Cauliflower Soup with Crème Fraîche and Salmon Caviar

Fancy Thursday is the new lazy Sunday. 

Look at that beauty, eh? This is an impress-your-company soup, a pretty and luxurious first course with fun textures, that's so easy to put together it feels like cheating. 

There's hardly anything in the soup itself--cauliflower, water, salt, pepper, milk, parsley. The simplicity there is a fantastic base for some seriously high impact garnishes. And the soup on it's own? It's a silky, creamy delight that I'd also eat without the froufrou and folderol. Sure it's plain, but pleasantly so. 

I have to assume that's because Alice Waters knows what she's talking about. This recipe came from the beautiful Chez Panisse Vegetables, one of the most attractive cookbooks on my living room floor shelf. It's divided alphabetically by vegetable, and each section begins with a gorgeous color woodcut of the subject. Man, xylography. So classy, right? 

Everything I've tried from the book has scored between tasty and excellent; however, many of the recipes are a bit on the intimidating side. This is not because they use complicated techniques or unfamiliar ingredients--quite the contrary for the most part. It's because the Ms. Waters expects you to trust yourself. EEK! WHAT COULD BE MORE TERRIFYING?

Rather than providing an ingredient list or any specific amounts of anything, this recipe is just a paragraph of instructions. She tells you to add some of this and some of that, with no measurements! For someone who isn't a real cook (read: someone like me), this can seem like telling me to get on the ice and do a quadruple salchow in a bikini. While making soup.

But for you, dear, I tried it. And it's pretty much foolproof. I didn't pay attention to it for more than five minutes, leaving me free to make salmon with oyster mushrooms and spinach without worrying about the soup once. 

This soup will definitely trick your friends into thinking you're at least slightly fancy, if that's a thing you're into. And I handily included all measurements I used below, constructing what I hope is a less intimidating recipe. Go 'head: get yr posh on.

Look how excited Posh gets about Cauliflower!

Bonus: After you plop the crème fraîche on top of each bowl, you get to lick the spoon. It's your inalienable right. 

 

Cauliflower Soup with Crème Fraîche and Salmon Caviar

Adapted from Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables

Enough for 4 first-course servings

GET THIS STUFF

1 head of cauliflower

1 c whole milk

2 T chopped fresh Italian parsley

crème fraîche

1 green onion, sliced

1 jar salmon caviar

2 slices of rye bread

1 T unsalted butter, melted

DO THIS WITH IT 

Break up the head of cauliflower into florets, removing the big green leaves but including the stalk. 

Place cauliflower in a pot and cover with water and a good bit of kosher salt--about a tablespoon.

Cover and bring to a boil, and cook until cauliflower is fork tender--about 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 400 F. 

Cut rye bread into bite size cubes and toss with butter, then place cubes on a cookie sheet.

Put bread in the oven--about 8 minutes later, you'll have croutons!

Back to the soup: Using a slotted spoon, transfer cooked cauliflower to a food processor.

Add 1 cup of the water you cooked the cauliflower in, and whiz until totally pureed and super smooth--should take 1 to 2 minutes.

Discard the rest of the cooking liquid, and transfer the cauliflower puree back to your pot.

Turn heat on to medium-low and stir in milk, then simmer for five minutes (don't let it boil). 

Season with salt and pepper--but leave it less salty than you normally would, as you're going to get some major saltiness from the caviar.

Stir in parsley and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool until just barely warm (or at room temperature or you can chill it--up to you). 

Garnish with a blob of crème fraîche, a teaspoon of caviar, green onion and rye croutons.