Mike Van de Elzen: Cauliflower Polonaise

Cauliflower Polonaise

Cook time: 30 minutes

Prep time: 20 minutes

Serves- 4-6

1 head cauliflower

2 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp butter

1 cups panko bread breadcrumbs

6 tbsp sunflower oil

3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

1 lemon

1 cup parsley, chopped

1 cup finely grated parmesan

Sea salt and pepper

Optional chopped thyme and basil

Start by bringing a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Break the cauliflower into 8 pieces and carefully drop into the water, boil for 4 minutes. Remove and chill in iced water before draining.

Heat a large cast-iron pan over a med-hot heat. Add the 6 tbsp of oil followed by the bread crumbs and a touch of salt. Continue to sauté until the crumbs are golden. Remove and place into the a large bowl, clean and reheat the pan.

Cut the cauliflower into smaller pieces and fry in the pan with the remaining oil and butter. Continue to sauté until the cauliflower starts to colour. Add in the breadcrumbs along with the chopped eggs, parsley, parmesan, pepper and the juice of a lemon to finish.

Serve.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us now as Mike vander Elison, our resident chef.
Good morning, Good morning couliflower. I've been eating quite a
lot of cauliflower this week, probably a little bit too
much cauliflower, because it's just keeps on giving. You know,
You're roasted up with some chickpeas and a few red
onions and an nice sort of sauce, put a dressing
on top, and it just goes for dinner, then it

(00:34):
goes for lunch. It's the gift that just keeps on giving.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
It's quite versatile.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's very versatile. Loving it.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, can you think of another vegetable that's as versatile
as cauliflower. I can't really, you know when you think
about it, maybe you know, you go broccoli, but even there, yeah,
I prefer.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I prefer there's something about cauliflower that you can just
flavor up really well. Like you can turn it into
your rice, you can turn it into use it as
a you know, as a pasta. You can just roast it.
You can put it into a smoothie. Ca, I mean,
you do anything with it. But you can also add
flavor to it really well.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, it takes on flavor really well. And the thing is, yeah,
you can make a pizza base out of culiflower. Yeah
you could cut. Yeah, you could cut your Colie flour
into steaks and then charg grill it and treat it
like a piece of meat. What do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
There we go? I think you're right the very it's
a very versatile vegetable. And good thing about it is
I think I think I got one from about two
dollars forty nine the other.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Day, the old yeah, and so broccoli and same. I saw, yes, lad,
three broccoli for a dollar fifty. You know that's that's
pretty good. So yeah, Colie and broccoli are in now.
So I thought, it's a dish that I haven't actually
made in a long time, and I made it for
for an event during the week, and it's called Coulie

(01:58):
flower polonaise, And it's a dish we used a lot
in the UK. We used to make this dish and
serve it with mullet, with pan fried red mullet. And
what couliflower pollenaise is is it's originated. The dish originated
in Poland, but it was the French really that made
it popular in about the eighteenth century. And it's a

(02:19):
dish that ticks a lot of boxes. You've got the
beautiful flavor of roasted cauliflour. You got these crispy breadcrumbs
that gives it texture. You've got rich butter that you
fry the couliflower, and you've got a salty cap of parmesan.
You use a good parmesan. And you've got the fattiness
of the whole egg which has been hard boiled smashed

(02:42):
up through the salad. So if you think of all
those things, combine them together it and you have what
we call a polonaise. And a polonaise will go with anything.
You could serve it by it south. You could serve
it along size some fish and roasted chicken. It's super universal.
And I guarantee I will put I don't know what
I'll put on it. I'll put something on it that

(03:04):
I guarantee. If you make this dish, you will fall
in love with it as long as you like couliflour.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
On the first one, I love it. Take it through
it so.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I've got one head of cauliflower. This will feed you
know four to six people as a side dish. Bring
a large pot of boil, you know the gig. Bring
a large pot of water to the boil. Add a
fair amount of salt into it. Break your couliflour into
like eight pieces and then drop them into the wall
into the water. Bring it to the boil. I'm going
to cook those four minutes four minutes only, so put

(03:32):
your timer on. After four minutes, pull it out into
ice cold water. You want to stop that from cooking instantly,
drain that, set that aside. Take a large cast iron pan,
heat it over a medium hot heat, and then it's
a fair amount I've got some flour oil for this.
You could use grape seed, any oil that has no color,
no flavor. So it's six tablespoons of some flour oil

(03:54):
into the pan. And then after that you've got the
bread crumbs. So I'm using panco bree crumbs for this.
If you've got some old breadline around, if you've got
some sourder or some chier barta, break it up into
little pieces. Fry that off at this point if you want,
you can add a little bit of garlic to that.
Just saute that brea crumbs off until they become nice
and golden. Take them, put them aside into a large bowl.

(04:15):
Take your pan, give it a clean out, put it
back onto the heat, and now take your cauliflour. And
this is where the butter component comes in. So go
two tablespoons of subflour oil into that pan, along with
two tablespoons of butter. Then goes in your cauliflower. Saute
your cauliflour until it just starts to color. That comes
off into the bowl with your bread crumbs. And now

(04:36):
come all the final ingredients to finish this amazing dish off.
So I've got three eggs that have been hard boiled,
peeled and chopped. They go in. I've got a cup
of parsley, it could be curly or Italian either either.
Chop that up. That goes in. I've got a cup
of finely grated parmesan that goes in, a decent crack
of pepper, maybe a little bit more sea salt. And
to finish the whole thing, and to bring it all together,

(04:57):
one lemon. Cut your lemon in half. You could put
the zest in there if you want, or just the juice.
Give that a big mix, and then that is it.
That's all that it goes into a colliflour polonaise.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Thank you so much, Mike very much appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
As always, For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin,
listen live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio