Recipe for roasted cauliflower steak with whisky sauce – another boozy recipe for Valentine’s week
How do you make a vegetarian main course that just does justice to the vegetable on hand, looks stunning and doesn’t take too long? You take the freshest cauliflower you can find and get on with this roasted cauliflower steak recipe. In case you think I am crazy for doing a steak with a vegetable, stop right there. Cauliflower and cabbage steaks are a thing these days 😛 and in case you are entertaining vegetarian friends, you can easily make this dish, while the others are eating the real steak.
Roasting brings out flavours you never knew existing from vegetables like cauliflower and cabbage, so do it to believe it 🙂
Coming to the second (and vital) half of this recipe, the husband and me enjoy a good whisky. In fact, I often joke about how he has expanded my knowledge of single malts to an extent that I can actually do an A-Z in Single Malts alone. A for Ardbeg, B for Bruichladdich, C for Caol Ila…you get the drift, right? We are totally in love with a locally made whisky called Amrut (which is ranked highly internationally) and we jump in to buy and try any of their new variants, each of which has managed to impress our single malt loving palates.
Since I was thinking along the lines of creating boozy recipes this Valentine’s week, I thought why not a whisky sauce? I’m not much of a Valentine’s Day celebrating person and a totally anti anything pink, red or heart shaped for Valentine’s person. But yes, give me a good whisky, and some good jazz music and I’m a happy girl. And it’s a good thing the husband and me have well-aligned tastes in this matter. So a whisky-sauce is totally up our alley 🙂 And no, we wouldn’t consider it a waste of good whisky. Adding liquor to a sauce, be it sherry or whisky or vodka, soaks up all the flavours and the alcohol in the liquor pretty much evaporates giving a great depth of flavour to the sauce.
So here’s my Valentine special main course for my readers – RoastedCauliflower steaks with whisky sauce for two!
If you think cutting the cauliflower into two thick steaks is a problem, follow the same recipe with larger florets and you could serve 3-4 florets per dish, on a bed of greens with a drizzle of the whisky sauce on top.
Roasted Cauliflower Steak with Whisky Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Cauliflower medium
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- as required Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper / s
- 1 tbsp Unsalted butter
- 2 tbsps onions finely chopped
- 2 tbsps whisky
- 1/4 tsp stock veg cube crushed
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup cream low fat
- cherry tomatoes few
Instructions
- Remove the stalk and leaves of the cauliflower. Slice it into two halves, right through the centre and the stalk. Cut two thick slices (steaks) from the 2 halves and use the rest of the florets in another recipe.
- Wash these two slices well under running water. Soak in heavily salted water for 15 minutes, rinse again. Bring a pot of water to boil. Place the two slices in the boiling water gently and allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes. Refresh in a bowl of cold water and dry thoroughly using a kitchen towel.
- Preheat the oven at 190xb0C. Coat the cauliflower steaks with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast / bake for 10 minutes. This can also be done in the air fryer, which will be quicker than baking in an oven. Remove when you see browning around the edges.
- To prepare sauce, heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the finely chopped onions and sauce for 4-5 minutes on medium flame. Switch off the flame, add the whisky. (Ideally, you'd want to flambe this but it is risky for newbies or in home kitchens to try this out.)
- The whisky will start sizzling and the alcohol starts evaporating. Start the flame again, on a low flame, allow this to simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add the stock cube in water and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for another 5 minutes on low flame, until somewhat thick. Season with pepper and a pinch of salt (if required), taste the sauce and decide.
- To serve, layer some arugula or wilted spinach or other salad greens in a dish. Place the roasted cauliflower steak on this, top with whisky sauce and cherry tomato halves.
- Serve warm.
Notes
Boozy Self Saucing Chocolate Cake for Two
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