If you can't go to the bar or restaurant, try your favorites at home – volume 2. This latest effort features a healthier version of one of my bar/restaurant favorites, buffalo cauliflower, which I found I couldn't order on any of our local restaurant delivery apps.
I found a few recipes online and settled on the Frank's Red Hot version because of its glowing website reviews. I also decided to use Food Network's blue cheese dip recipe instead of a store bought dip.
While the final result was pretty good – great Frank's spicy sauce flavor offset by the tangy dip – I learned some good lessons that will help make this good dish even better the next time.
First was that I should have used two baking sheets to allow the cauliflower to really crisp up instead of steaming from the pieces being too close to each other. Second was that I should have used the full amount of Frank's called for in the recipe – 8 tbsp. instead of the 5 tbsp. that I used.
The third and fourth lessons are related – no need to add in panko bread crumbs, which didn't make a difference. And I will likely retain my 50% substitute of besan or chickpea flour for the all-purpose flour as I thought it added a nice, subtle flavor to the batter.
Finally, for the dip, I will add a lot more blue cheese because that flavor was far more diluted than I would have liked from the Food Network recipe.
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