More Adventures with Cauliflower – Pakoras

You would think that I would learn wouldn’t you?  Yet again I have planted all my cauliflower plants from the same punnet of seedlings on the same day and yet again I am mildly surprised when I have most of them maturing at pretty much the same time.

Oh well its not the worst problem to have…..

As a result of this glut I am cooking a lot of cauliflower.  Today I had a play with pakora recipes.  I often find cauliflower pakoras a bit blah – heavy batter with too much cauliflower inside.  This tends to happen when you cook large dense florets in overly thick batter.  I have found two ways around this – both of which work well dependant what sort of cauliflower you have.    If you have home grown cauliflower with spread out florets (as in the pic above) then the traditional method of battering the florets works well as the batter can get into the florets much better. The cauliflower also cooks much more quickly as the oil can penetrate the florets.  If, on the other hand, you have store bought cauliflower with a dense head then I like the pakora cooked differently to the traditional method – see the second method below.

Cauliflower Pakoras

For both my pakora methods the ingredients are pretty much the same:

• 1 cauliflower
• 50g besam (gram or chickpea flour)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp chilli power (or to taste)
• 1/2 salt (or to taste)

Cauliflower Pakoras Method 1:

Break the cauliflower into florets.  Combine all the other ingredients, (except the cauliflower) and mix in 50ml of water to form a batter.  Your batter should be runny – if you think yours is a bit thick add a little more water.  Coat the florets in the batter.

Deep fry in hot oil until golden.  Serve with a mint chutney or mint yoghurt – see recipe below.

Cauliflower Pakoras Method 2

Additional ingredient: 1 egg beaten (you could try using water to bring the mixture together instead of the egg)

Grate the cauliflower.  Mix the remaining ingredients together.  Add the cauliflower.  Using your hands bring the mixture together into small balls or small flat discs.

Deep fry in hot oil.  Serve with a mint chutney or mint yoghurt – see recipe below.

Chutneys:

I absolutely love these chutneys and regularly serve the first one with any curry I am eating or simply with poppadoms – it is fabulous!  The second is my kids favourite and my preference for serving with pakoras or bhajis.  Yum.

Mint & Coriander Chutney

• A bunch of mint (about 1 cups worth of leaves)
• A bunch of coriander (as for mint)
• 4 spring onions (or half a small onion) chopped
• 2 chillis (more or less to taste)
• Juice of one lemon (or lime if you prefer)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Whizz all the above ingredients in a food processor.  Serve.

Mint and Coriander Yoghurt Chutney

Add a tablespoon of the above chutney to a cup of yoghurt.  Stir to combine.