Roasted Cauliflower Head

This recipe is adapted from Domenica Restaurant in New Orleans, and the recipe was featured in Epicurious magazine here. It made quite a stir and launched the lowly cauliflower to become one of  2013's "it" food.

The original dish is served with a cheese sauce (which I've tried making too), but when we eat it at home, we actually prefer it without the sauce as it is healthier. My version omits the salt and I use chicken bouillon instead, and I also add a tablespoon of mustard seeds. If you want to make it purely vegetarian, then substitute the bouillon with salt.

I love this recipe and have served it to friends, who are amazed how the mundane cauliflower can taste soooooo good!

Apple, Pear & Fig Crostata

This is a very easy dessert to prepare, with store bought puff pastry. You can substitute the filling of apple, pear and fig with other fruits, such as fresh peaches, bananas and other berries. I always use fresh fruit though, as it is much healthier and natural than the canned kind.

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

Whenever I go to Cyma, a Greek restaurant in Manila, I always order their Paidakia, the chargrilled lamb ribs, and I always have it with the Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers. The peppers are divine, but they are very oily. Plus the white rice is not that healthy too. So I've refashioned this tasty dish into a healthier one by swapping the oily rice stuffing with quinoa in tomato sauce and pine nuts. It's now a healthy, vegetarian dish which can be a meal in itself (we eat this for breakfast at home), or a side to a dry main dish, like grilled pork chops, chicken or steak.

Twice Roasted Asian Ratatouille

Over the weekend, I went to the northern Philippines, at the province of Ilocos, for a short vacation with two girl friends. It's a very beautiful place, with many historic churches, windmills, sand dunes, mansions owned by famous historical figures, including former President Marcos. The place is also famous for longganisa, a local pork sausage, and bagnet, a slab of fatty pork that is deep fried. The food was great, but oh so fatty! So it seems quite fitting to post this vegetarian recipe, because tomorrow will be back to reality, and back to a more "normal" diet. Aside from that, I'm posting this here for one of the friends I was with over this short vacation, my friend G, who just loves this dish and who is requesting for its recipe.

This is a twist on another recipe I posted here, Twice Roasted Vegetables with Quinoa. This one has a more Asian flavour, because of the hoisin sauce, sesame oil and Chinese wine.

I used yellow and green zucchini, eggplants, red and yellow bell peppers, broccoli, button mushrooms and onions. But you can also do this with other vegetables like cabbage, other kinds of mushrooms, pumpkin, French beans, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts...the possibilities are endless!