Super Simple Side #1:
Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin
This is one of my favorite dishes, and I get requests for it all the time at dinner parties. Normally, I find cauliflower kind of boring, but once you roast it, its AMAZING. This dish always reminds me of my dad. He LOVED cauliflower and I wish I could have made it for him.
Get a large roasting pan for the oven. I use a glass one. In it, toss a chopped up cauliflower. It doesn't matter if you break it into florets or use a knife to just get it to bit bite sized pieces. It all works. Chop up an onion into large pieces, anywhere from dime sized to loonie sized. Again, this is a very forgiving dish. Just chop it and get it in there.
You can use any kind of onion. This time, I used red onions, since its what I had in house. This also works if you use those beautiful colored cauliflowers.
To your cauliflower and onion mix, toss it with EVOO. I use the organic Kirkland EVOO. Its cheap and delicious.
Now get out your cumin. And scoop it on to the cauliflower. Use a LOT.
Toss it again, and add a bit more cumin. I wasn't kidding when I said a LOT. Throw in a pinch or two of salt. Put in a 450-500 oven, and cook the crap out of it for about 40 minutes. Toss it around and put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes or so. You want it to be just this side of burned. It carmelizes and tastes delish. It also makes great leftovers and can be served cold. You can double the recipe easily if you have lots of people for dinner. For variations, you can add some other root veggies, like potato, parsnip or sweet potatoes (my favorite). Its all good.
Super Simple Side #2:
Roasted Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes.
In a big roasting pan (again, I used glass) add a coating of EVOO, some vinegar (I used red wine this time, but it works with just about any kind), salt, pepper, oregano, a tablespoon or so of dijon (again, any kind will work and slightly alter the flavour), lots of paprika, chilis, cumin (no where near as much as the cauliflower dish, more like a teaspoon) and whatever other spices and seasonings you feel like. Its kind of like a spicy vinaigrette you are making here. Whatever you have can work. Just use your imagination. Stir it all together so you have something like a liquidy paste.
Chop up some sweet potatoes, onions and potatoes. You could add carrots, celery, parsnips, zucchini... whatever you want.
Toss it in the marinade, and combine.
Roast in a 400 oven, turning after 40 minutes, and then roast for about 20 minutes longer. These can be made earlier in the day, and reheated when you need them. It takes about 20 minutes on a 350 oven to reheat from cold.
Super Simple Side #3:
Pan Sauteed Mushrooms
This is a great dish to serve with a steak. It can also be used on top of veal, baked chicken, as an appetizer (as vol-au-vents), in eggs or whatever you please.
Chop up a whackload of mushrooms. Mushrooms are how I learned to chop fast. When I was about 18, I worked at a Kelsey's and part of my duties was prepping the salad board. I had to chop a bazillion mushrooms at a time. One day the head cook was watching me do it, pulled me aside and taught me a better way. You slice one edge off, and then turn the mushroom to lay flat on the side you just cut off.
This stops the mushroom from sliding around, and in so doing, you have a better chance of NOT slicing off your fingers. Since I have always been partial to my fingers, I was quite grateful for this advice. You also should curl the fingers that hold the food you are cutting slightly, so the blade somewhat rests on your knuckle. Also, the knife should be ever so slightly tilted AWAY from your fingers. With practice, this becomes easy. And you get fast. Its a fun way to freak people out. I often have conversations with people while chopping food fast, and I don't even look at the cutting board.
I'll see if I can put together a video to show how I chop stuff fast.
In the meantime, back to the mushrooms.
Chop up a whatload of mushrooms, as they shrink quite a bit once cooked.
Coat a large frying pan with EVOO or butter or a mixture of both. I have to use oil alone, because my darling hubby can't do the butter. Well, possibly he *could* but then nobody would be able to be near him for several hours unless they had a gas mask.
Heat the oil/butter/whatever mixture up on a medium to medium high stove, and toss in the mushrooms. Don't worry, they will shrink.
As they fry down, you can add a variety of different things. Salt and pepper for sure, fresh garlic, worstechesteshistichistishire (whatever the hell you call it) sauce or lemon or HP steak sauce or some red wine or brandy... its all good.
Personally, on this batch, I added salt, pepper, fresh garlic and brandy. Right at this point the mixture is perfect as a side dish. You could keep going and turn it into a mushroom soup by adding some broth. Or you could cook it until the liquid reduces a bit. Thats what I did and then I added a scoop of chevre, to make it creamier, since I used it to make vol-au-vents. What a pain in the ass vaul-au-vents are, but oh so tasty. Its hard to go wrong with puff pastry. Even if you screw up the shape (which I did), they still taste awesome, as long as you don't severely undercook or overcook them.
I rolled out the store bought pastry (because while I love to cook, I am not a glutton for punishment) and cut out big circles, and then cut out a hoop that I could use to (ideally) create a puff cup to hold the mushrooms. You use egg wash to "glue" the hoop on to the base, and then you dock the centre by stabbing it repeatedly with your fork. This stops the centre from rising, so you have the "cup"
Cool them in the fridge for 20 minutes or so, then bake them at 350 until brown and crispy. Once they are ready, scoop some of your mushroom mixture in, and dig in. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the completed vol-au-vents on their own... so I have attempted a crop job on a party picture.
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