Recipe: Z Grille’s Cauliflower Steak with Chipotle Butter

Read about this recipe and can’t wait to try it out this weekend. Always looking for new “meaty” recipes that are sure to please my vegetarian husband and his ever-changing palette.

Photo: Chris Zuppa/St. Petersburg TimesChipotle Butter Ingredients:

• 2 cups of butter, softened
• ½ cup of garlic, minced
• 1 can of chipotle peppers, drained and minced
• 1 bunch of cilantro, minced
• Salt
• Pepper

Marinade Ingredients:

• ½ cup of fresh herbs, minced (thyme, rosemary, sage; whatever you like or is fresh)
• ½ cup of oil (olive, canola or whatever you use for salad dressing)
• ½ cup of garlic

Cauliflower Steak Ingredients:

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 3 whole acorn squash, cut in quarters, seeds removed
• ½ cup of Manchego, grated
• 1½ pounds of shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions:

For butter - mix ½ cup of garlic, chipotle peppers, cilantro, salt and pepper into the softened butter. It will turn a cool red. Refrigerate.

For marinade - mince the herbs and mix with oil and ½ cup of garlic.

For cauliflower - trim sides of the cauliflower, then cut across the head to make “steaks” that are about 1 inch thick. A head should yield at least two, maybe three steaks. Carefully coat cauliflower with marinade, and let sit for at least two hours, but can marinate overnight in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and Place squash on baking sheet and roast for about an hour. Remove from oven and turn on broiler. Sprinkle squash with cheese, then place under broiler to melt cheese, just one or two minutes. When finished, it should look like a potato skin.

Place mushrooms in a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roast in oven for about 15 minutes.

Heat grill, and grill the sliced cauliflower, as you would a steak, over very high heat. Flip the slices only once. Don’t play with them. They’ll be fragile and can fall apart. Grill about four to five minutes on each side.

To assemble the dish, put cauliflower on a plate with two or three pieces of squash and a spoonful of mushrooms. Top the hot cauliflower with the chipotle butter and serve.


Z Grill
104 2nd Street South
St Petersburg, Florida 33701
http://www.zgrille.net/