Another kitchen adventure: Roasting cauliflower

As TOTJ Steve commented here, " Good food takes time."  Tell me about it.  (Sigh.)  Last night, I tried the recipe that he posted in the same comment, more or less, skipping the garlic powder, of which I can eat only a miniscule amount without getting acid reflux (not to mention that if you could run a car on the kind of gas that cauliflower and onion each gives me, even without adding garlic . . .  :) )

" . . .  Buy a whole cauliflower and break it up (find instructions on the Web) and wash it [I understand you may be stricter on cauliflower than we are in my house]. Preheat oven to 450. Shpritz foil lined baking sheet (because in a kosher kitchen, all baking sheets are foil-lined, right!)with olive oil cooking spray. Place cauliflower florets on sheet, shpritz with olive oil spray. Sprinkle a little salt on it (buy a box of kosher salt, don't use table salt). Since you're not a black pepper person (have you tried white pepper? it's milder) sprinkle a little garlic powder (not garlic salt) and, if you want a real taste treat, peel and cut a red onion into wedges and put them on the sheet with the florets and spray everything together. Roast about 40 minutes, until the florets start to brown. Give them a jiggle once in a while as they roast. The cauliflower and sweet and nutty and wonderful, the onions add even more flavor."

To make a long story mercifully short, just cutting the cauliflower took me over half an hour!  :(  And you wonder why I've always been a reluctant cook.

Okay, I learned a few things.  One is that my new chef's knife didn't make carving up the cauliflower as easy as I expected.  I think the problem is either that my chef's knife isn't as sharp as my paring knife, and/or that I'd be better advised to use a serrated-edged knife (as shown in the cauliflower-cutting instructions here [see update below for link to better version*]), and/or that a cauliflower, unlike a bell pepper, is hard as a rock and is not hollow.

Another thing I learned is that I really don't have enough counter-top space for cutting large vegetables.  I had a similar problem cutting the butternut squash when attempting to make soup recently, but cutting cauliflower is much worse, because the florets often break down into tiny pieces that go just about everywhere.  I ended up with cauliflower all over two cutting boards, my counter-top, my dish drainer, my stove . . .  If we ever get around to renovating our kitchen, we should really replace our too-low-to-work-on kitchen table with a free-standing or built-in counter-top/work surface.  In the meantime, I must remember, in the future, to set up a plastic bag (who has room for a bowl?) in which to toss the stems and tiny pieces, once I cut off the intact florets.  Unfortunately, I was unable to distinguish the stems and good tidbits from the brown spots and leaves that I was throwing out, and ending up having to throw away the good with the bad, which was an unconsionable waste of food.  :(

So nu, you ask, how was the roasted cauliflower, already?  I think it needed another five minutes in our oven and/or another spritz of olive oil to "brown" it a bit more.  And maybe I should break up that onion and distribute the pieces over the top of the cauliflower to make it a bit less bland.  Worth another try.

Next up:  Carmelized fennel and onions (without the butter and parmesan) ?

Related (and not previously linked above):

• How this whole kitchen-experiments thing started.
• Kitchen progress report (sequel to post linked in first sentence of current post)
• A total-immersion problem having nothing to do with a mikveh :) (sequel to link immediately above, and predecessor to the current post)

*Update:  Courtesy of TOTJ Steve, here's a link to instructions showing an easier and less messy way to cut cauliflower.