I’ve just come back from a week at home in the US, and it was great. For once, I didn’t plan every minute of the trip, and it was a revelation. We even got to drive to DC for an overnight!

Going home is always a mix of experiences – eating home comfort foods, seeing old, great friends, and trying not to get too caught up in nostalgia to the point where I refuse to try anything unfamiliar.

It’s easy to feel like you’re still a part of somewhere when you live far away from it, but turning up and realizing that everything you’re used to has changed can be a downer. Instead of focusing on the romance of the old, I’m trying to focus on the joys of the new.

On that note, here is one old favorite, and two new, from my time back on the US east coast.

The view from my old home, Jersey City, towards Manhattan. The skyline changes but the feeling stays the same.

Tasting flights are the best way to try beer, and this was from Forgotten Brewery in Cherry Hill, NJ. New fave!

A blueberry cheesecake “tart” from Ted’s Bulletin in DC, stuffed with preserves and cream cheese filling.

After a week of eating things like that amazing not-a-pop-tart, though, you can probably imagine where this is going.

Today’s recipe is pretty light, really easy to make and … delicious. (What did you expect me to say?) Versatile maybe? It’s that too, don’t worry.

Special guest: roasted red pepper

Recipe note: You can replace the steak with chicken, pork, halloumi or sea bass, but I think steak works especially well.

Serves 4

On the Counter

Sandwich
1 roasted red pepper, sliced*
250 g (1/2 lb) sirloin steak(s) or boneless skinless chicken
1 tbsp neutral, high smoke point oil like rapeseed or corn oil

50g feta
4 small tomatoes
1 cucumber, about 100 g (4 oz)
2 big handfuls of mixed salad leaves

4 whole grain pitas

Dressing
2 tbsp extra Virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
Remaining pepper juice

What to Do

Chop your tomato into cubes, peel, seed and slice the cucumber and combine it with the salad leaves and roasted pepper slices. Cube the feta (if it isn’t already), and set it aside.

In a cast iron grill pan (or just a plain cast iron pan), heat your neutral, high smoke point oil on high until it’s shimmering and smoking hot.

Dry your steak or chicken with paper towel, then it salt on both sides. Put it into the pan, and let it sit for a short time.

If it’s a steak, flip it over soon after, and you can flip it a few more times. There is no need to let it sit for long periods of time. A steak that’s 1.25 cm (1/2 inch) thick will take about 10 minutes to cook to medium, with an internal temperature of 60 C (140 F) in mind.

Chicken will take about 15 minutes to cook, and it has to be at least an internal temperature of 75 C (165 F).

As soon as the meat is done, turn off the heat. Slice your pita so you can stuff them, and put them onto the still-hot pan to toast and warm up. (Don’t forget to flip them!)

Combine all the dressing ingredients and whisk them together until emulsified (thick and cloudy looking). Toss it with the salad.

Slice up the steak or chicken, and stuff your pita!

* How to roast a pepper

Place your pepper on a metal baking tray. In the broiler (US), or on the grill setting (UK), roast the pepper until it’s black and blistered. It usually takes at least 5 minutes per side, but could take longer.

Once you’ve roasted the pepper, transfer it to a bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel. This will help loosen the skin by steaming it off, making it much easier to peel. Leave it for at least 5 minutes, until it’s cool enough to touch and peel.

Peel it, slice it and get rid of the seeds and stem.

I cannot tell you that this is the recipe that convinced me cauliflower is the best vegetable out there. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a recipe out there that can really make me love cauliflower. I can, however, tell you that this is miles ahead of boiled cauliflower, is quick and easy and can do a pretty reasonable job replacing couscous for a wheat-free and nutrient-rich alternative.

And listen, I’m not going to pretend that you won’t notice the difference between regular couscous and the cauliflower version, so don’t come in expecting it to taste like a wheat product. But, it does taste nutty, have just a little bit of crunch and give you a good feeling about your dinner choice.

Cauliflower is a great source of vitamins, way more than pasta and rice could even dream of. It’s a great source of vitamin C, vitamin B6, dietary fiber and omega-3 fatty acids (for all you non-fish eaters).

Try it for a boost of extra vitamins and a low-calorie, gluten-free and low-carb substitute for white rice with a stir fry, or loaded with harissa and lamb for a Moroccan-style couscous.

All you need to do to make cauliflower rice, and couscous, is chop your cauliflower head into florets. (You can use the stems in soup or a veggie stock.) Put them all into a food processor and blitz!

Serves: 4

On the Counter

1 large head of cauliflower (about 850 g or 2 lbs)
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Equipment

food processor
skillet or frying pan

What to Do

Chop cauliflower into florets, setting the stems aside for stock or soup.

Add them into a food processor and blitz for a few seconds for “rice”. For “couscous”, scrape down the sides and blitz for a few more seconds/pulses.

To cook, heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet or frying pan until shimmering. Season the cauliflower with salt and sauté it, stirring frequently, until it just starts to toast, about 2 to 3 minutes. If you would prefer it crunchier but less nutty tasting, cook it for less time.

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You can do a lot with cauliflower rice/couscous. Stir fry some veg and make a peanut sauce, or turn it into a couscous salad. You could even add some spices in while you’re cooking to amp up the flavor. Maybe some Chinese 5-spice for a cauliflower rice stir-fry or cumin to make your cauliflower the accompaniment to a curry.

Do you have any favorite uses for cauliflower rice or couscous?

I can’t believe how much I let the holidays get the best of my posting schedule. It was a fantastic several weeks, including a trip back to New York for friends, family and of course… food, plus a trip to Edinburgh for the New Year celebrations.

Those two weeks were everything I could have asked for, and I even got a lightly dusted White Christmas! However, the one thing I didn’t do was cook a meal. It felt a bit weird, spending so much time out of the kitchen, though I’ll certainly be sharing some of my culinary inspirations in future recipes on here.

But, rather than share a recipe this week, I thought I’d start the year with a “how to” post. Hopefully this will help some people who want to learn to cook in 2013!

Once I learned this trick for chopping onions, I have never gone back. It makes the whole thing quick and easy, and even a bit fun! Hm… or maybe just fun for me.

I hope this tutorial will make your next (or first) onion-chopping experience a lot easier.

With a sharp knife (always!), chop the ends off your onion, and pull off the skin. 

Cut the onion in half. Your knife should be parallel to the flat ends of the onion.

Then, slice the halved onion in half again, but only 3/4 through. As you get more practice you can get closer to the edge without cutting through. (If you’re working with a small onion, you can skip this step.)

Remove the knife carefully and cut slices vertically into the onion.

Now, very gently turn the onion (or yourself) and cut perpendicular slices into the onion. 

And finally, you are left with a pile of chopped onion. Don’t forget about the other half!

Learning this skill made the arduous task of cutting onions much more bearable for me, and now I don’t actually mind chopping them. If only I had shortcuts for every other veggie I chopped, sliced and diced…