I take inspiration here from the people at Café Miznon, now with locations all over the world. Though I learned about it via Le Fooding, and their old Toquéra series.
The original recipe suggests boiling the whole head of cauliflower in salty boiling water. Admittedly this has the advantage of doing a really good job of seasoning the cauliflower. But it also has some disadvantages. Or perhaps one very big disadvantage singular. Namely: you need a huge pot of boiling water. One big enough to accommodate a whole cauliflower with some headroom. This is both cumbersome and very resource-hungry. Keeping all that water at a boil uses a ton of energy.
At some stage, I realized there’s a simple workaround. Water in the form of steam can get a lot hotter than water in its liquid state, and keeping a relatively small amount of steam going is both less cumbersome and a lot more energy efficient. It does mean being a little more generous with the salt for good seasoning.
Ingredients
- 1 whole cauliflower
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
Method
Fill a large stock pot (large enough to fit the entire cauliflower) with 3-4 cm (1-2") of water. Bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the cauliflower, cover the pot, and steam the cauliflower until it’s very well cooked. A knife should easily go through it.
Let the cauliflower cool and the surface to dry out for at least 15 minutes, up to a couple of hours. Rub a generous quantity of olive oil into the cauliflower and season to taste.
Bake the cauliflower in a preheated 250 °C (500 °F) oven until the surface is deeply browned and charred in places. Finish with sea salt for texture.