Announcing JFI: Cauliflower

'Jihva for Ingredients' (JFI) is a monthly event that celebrates an ingredient every month and was initiated by Indira of Mahanandi. I am very happy and honored to host this esteemed event this month here in Paajaka recipes.

The ingredient I have chosen is Cauliflower. Everybody loves Cauliflower. It is such a versatile vegetable that can be be roasted, boiled, fried, steamed or eaten raw. When cooking, the outer leaves and thick stalks are removed, leaving only the florets. The leaves are also edible, but are most often discarded.

Cauliflowers are included in different vegetable gravies like kurma, gobi mutter etc., few rice delights like biryani, fried rice, pulao etc. and flat breads like gobi paratha. Every cuisine uses cauliflower, for example cauliflower augratin, gobi manchurian and cauliflower kababs to name a few.

Let's celebrate Cauliflower. Cook something in which cauliflower is or one of the main ingredients.

Send in as many entries as you can. Don't worry about sending the picture, I will get it from your blog.

The dish can be from any cuisine.

While you send in your entry, don't forget to mention your blog name and name of the dish. the link needs to be a permalink to that recipe and not the link to your homepage.

Please include a link to Indira's Mahanandi blog in your post and a link to this event announcement. Please feel free to use the logo.

If you are sending from archives, edit the post and include a link to this announcement and Indira's Mahanandhi.

The dish should be strictly vegetarian, I mean no eggs or meat. The dish can be appetizer, main course or even dessert. Anything and of course anything that's edible.

Please send in your entries to mythreyee at paajaka dot com on or before 1st of March, 2009.

Entries from non bloggers welcome. Please email your recipe with picture of the dish and I will post the recipe in my blog mentioning your name.

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Below are some facts and information that I got from Here, Here and Here.

Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed.

Cauliflower lacks the green chlorophyll found in other members of the cruciferous family of vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and kale, because the leaves of the plant shield the florets from the sun as they grow. It has a compact head (called a "curd"), usually about six inches in diameter that is composed of undeveloped flower buds. The flowers are attached to a central stalk. Typically, only the head (the white curd) is eaten while the stalk and surrounding thick, green leaves are used in vegetable broth or discarded.

Nutrition

Cauliflower is low in fat, high in dietary fiber, folate, water and vitamin C, possessing a very high nutritional density. As a member of the brassica family, cauliflower shares with broccoli and cabbage several phytochemicals which are beneficial to human health, including sulforaphane, an anti-cancer compound released when cauliflower is chopped or chewed. In addition, the compound indole-3-carbinol, which appears to work as an anti-estrogen, appears to slow or prevent the growth of tumors of the breast and prostate. Cauliflower also contains other glucosinolates besides sulfurophane, substances which may improve the liver's ability to detoxify carcinogenic substances. A high intake of cauliflower has been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

Health Benefits

Cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, and kale, contain compounds that may help prevent cancer. These compounds appear to stop enzymes from activating cancer-causing agents in the body, and they increase the activity of enzymes that disable and eliminate carcinogens.

A Weekly Serving of Cruciferous Vegetables Halves Advanced Prostate Cancer Risk

Spicing Your Cauliflower with Turmeric Could Help Promote Men's Health

Protection against Rheumatoid Arthritis

Cardiovascular Benefits

Cooking cauliflower

Cooking cauliflower in an aluminum pot will intensify its odor and turn its creamy white anthoxanthin pigments yellow; iron pots will turn anthoxanthins blue green or brown. Like red and blue anthocyanin pigments (see BEETS, BLACKBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES), anthoxanthins hold their color best in acids. To keep cauliflower white, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, or milk to the cooking water. Steaming or stir-frying cauliflower preserves the vitamin C that would be lost if the vegetable were cooked for a long time or in a lot of water.

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So, let's get started. Cook something with one or combination white/purple/orange/green cauliflower and send in your entries. If you have any questions, please mail me or leave a comment. Thank you.