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Gina @ The Passionate Pantry

Yotam Ottolenghi's Cauliflower Cake

[cap id="attachment_1980" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Ready to serve[/cap]

I am a huge fan of Yotam Ottolenghi … he is not only very easy on the eyes (sorry ... but it's true!), he is an amazing chef and a great inspiration, and I just adore his cookbooks!

This recipe of his appeared on lots of blogs a few months ago, with the latest appearing in The Kitchn ( see here ) so it definitely caught my attention. The original recipe is in Yotam’s cookbook “Plenty More” (page 258) if you have it.

Yotam coats the sides of the tin with melted butter and sprinkles it with a combination of nigella (the little black seeds you see on Turkish bread) and sesame seeds … but you can use whatever seeds you like, or miss this step if you prefer … I choose not to use seeds as we have an allergy in our family … BUT I do think it would add a wonderful “nutty” texture.

This is a great recipe for a family dinner, or to serve at a girls' luncheon, or a light entree (thinner slices) at a dinner party, or to take as picnic fare. Leftovers are great eaten cold the next day too.

I like to serve it with a dollop of sour cream and a spicy chill sauce ... yum!
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Servings: 6 serves
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 150 g parmesan cut into cubes

  • 1 1/2 medium cauliflowers washed and cut into small florets / weight of florets used is 1400g

  • Melted butter for coating the sides of the tin - optional
  • Seeds to coat the butter (see notes - optional

  • 1 large red onion peeled (leave whole)
  • 60 g olive oil
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves only

  • ½ cup fresh basil leaves
  • 150 g spelt flour or plain flour
  • 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground turmeric or 1 tsp turmeric paste
  • 8 x 59g eggs
  • 125 g full fat cream
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp sea salt flakes
  • 1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Method
 

  1. Grease and line the base and sides of a 24cm (base measurement) round spring form cake tin with baking paper
  2. If you are going to sprinkle the sides with seeds, then lightly grease the sides of the paper with melted butter and toss the seeds around so that they stick to the butter
  3. Place the parmesan into TM bowl and mill 10 seconds / speed 9 … put aside
  4. Fill the TM bowl with water up to the 1 litre mark
  5. Place the florets into the Veroma and steam for 15 minutes / Veroma / speed 2
  6. Stir the florets around, then steam again for another 5 minutes / Veroma / speed 2, and repeat this process one more time (so they have steamed for a total of 25 minutes)
  7. By this time the cauliflower should be cooked, but not falling apart as you still want some slight resistence
  8. Put the cauliflower into a large mixing bowl to cool off, and lightly rinse out the TM bowl and dry off with kitchen paper (does not need to be perfect)
  9. Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced, and place rack in the middle of the oven
  10. Start on your filling: cut four round slices off the top of the red onion and put aside
  11. Cut the rest of the red onion into chunks and put into the TM bowl
  12. Add the oil and rosemary and chop 3 seconds / speed 7, scrape around bowl then cook for 10 minutes / 100 / speed 1 / MC off
  13. Allow the onion mix to cool a little in the TM bowl for 10 minutes
  14. When the onion mix is cooler, add the basil, flour, baking powder, turmeric, parmesan, eggs, cream, lemon zest, salt and pepper and blend 10 seconds / reverse / speed 6, scrape and repeat 5 seconds / reverse / speed 6
  15. Pour the wet mix over the cauliflower florets in the large mixing bowl, and stir through so that all the cauliflower is well coated
  16. Pour the mix into the tin spreading it evenly on top with the back of a spoon (It will still look a bit lumpy but that is okay, as the filling will rise during baking making the top of the cake more even), and then top with the four rings of sliced red onion
  17. Bake for 60 minutes, turn tin around and continue for another 10 minutes, or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown and set
  18. Remove cake from oven and leave to rest for 20 minutes before serving