Cauliflower, Veal, and Noodles

So apparently, I like cauliflower a lot these days. I've discovered a fabulously easy, nutritious way to cook it, which I'll describe in a moment. This particular meal was, as usual, an experiment in flavor combinations; luckily, the experiment paid off! Unluckily, I liked it so much, I found I'd gained weight when I stepped on the scales this morning. If I can keep myself away from the left-overs, I'll pay cucumber and tomato penance. If not, maybe I'll just throw my scales away.


Ingredients you'll need to make this surprise success:

Small shell noodles (I prefer mixing varieties for visual and textural interest)
Fresh ground veal
One quarter of a large sweet onion (Vidalia is always best), diced and divided
One jalapeno, washed, seeded, and diced
Olive Oil (always)
Garlic Salt (pretty much always)
One head of cauliflower, washed and broken into florets
Medium heat Hatch Chili queso


The very first thing I did in this cooking endeavor was stare at a recipe for Veal Stroganoff. To my chagrin, I discovered that a key ingredient was missing from my fridge: sour cream. It's pretty hard to make a stroganoff without sour cream. So I started water boiling for noodles (as a pre-schooler grew increasingly adamant about wanting noodles for dinner) and began forming a plan for possible combinations of the ingredients I had and wanted to use. See the above list, if you're wondering what they were.

I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees and prepared the cauliflower first. The leaves at the base are edible and actually pretty tasty. The only part I throw away is the hard stem. All of this went into a glass baking dish with about a third of the diced onion, after which the mixture received liberal dashes of oil from my nifty new cruet. Sprinkled garlic salt finished off the job, and into the oven it went.

Meanwhile, I heated about a quarter cup of olive oil in the pan, meaning to saute the onions, then add the meat. Instead, I got distracted by a toddler rummaging through the trash, and tossed the meat in first. The heat was set on medium, and I let it cook for a bit while I cleaned off Naughty Baby's hands. Once she was securely fastened in her high chair and nibbling on those cardboard-like teething wafers (because she seems to be PERPETUALLY teething), I broke up the meat so it could get brown and crumbly the way I like it. After it was mostly cooked, I added the rest of that diced onion and all of the diced jalapeno. Just prior to turning off the heat, I jacked it up to high and let the veal get nice and crispy.

The water for the noodles was at an almost roiling boil at the point (little girls are not patient enough to ever achieve the bubbling of waters chefs insist on for perfect noodles). In went some salt, then the noodles. I know a proper chef insists that you baby-sit pasta as it's cooking--constantly stirring--but I've got other fish to fry, and my family never complains about gummy pasta... I'm not sure they'd notice.

The cauliflower didn't seem to be cooking quickly enough at 350, so I upped the temperature to 400 degrees and set the timer for another 15 minutes. Also, I doused the little white gems with more olive oil. That extra heat and time (they'd been in for about 20 minutes by then) really achieved the perfect texture.

The cauliflower, noodles, and meat went into my bowl; I added about a tablespoon of the queso, and declared my concoction a success.