Cauliflower pakoras...

I love cauliflower and I love Indian cuisine. But even considering all that, I wasn't sure that this recipe will fully work for me... I was afraid that the cauliflower will be too hard/crunchy for my two girls or that it will be too spicy (even though my girls like spicy food, Indian in particular). I shouldn't have been worried at all! 

The florets were very small, and cooked all the way through, with still a tiny crunch to them, which was great. I've reduced the amount of spices, so the girls could enjoy it too - and they did! Cauliflower pakoras disappeared almost immediately after they were fried. As soon as they were cool enough to handle and eat - it was all gone. I'm already thinking of making a "mixed veg" pakoras next time round.

"Pakoras are created by taking one or two ingredients (like onion, eggplant, spinach, cauliflower, soft cheese - paneer, chicken...) and dipping them in a batter of gram flour and then deep-frying them. The onion version is known as onion bhajji. Pakoras are usually served as snacks or appetizers." - by wikipedia.org

How to make it...

Ingredients:

- 1 medium to large cauliflower

For the batter:
- 150 g gram/chickpea flour (I used plain flour)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- shake of cayenne pepper (I used normal one, as my little girls ate it too)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 175 ml cold water

Method:

- Cut the cauliflower into small florets, no more than 2 cm across in any direction, discarding nearly all the stalks (but keep the stalks as they can be used in soups or diced and used in stews, curries etc).
- For the batter:

- Put the flour, baking powder, ground spices and salt into a large bowl. 

- Whisk to combine and get rid of any lumps. 

- Slowly whisk in 175 ml cold water. Your batter should be smooth and consistency of double cream, add more water if needed to achieve that. 

- Add the cauliflower florets into the batter and coat them all carefully.
- Heat about 1 cm depth of oil in a heavy based pan. 

- When the oil is hot enough, keeping it on the medium heat, start cooking your pakoras, a few at a time. 

- Cook for about 2 minutes, until golden and crisp on the base, turn and fry on the other side for a minute or two. 

- Drain the pakoras on the kitchen paper and serve hot with yogurt and mango dipping sauce like me or mango raita or any spicy-sweet fruit chutney.


Smacznego!


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