Where has summer gone? I’m not quite sure the answer myself. What I do know is I’ve been on the road a bunch, and sweating a lot in our 92F degree a/c-less apartment when I am in LA, and looking for delicious, straightforward recipes to get into my repertoire. This cauliflower is one of them. I brought it to Taz’s iftar last week, and five days later made it again for me and Appu.
Taz invited me over to break fast at her place and I said yes without thinking much in the moment about what a generous invitation it was. (All I knew was that I wanted to see Taz, who I get together with too rarely.) Taz is perhaps the most multifaceted artist I know. She paints, writes prose and poetry, organizes music projects, and I know there’s more I just can’t remember at the moment. If it turned out that she made her own pottery and also danced I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. She’s also got a wonderful, open spirit, and at her apartment, where more than 20 crammed in to share a loud, chatty dinner together after the sun went down, I could really see all of that in a new way. After people broke their fast, and some folks prayed, we all dug into the potluck dinner. It was my first iftar, but it was also the first time in a little while that I’d been around a gathering of so many creative, politically-minded folks. It was a treat in so many ways.
If you’re looking for something bright and spicy and South Asian-inspired, I recommend this dish. Veg-friendly, a snap to throw together, and so worth turning on the oven for even when your apartment is already scorching. The recipe calls for the spice mix to be shared among four heads of cauliflower. I used the same amounts (minus salt of course) with just two heads of cauliflower. Really, really good.
Now, back to the last weeks of summer…