This little ditty is something I whipped up a while back and loved enough to add it to the website. It can be served as either a main dish or a side. It is very easy to make, although there are some steps to it. And even if you tell yourself you don’t like cauliflower, I can almost guarantee you will love this. Note: the side shown here is my ham-flavored green beans and cream of celery soup. I don’t describe that here, but you will be able to find it in my list of recipes eventually. Keep checking back.
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cauliflower
- 2 lbs thick-cut bacon
- Black pepper
- Vinaigrette of your choice (I used a sun dried tomato and garlic vinaigrette)
- 1 large red onion
- Cotton twine
- Paper towel
- Medium to large cooking sheet
- Quincy’s Mayonnaise Sauce
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
- Peel all of the leaves off the cauliflower and cut the step so it sits flat on a pan
- Drizzle the vinaigrette over the cauliflower so that it is almost completely covered and begins to drip onto the pan
- Peel the red onion and make one cut half-way through the onion so that you have long strips
- Apply the long strips of red onion in a cross-hatch pattern to cover the cauliflower until it is fully covered (there can be gaps between the onion)
- Apply two bacon strips in a cross
- Begin making a cross-hatch pattern, leaving no gaps between bacon strips
- Cover the cauliflower head completely and finish the cross-hatch pattern
- Create a new layer by rotating the bacon strips forty-five degrees
- Cover the entire cauliflower head with a second cross-hatch pattern of bacon
- Wrap the base of the cauliflower with two strips of bacon, one on each side to make a seal that touches the bottom of the pan
- Apply two more strips to the base that cover the seams of the first two strips around the base
- Secure the bacon surrounding the base with a single piece of the cotton twine and tie it off
- Cut the long ends of the cotton twine
- Dust the top of the cauliflower with black pepper
- You should have about a half pound of bacon left over
- Place the pan in the oven when it is at 400 degrees
- Set your timer for one hour
- Slice the remaining onion in preparation for caramalization
- Cut the remaining bacon in half and slow-cook flat over medium-high heat
- Set the crispy bacon aside (or eat it, since that’s what I did)
- Cook the onions over medium heat and continue stirring until they are fully caramelized
- Set the onions aside on paper towel so that the oil drains off completely
- Mix all of the mayonnaise, sriracha, mustard, and capers in a small serving container and blend fully
- Check the oven after the first hour of baking and keep baking until the bacon wrap is cooked fully to the point of being crispy
- When the cauliflower is cooked to the desired level (generally an hour to an an hour and a half, remove from the oven
- Cut the cotton twine off
- The cauliflower can be sliced in the baking pan or placed on a serving dish and cut into slices
- Lay each slice of the cauliflower on a dish, serve with a desired side green beans and celery soup shown here (see my ham, green been, and celery soup recipe (coming soon)
- Add some of the caramalized onions on top of the cauliflower
- Drizzle the Mayonnaise Sauce blend over the cauliflower
- Serve and EAT! (my favorite part)
