FuzzyChef Food & Pottery

Browsing the Multinomah Library's cookbook collection, I ran across the book A-Gong's Table, which was a vegan Taiwanese cookbook. This enticed me, as I'd long wanted to share Taiwanese cuisine with my sweetie, but most of the recipes I had access to were meat-heavy. So I borrowed it and paged through it.

One thing caught my eye: a recipe for stir-fried Taiwanese cauliflower. I'd noticed that our local Vietnamese grocery had started carrying Taiwanese cauliflower, and I'd wondered what to do with it. So this seemed like the perfect dish to make for Lunar New Year.

Taiwanese cauliflower is a variety known as fioretto in Italy ("flowering"); it has a very loose head with florets that spread out from each other, with bright white flowers and light green stems. Because of its looseness, it's often sold wrapped into a bundle with plastic wrap. Unfortunately, there isn't any substitute for it in this recipe; regular cauliflower is too dense and too starchy, and broccolini has too strong of a flavor.

If you can get it, though, make the recipe below. It is subtle and delicious, and offers you Chinese food that's very different from your standard Cantonese diner fare. Ideally it should be served with "new rice", that is rice that was harvested last fall.

Gong hei fat choi!

Taiwanese Cauliflower

recipe from A-Gong's Table with minor alterations

• 3 Tbs high-temperature cooking oil (sunflower, peanut, canola)
• 1 medium large Taiwanese Cauliflower, around 1kg (2lbs)
• 3-4 medium cooking tomatoes, around 300g (12oz)
• 1 bunch (7-10) green onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, around 1 tsp
• small piece ginger, minced, around 2 tsp
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp golden sugar
• 3 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs Shaoxing wine
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• medium-large wok with lid

Dismantle the cauliflower, snapping off the florets and discarding the larger stems. Cut any especially large florets in half. You should end up with a pile of medium-large florets that will fill an 8 cup bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into 6-8 wedges each, depending on size. Slice the green onions into 1/4" (0.5cm) pieces, separating the whites from the greens. Peel and mince the ginger and garlic. Mix the Shaoxing wine and water in a cup to have ready, and the salt and sugar in another cup or prep bowl.

Heat a wok until smoking and swirl the oil to coat it. Toss in the green onion whites, garlic and ginger, and fry, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sliced tomatoes and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes, until the tomatoes just start to soften. Put in the cauliflower florets, and sprinkle over the sugar/salt mixture.

Cook the cauliflower, tossing frequently, for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to cook through and the heads turn pink from the tomato juice. Pour in the wine/water mixture, and toss one more time. Cover and turn down the heat in the wok, and steam for another 3-4 minutes.

Open the lid and check the cauliflower for doneness; it should be cooked, but still somewhat crunchy. Toss in the green onion pieces, the white pepper, and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Serve with rice; serves 5-6 as part of a multidish Chinese meal, or 3 if you're having just this, rice, and spring rolls.

Ingredient Notes:

Shaoxing wine is the standard "Chinese cooking wine" used in many dishes. Sometimes it is sold salted, in order to avoid alcohol regulations. If you have the salted kind, cut the salt in the recipe to 1/2 tsp. If you can't find Shaoxing wine, substitute a light sherry for it. If you don't want the alcohol at all, substitute stock and reduce the salt.

Golden sugar is a less-bleached, very lightly tinged with molasses, granulated sugar which is popular in Britian, but available from Domino in some stores in the US. It's somewhere between light brown sugar and white sugar. In this recipe, you can substitue regular granulated sugar, or Sugar In The Raw if you happen to have some (but don't make a special shopping trip for it, it's only 1 teaspoon).