Sunday -- Recovering From A cold

My wife has just returned home from a trip. Cannot convince her to go out to lunch. She is busy with taxes and has been eating our for sometime. I agreed to make her Cream of Cauliflower soup. Like most soups I begin with:
sweat onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent.
I used 1/2 red onion and three cloves garlic. Sweated with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.
Add Cauliflower and stock
I used 3/4 head of large cauliflower and "No Chicken Broth" with a pinch of dried oregano
Simmer until Cauliflower is soft

With immersion blender, cuisinart or blender blend until smooth.

I use and immersion blender. My wife blanches snow white whenever I do as I have had several mishaps when I forget to unplug the thing.
Add salt, pepper milk and cream to taste
I used about 1/4 cream and about the same amount of non-fat milk.


This is what we ate for lunch
































For dinner I made seared tombo tuna with an anchovie cream sause and a green salad.

For me the most important aspect of making a green salad is drying the lettuce. I use a salad spinner (sadly the spinner I had for over 20 years that I bought for $1 at a garage sale gave up the ghost and we bought a new model).
1 head Boston lettuce washed and dried.
1/2 red onion marinated in industrial strength vinegar with a little sugar
1/2 Red pepper sliced thinly
1/2 English Cucumber seeded and chopped into bite sized chunks.

Salad dressing
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 - 1/2 cup champagne vinegar
2 TB Dijon Mustard
Whisk together and use as little as possible to dress the salad.

To sear the tuna I use an iron frying pan and heat it until it smokes, grind a liberal portion of black pepper directly onto the pan and put the fish (no oil) onto the  hot pan.

After 2-3 minutes I turn the fish over and cook another minute or so until it is still raw in the center.
For this dinner I sliced the seared tuna into strips.

I made a sauce by sauteing about 3/4 cup diced onions until translucent added minced anchovies and about 3/4 cup heavy cream. I boiled the cream down by about 1/3 until thick. Off heat I added 1/2 teaspoon mustard.