Thursday, June 25, 2015

Cajun Baked Cauliflower

Welcome to summer, friends! It's time for me to once again brush the dust off the blog. Now that school is over I have time to cook.

Big news here at the Professor's Kitchen: we moved! So, I'm cooking in a new kitchen. It's bigger than my old one, which is great. I'm still sans dishwasher, but that's OK. We just had our first dinner guests over last night, so I finally have it all in order. I'll post some pictures soon.

Now, onto the new recipe.


Some of my readers will recall that I am not the biggest fan of cauliflower. I've been trying to find ways to cook it to highlight its good qualities. I found this recipe not long ago and it looked promising. I did some tweaking.

Notes: These have an excellent crunch. It's almost like you're eating fried cauliflower. If you wanted to make them as an appetizer, they would be delicious dipped in some warm marinara sauce. I made them as a side dish.

You can cut the seasoning to 1 teaspoon if you like it less spicy. I wish it had been more spicy! I might add hot sauce next time.

Here's a helpful tip which came from my own mistake. DON'T try to bread all the pieces at once. I got lazy and didn't feel like doing one at a time. Well, my breading got wet and then wouldn't stick to the cauliflower. So, be patient and just do a few at a time.

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
2 eggs
Splash of milk
3/4 cup of rice cereal (Rice Krispies, Rice Chex, etc.)
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400. Cut the cauliflower into florets.

In one bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. In another bowl, crush the rice cereal. Whisk it together with bread crumbs, cheese, and seasoning.

Dip the florets a couple at a time into the egg/milk mixture. Shake off the excess egg and then roll the florets into the bread crumb mixture. Put the finished florets on a foiled-lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the florets are coated.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and the cauliflower can be pierced with a fork. Enjoy!