Half a cauliflower is enough to give substance to this nutritious salad, writes DOMINI KEMP

THERE’S NOTHING MORE aggravating than a recipe that calls for half a tin of coconut milk or half a tin of tomatoes. What the heck are we supposed to do with the other half? Even worse is a recipe that calls for one glass of wine when there’s only one bottle in the house and you want every last drop to go in your glass, rather than into some stew.

But every now and then, it can happen, so I do apologise for the fact that the recipe below calls for half a head of cauliflower. I am sure that anyone who attempts the recipe for the Indonesian vegetable salad will be cursing me for leaving them with half a head to rot in the fridge while they try to find another recipe that calls for the other half. And, just in case anyone is tempted to chuck the whole head into the recipe: please don’t. Cauliflower is one of those things that is best served in moderate quantities, despite having made a bit of a comeback among the Michelin jet-set.

For us mere mortals, however, who cannot get too involved in smears of cauliflower cream with our seared scallops or roast pork belly, we recognise that cauliflower drenched in lots and lots of fat is a good combo, cauliflower cheese being a case in point. But for me, midweek suppers cannot involve too much béchamel sauce and thick layers of melting cheddar, so here’s my tip to make healthy but very tasty dishes with any leftover cauliflower you find lurking in your fridge.

Chop it into florets, give it a rinse, drain and then toss in a bowl with a few glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper. Then chuck it into a roasting tin, cover with either another baking tray or some foil, and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes at 180 degrees. When it feels vaguely soft, turn up the heat by about 10 degrees and cook for about 15 minutes until it is starting to brown in parts.

This method produces cauliflower that is cooked, caramelised and pretty darn healthy. You’ll get this cooking method down pat after a few goes. Once you feel confident using this steam/roast method, you’ll be delighted with the results and will soon be able to judge just how soft or caramelised you like it. Dipped into some hummus, cauliflower cooked this way is a lovely treat.

Anyway, all of the above is a long-winded way of saying that even if you make this Indonesian vegetable salad, the good news is you have another recipe to use the other half with.

I have to give this pork dish the two thumbs up. The cooking method may seem a bit strange, but the end result was really soft, tender and slightly caramelised pork slices. It was very tasty, mainly because of all the soy sauce, ginger and garlic, so it would go well with something very plain, such as rice and steamed broccoli.

Indonesian vegetable salad

Serves 4

200g baby potatoes (about 5 baby spuds)

4 eggs

Approx 110g green beans, topped and tailed

1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

½ head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets

1 cucumber, peeled, thinly sliced

1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced

1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced

4 Baby Gem lettuces

Dressing

110g crunchy peanut butter

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

Juice of 2 limes

Make the dressing, which is worth making alone, by whizzing all ingredients in a food processor and letting it down with 50ml of water. Set aside. If you need to refrigerate this, then make sure you bring it back to room temperature or add a splash of hot water to it, to loosen it up.

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and cut in half. Bring the eggs to the boil, simmer for five minutes, then plunge in cold water. Peel them carefully and cut in half. If you can, use one large pot of boiling water to blanch all the veg. Chuck the florets in first (as they will take 90 seconds), then chuck in the green beans (which take 60 seconds) and then chuck in the carrots (which take 30 seconds).

Drain the whole lot, refresh under cold running water and then leave out to dry on a clean tea towel on a baking tray while you get organised.

Separate the Baby Gem leaves. Lay the lettuce on a platter. Toss the potatoes along with the blanched vegetables, the cucumber and dressing, and layer this on top of the lettuce leaves. Top with the hard-boiled eggs, spring onions and radishes.

Chinese spiced pork fillet

Serves 2-3

You need to use Chinese five-spice powder for this recipe, but feel free to drastically increase the ginger/garlic and spring onion ratio.

1 pork fillet (about 700g)

100ml soy sauce

50ml dry sherry or rice wine

2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

2 tsp brown sugar

Big knob ginger, peeled and very finely diced

4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

Bunch spring onions, thinly sliced

Splash sunflower oil

Trim off any fat from the pork. It will be well trimmed anyway, but you’ll always find a few shimmery bits of fat which make it tough. So trim, discard and then very thinly slice the pork and put it in a bowl.

Pour the soy sauce, sherry/rice wine, five-spice powder, brown sugar, ginger, garlic and spring onions on top. Mix it about and leave to sit for a few minutes while you get some rice cooking or some broccoli blanching. When you are ready to cook, heat up a large frying pan and throw the pork in and let it “stew/sauté” gently.

There will be too much liquid for it to fry, so the idea is that it gently poaches in the soy sauce liquid. When you’ve tossed it around and it has cooked gently for about five minutes in total, drain the pork over a bowl, reserving the soy sauce marinade. Reheat the same frying pan, add in the sunflower oil and get it as hot as you can. Then fry the drained pork quickly, toss it around and when you’ve got some good colour on the slices, chuck in the leftover cooking liquid, let it bubble away for a minute or two and then serve over rice.

See also itsa.ie