Cauliflower, well-executed – Michelin Star Chef in Paris shares Recipe

A visit to Alliance in Paris where head chef Toshitaka Omiya shows how to cook his Cauliflower recipe
Instagram: @restaurant_alliance
Michelin: 1 Star

Recipe:
1/4 piece of cauliflower
200 gr cream
1 spoon Dijon mustard
1 spoon dried lavender flower
1 lemon juice in case
1 spoon mustard seeds
6 spoons of cider vinegar
1 spoon of raw mashed cauliflower
Half salted butter and olive oil for the cooking

My name is Toshitaka Omiya and I am the chef of the restaurant Alliance in the 5th arrondissement of Paris Today we are going to prepare a main course of cauliflower and lavender flower seeds We will first prepare the condiment of the dressing of mustard We put the mustard seeds into the casserole (saucepan) We add the apple cider vinegar We are just going to heat it this was the first step, second step: we make the sauce we are going to reduce the cream after the cream is reduced we are going to add the mustard and the lavender flower seeds once the cider vinegar with the mustard is seeds is boiling we will cover it and keep it hot after 30 minutes the result is that: the mustard seeds has got all the cider vinegar inside of it there is no more liquid the first condiment we are going to mix it with purple cauliflower we take the top part of the cauliflower it’s going to bring crunchiness to the preparation of the mustard seeds the dish is made with white cauliflower, the purple one brings the crunchiness we are going to blend the seeds with the cauliflower Chef, the cream is reduced now? Yes How do you judge? The consistency and texture when you put mustard inside, it’s going to be more rigid so you should be very careful, don’t put too much the first mustard into the cream we put the flower of lavender inside the cream we put of lavender flowers but very fast because you can’t wait if you let it infuse to much the bitterness of the lavender flower will be extracted so we just do a quick infusion to the cream the cream still needs to be hot, that’s what we need, hot but not super hot 30 seconds maybe, not long we don’t press it neither, we just let the cream go through the sieve otherwise you would bring some bitterness to the sauce if you press the flowers of course we try it is now the right moment to add lemon and salt but not on default it is already good now, so we don’t need to add anything we just keep it hot, but not cooking, just hot on the side of the oven in your kitchen in a place with a warm temperature, not to be cooked, just to keep it warm so now are going to take care of the cauliflower we need to keep the root and then cutting it into two again you take a quarter of the cauliflower if it is a reasonable size, salt inside the cauliflower and half-salted butter olive oil if it is real Tefal pan it’s not working the same way we need to get an old fashioned pan to get the coloration on the good side so this is an old style pan? Yes we don’t need to touch it too much, otherwise you will kill the coloration, we need to leave it cooked and colored we can see the coloration is coming from the bottom of the cauliflower of course we are going to check, but we don’t need to check it too much it is starting you have to be very careful to keep some oil down below the cauliflower otherwise it’s going to be too dry that is the good way you can turn it when it is turned you can add the butter half-salted butter of course there is a lot of milk in the butter so we need to let the milk evaporate itself when it has a hazelnut color we are going to lift the pan it is starting to be colored you have to be very careful of the temperature you have to make some mousse when you put the butter on top of the cauliflower otherwise it will burn of course, cauliflower is pushing it’s own water out when being cooked, so you have to be very careful to not just boil the cauliflower you have to let the water extract itself otherwise it will be cooked by the water and not the butter not yet enough colored the objective is not to color the whole thing, it is just to cook it it’s the beginning of the season of the cauliflower, so the flower are quite open so they will cook very fast because the butter goes straight inside it’s a bit too hot because you can see the mousse doesn’t stay and goes away immediately the cooking is experience, it’s not something you can explain there is nothing to pick it, you have to feel the product we can still put a bit of butter, if you need more mousse to color the cauliflower it’s very hot, even when the chef touches it, you have to be very careful when you make it because butter is high level temperature it’s going to be ready in a few seconds about 5 minutes chef you can try to bring a bit more crunchy taste so we put it more hot just to finish the cooking we are putting it away from the pan, a bit on the grill just to extract the surplus of butter everything is ready, now we can prepare the plate we are going to put the condiment onto the cauliflower it brings acidity, crunchiness and color for the visual aspect the mustard seeds are very soft we are going to put some mustard leaves which are more powerful apple cider vinegar is very soft, even sweet a little bit at the end you need to put the contrast you can put the sauce back to the heat, just for a few seconds just to be warm to the center of the plate Fleur de sel / salt flower to finish the course