Welcome to This is A Cook Letter and A Recipe For Crispy Cauliflower

Who am I? My name is Nik, I cook and write about recipes and photograph them. I've written recipes regularly for The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Guardian, Serious Eats, and Food52. Before food writing, I worked as a researcher in molecular biology but life had unexpected plans. As a way to take a break from academic research I started a food blog called, A Brown Table where I wrote about the food I wanted to cook and eat. Eventually, I ended up quitting my job in research to work as a pastry cook. I've written and photographed two cookbooks; The Flavor Equation and Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food. I've got two cats, Vesper and Drogy and one very large eleven month-old puppy, named Paddington.

My goal with this newsletter is first to share new recipes with you that are flavorful and easy to put together. Together, we will take a closer look at recipes, ingredients, techniques, and even shortcuts to make life easier in the kitchen. I’m all about the shortcuts. With all my recipes, there will be a special section called "The Cook's Tips", this is where suggestions on substitutes, tools, techniques, etc., relevant to the recipe will be discussed and I hope you find it helpful.

Through this newsletter, I will keep you updated on my recipes that will be printed at different outlets, etc. Sometimes, we will go behind-the-scenes in my kitchen where I develop my recipes. You get the gist.

Yes, we will also talk about cookbooks (old and new); I will share the names of cookbooks that I'm enjoying. If you’ve got a book that I absolutely need to know about, please let me know.

I am not a restaurant critic but occasionally, I'll share recommendations for restaurants that I've eaten at and enjoyed in LA and anywhere I travel.

I watch a lot of television, movies, and garden quite a bit. Expect some of those conversations to come up. There is 100% probability that a nod to The BBC's Gardeners World will make an appearance at some point. I watch too many home improvement shows and Nordic crime series (please send me recommendations).

For your cooking related questions, you can reach out to me at questions@abrowntable.com It is very likely that some of you might have the same questions and have your own tips you want to share with me and the readers. If you're comfortable (and I will get your permission first), I will share the question and answers in the newsletter once a month.

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Eating In LA

As someone who loves to cook and does it for living, I admittedly do not want to cook all the time and eating out was my break from work. Like most of you, I've missed eating out.

Last weekend, for the very first time in more than a year, we went out to dinner. I felt like a bear crawling out of its den/cave after an extremely long period of hibernation. It also felt nice to dress up a little.

Our inaugural restaurant dining moment for 2021, kicked off at Bar Amá in DTLA with our friends Ben and J. The whole QR code for menus that's become a new tool for restaurants (and new to me too) was kinda fun and I think this might be a tool that we will continue to see plenty of down the road. I expect it will get even more interactive and maybe AR technology will be a part of it. Okay, now for the important bit, what should you order at Bar Amá? While I certainly recommend that you try to get everything off their menu, the okra in the spicy tomato sauce and the sweet potato enchiladas are an absolute must. The stuffed and fried squash blossoms are special and deserve your attention. And before I forget, yes, the margaritas are excellent!

Crispy Cauliflower with Gochujang

This week, I've got crispy cauliflower on the menu. It's hot, it's sour, and carries a hint of sweetness. It's a minimal effort dish and the bulk of the flavor in this cauliflower comes from roasting and the sauce made with the Korean red chilli paste, gochujang. I keep a jar in the condiment shelf (it's probably the most stuffed shelf in my fridge) of my refrigerator.

Gochujang (gochu refers to Korean red pepper) is a staple in Korean cuisine with a very brilliant bright red color that is prepared by fermenting a mixture of barley malt, glutinous/sweet rice, soybeans, chillies, and salt.

One of the things I love about food and cooking is all the related nerdy facts and snippets of information. Here's something new, I learned about gochujang. There's a special hotness scale also that measures the Gochujang Hotness Unit (GHU) devoted to gochujang and the scale ranges from 0 to 100. Anything below a 30 GHU is mild, between 30 to 45 GHU is slightly hot, 45 to 75 is medium hot, 75 to 100 very hot, and anything above a 100 is extremely hot. For those of you familiar with the Scoville Heat Units (SHU) used for chillies, this is similar.

Let's get cooking but first read this (even if you don't read the entire newsletter, read this before embarking on the recipe)

The Cook's Tips

Crispy Cauliflower with Gochujang

Sweet, spicy, sour, and savory this roasted cauliflower dish gets its punch from the fermented chilli paste, gochujang, a mainstay in Korean cuisine. If you can't eat peanuts, cashews are a good substitute and if you can't eat nuts, try toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds. The sauce can be made at least two days in advance and stored in an airtight container. Don't forget to warm up the sauce before you pour it over the cauliflower. Plain rice is a good accompaniment.

Makes 4 servings

2 lb/910g cauliflower, broken into bite-sized florets

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

fine sea salt

1/2 cup/120ml water

2 Tbsp gochujang

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp packed light brown sugar

2 Tbsp roasted salted peanuts

1 Tbsp chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C.

Place the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt. Fold and toss to coat well and when I mean toss, be gentle, the worst part is losing cauliflower to the kitchen floor.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast the cauliflower till the florets turn golden brown and crispy, 20 to 30 minutes, stirring halfway through during roasting to evenly cook them. Remove the cauliflower from the oven and transfer to a serving bowl.

You're going to have some time while the cauliflower roasts, you could either watch an episode of Hacks or you could make the sauce (you should make the sauce).

Place the water, gochujang, vinegar, ginger, soy sauce, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk till smooth, bring to a boil over medium heat, and remove from the stove. Taste and season with salt if needed (you probably won't need to).

Pour the hot sauce over the roasted cauliflower.

Top the roasted cauliflower with the peanuts and chives. Serve warm.