A Final Word on Broccoli and Cauliflower

While blogging about roasting cauliflower last night, I realized that there were a few more things to be said about this delicious vegetable. It would have made the post too long, so I mentioned that I would talk about it later.  So here goes:  First is the fact that cauliflower makes one head and then it is done.  Once we pick the head of cauliflower, I trim off the leaves and feed them to the cows. 

Broccoli is a different story.  Once we pick the main head, I leave the leaves and the plant will send out shoots of new growth, producing florets that we are able to go out and pick for weeks after the initial harvest.  It is the gift that keeps on giving.  As the weather warms, you have to pick it daily or the florets will quickly turn into yellow flowers.

Yesterday I mentioned that, especially if there is a warm snap, you must be diligent about checking on your cauliflower.  I harvested the six cauliflower heads that I had allowed to grow for just ONE DAY too long.  Whereas the cauliflower yesterday was at the peak of ripeness, the ones below are a bit over-ripe and have begun to separate instead of resembling a big white snowball.  There's nothing wrong with them and they'll all be eaten and enjoyed.  They just aren't as pretty and perfect as the others.

Since we've got more than we can eat at one time, we'll blanch three of the heads.  We wash the cauliflower as sometimes stink bugs, snails, slugs and other critters will hitch hike on the plants inside.  Then we break off the florets.

We bring a pot of water to boil and drop the florets into the water, allowing it to boil for exactly 3 minutes.

Then we remove the cauliflower from the boiling water and submerge in ice water.  It is important to quickly stop the cooking process.  We leave the cauliflower in the ice water until it is ice cold.  That takes about 5 or 6 minutes.

The result is firm, blanched beautiful cauliflower.  Blanching preserves the cauliflowers color and 'crunch' and stops the enzyme action that deteriorates the texture, flavor and longevity.

Finally, we get some cleaned zip loc bags.  (No sense throwing out perfectly good zip locs if they are clean and free of holes.)  We re-label and re-use them.

These will go into our freezer and we'll enjoy cauliflower long after the season has ended.  We use the exact same procedure with broccoli.  We like to extend the harvest by putting some away in the deep freeze to enjoy later.