Penang Cauliflower Salad Sandwiches
Out of all the Thai curries that I know, panang is by far my favorite. So when I decided to use that loved seasoning paste as the base for a sauce for wings at a Meatwave last summer, I also wanted to craft a way for my non-meat eating guests to also partake in something I love so much. Figuring out a good delivery method that utilized the grill proved to be a bit of a head scratcher though, but once I started to think along the lines of using the panang paste as part of a salad dressing, everything began to fall into place and I was quite pleased with having crafted these pretty unique panang cauliflower salad sandwiches.
Most anyone who's put together a Thai curry paste from scratch before knows they're traditionally not vegetarian since shrimp paste is used to embed a salty and savory quality. So when I made a double recipe of a panang paste, I stopped before that final ingredient, split the paste in half, and then only added the shrimp paste to portion that would be used on the wings, leaving the other batch totally vegetarian friendly. If you're buying store bought panang paste, just check the ingredients because brands seem split on whether they add any seasonings derived from seafood.
When it came to the cauliflower, I waffled back and forth on how to season it. On one hand, the panang paste would render the dressing so flavorful that the simple combo of salt, pepper, and oil should have been enough. On the other hand, I've made grilled curried cauliflower a bunch of times and really love it, and thought that the seasoning may actually fit in and enhance the final dish. I kind of split the difference and decided to do a scaled back seasoning that only brought in turmeric, white pepper, and chili powder on top of the salt and oil.
Once oiled and seasoned, I placed the florets—cut into large pieces to help prevent them from slipping through the grates—near, but not directly over, the coals of a two-zone fire where all the charcoal was situated on one side of the grate. Then with the grill covered, it was a waiting game to see when the florets picked up some nice color and were also tender throughout. I checked on the cooking at a few points and moved the cauliflower around as needed so pieces that were cooking faster got moved further from the fire and vice versa. The total cooking time clocked in just north of twenty minutes on this day.
Once done, I brought the cauliflower indoors and roughly chopped it all. I then created the salad dressing which married the panang paste with the required mayonnaise along with brown sugar, lime juice, shallots, cilantro, scallions, and peanuts. The mixture tasted like it was still lacking something though, so I took clues from the wing sauce I had just put together and was happy with and added in coconut cream and tamarind concentrate, which added the missing notes.
I did all this the day before I was going to serve these sandwiches, which meant on the afternoon of the actual cookout, my prep was pretty minimal. I picked up baguettes as my bread of choice, and split those, lightly oiled the cut sides, and toasted them on the grill. Then to assemble, I lined the bottom halves of the bread with cucumber slices and spooned on the cauliflower salad to the desired amount and served.
These sandwiches represented a whole new way for me to love panang curry. The paste itself was mellowed by the mayonnaise and cauliflower, but still delivered the extremely deep and complex flavor that grabs my heart. The mellowing also meant these were not overtly spicy, but it did have a nice medium heat that blended well with the toasted and herbal flavors in a very cohesive manner. Between the crusty baguette and the salad, these sandwiches were plenty hearty, which is something I'm often after in my recipes made for my vegetarian constituency because I don't want any of my guests to go home not feeling fully satisfied. If you were to ask me to think of a vegetarian-friendly recipe using panang curry, I doubt this dish would ever roll out of the top of my head, but I'm glad my brain got here because these ended up being some pretty special sandwiches.
