Vadouvan Roasted Cauliflower
Ahhh, Vadouvan. Every once in a while you taste something that smacks your tastebuds silly, or like the say in the south: "makes you wanna smack yo mama".
Vadouvan is an amazing spice blend...well its not really a blend of spices, its so much more. Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Mustard Seeds, Fenugreek, Cumin, the list goes on. A French-Indian mélange that goes great with almost anything, from Asparagus to Zucchini.
I've been using it with Carrots (a la Top Chef/Absinthe's Jamie Lauren), Green Beans, and most recently roasted Cauliflower.
While you can purchase Vadouvan online for $64 a pound, its much less expensive to make it yourself. I got the recipe for Vadouvan at Epicurious. I cooked my batch a bit longer so that it was completely dry and fairly dark, but not burnt. I then zapped the whole batch in a food processor until it resembled roughly ground coffee. The day after I made my first batch of Vadouvan, I found the container sitting next to the Coffee maker at work. No joke. I still don't know if anyone brewed a pot of Vadouvan. Who knows, maybe they are on to something...
