a marriage of unexpected textures and flavors: the toothsome cauliflower, the soft avocado, the earthy garlic, the surprising anisette. I think of it as a summer dish served alongside a fine steak or grilled lamb.
Ingredients
Method
- Break cauliflower into florets and steam until tender but crisp.
- Peel avocado and cut into slightly wide slices, each one about a radial twelfth.
- In the corner of a saucepan tilted over the flame, heat the minced garlic in the olive oil until it begins to foam. Count to five, (do not let the garlic brown) remove the pan from the flame, and swirl as you pour in the shot of pastis so that the alcohol is driven off by the latent heat. If you like, have an assistant dim the lights and attempt to flame the fumes with a match or lighter. Pour into a small bowl. Add tarragon, sage, and salt, and whisk until the oil and pastis combine. Taste, adding a pinch of salt or sugar until the garlic and anise come together.
- Arrange a few slices of avocado on one side of a plate and place a few cauliflower florets in the space defined.
- Drizzle with the dressing.
- Serve while still a little warm.
This recipe, while I shared it with bindlenix, is dedicated to achan and sneff, who expressed helpful doubt, on this savory application of anise to a vegetable course.
conform asks, Shalt gourmet match wine?
RESPONSE- This is, admittedly, a difficult dish to pair with wine; pastis is a little cloying on the tongue. Perhaps serving this dish as a tapas course (with tiny omelets, roasted onions, half artichokes) with a glass of sherry is appropriate. With red meats, serve an appropriately robust wine, a magnanimous cabernet sauvignon or zinfandel should be able to match the pastis and garlic, but warn your guests that this dish may alter the wine.
rougevert asks, What a waste of good pastis! Is this at all edible?
RESPONSE- Nothing ventured, my redgreen-bean friend, is nothing gained.
sneff suggests, Try hazelnut oil instead of olive oil, the nutty taste would love the avocado.
RESPONSE- More with loving the avocado!
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