Fried Cauliflower

I ran across this in my blog today and I thought I'd repost it here since it's recipe-like and I'm planning on making it today or tomorrow.

Here you go:

My first area on my mission was in Donetsk right by the mission home and office. Because of that we got quite a few perks. One was life changing--I learned to make fried cauliflower.

Two Sisters were leaving to attend the Moscow MTC and they went to our mission office to be set apart. Then they spent the night at our apartment before they left. On was Anna Bigun. She was from Mariupal. Her mom always cooked for the Elders in Mariupal and she wanted to make us dinner. It was quite a treat for me because I was pretty much living on yogurt and bread at that point. Oh, but it was really, really good yogurt and bread. She made several things, but the only one I remember was fried cauliflower. The other two Sisters didn't seem quite a sold on it as Anna and I were, but that was probably just because they were more health conscious than we were. I never said it was healthy. At the end of the meal Anna and I took bread and dipped it in the left over grease until we had the pan cleaned out. Oh yumminess.

All this just to bring you to the point that I really don't have a recipe. But I'll tell you how I make it.

First you put some oil in a frying pan. Kind of a lot of oil. Then you fry an egg with salt and pepper. I don't know what it is about the egg--you don't use it for anything, but you have to do it. Maybe it's for a snack as you're cooking.

Actually at the same time as you're doing that, or maybe before you steam the cauliflower. Just put it in a little bit of boiling water and put the lid on. In case you didn't understand the word steaming. This is why I'm not a recipe writer.

When the cauliflower is soft you take it out and cut it so you have big florets. Then you slice those about a quarter of an inch thick or maybe a little thinner. Then you fry them in your oil that you fried the egg in. Just salt and pepper it. Lots of salt. A bit of pepper. You need to not stir it very much so it gets brown--the brown parts are the best. And man, it is good. If you're in to that sort of thing. I don't think I've ever met a person that wasn't in to that sort of thing.

Oh--when it's done take it out of the pan and put it on a paper towel to try and get at least a little bit of the grease off. There you go. Eat it hot.

Oh--and don't use a plastic pancake turner to stir it with if you're using a metal pan. Every time I've done that I've melted it. Nasty. Truly nasty.

That's about all. Sorry it wasn't very recipe-like.

If you have any good Ukrainian bread sitting around I would highly recommend you make this and use the left over grease to dip your bread in. Serious yum.

Mom's bread

5 1/2 cups hot water (as hot as it comes out of the tap)
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
put that in the hot water along with about six cups of flour (Whole wheat)
before you mix that up, on one mound put two tablespoons of yeast
and those are heaping
and two tablespoons of salt, and you don't want to mix the two together. different mounds, because salt stops the yeast form working
honey helps

then you can beat those up (if you don't have a bread mixer, beat them with a mix master)
mix 'em right up
usually bread is kneaded for ten minutes, and the longer you beat it the less you have to knead it.
I usually do about five minutes kneading/mixing each.
after you mix it you add about 6 cups of flour
and if you don't have  a bread machine to do the kneading, put it in a plastic bag

make them into loaves
they raise for about an hour (longer if the house is cooler)
that depends on the temperature
cover them with a dish towel

350 degrees, about 30 minutes for a regular sized loaf, and down from there (about five minutes per size)
when they come out, wrap them in the dish cloths and it'll soften up the tops

grease the tops with butter/oil to have a soft top, but mom hasn't done that for a long time.

a couple of hours to make a batch of bread (but she has the mixer, and no kids)