Hestia loves Ottolenghi's Cauliflower fritters

Outdoor food photography - my talents are many

Trying to get Sonshine to eat anything of a vegetable-type nature is an endless quest to successfully disguise roots and froots:  He hates tomatoes (but loves tomato sauce).  He hates mushrooms for their flavour and texture.  I can understand the thing about tomatoes; I don't think I voluntarily ate a raw one until I was about 16.

Anyway, we came across the recipe for Cauliflower and Cumin fritters with lime yoghurt and, since it passed the Random Ingredients Test....Mr Ottolenghi's dish has become a firm favourite in our house.  Even with the wind thing afterwards....




Ingredients

1 sml cauliflower
120g plain flour
3 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley (I use flat or curly) - reserve some leaves for garnish
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 shallots, finely chopped (I've also used red onion)
4 free-range eggs (well, any sort of egg)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
1.5 tsp salt (I use less than this)
1 tsp black pepper
500 ml sunflower oil for cooking (I use WAY less than this, just topping up the pan as necessary)

Lime sauce

300g greek yoghurt (I tend to just use what quantities I've got around)
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
grated zest of one lime
2 tbsp lime juice (I've made it without the lime zest and just lime juice from jif lime bottle)
2 tbsp olive oil (I use less, depending on how much yoghurt I've got around)
salt and pepper

Mix up the lime sauce stuff first - should taste nice and zingy.

I don't bugger about trying to cut the cauliflower into neat florets, I just slice it thinly and crumble the slices into a pan of boiling water.  I don't salt the water because there's salt in the recipe. Cook until soft - drain and set aside.

Put the flour, garlic, parsley, shallots, eggs spices, salt and pepper into a bowl and whisk to make a batter.  It will probably be quite dry, but when you add the drained cauliflower, it becomes much more runny. Mash the cauliflower and mixture until smooth (I just use a fork).

Heat the pan with some oil and once oil is nice and hot, start spooning in your fritter mix.  You can make them as big or as bite-sized as you like.  Cook on one side until nicely coloured and then flip over.  Remember and top up the oil as needed.

I usually set them onto a plate with some kitchen roll and keep them warm in the oven as I'm making up the batch.

Serve with a nice salad and drizzle the lime sauce over - decorate with bits of leaves ;-)

I like to keep a little of the sauce olive oil back and add as artisan-looking swirl before serving...
you'd better be wearing your *impressed face* at this.

Surefire winner with small boy - subsequent farting competitions optional.

Recipe taken from Ottolenghi cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi...without their permission, but please don't sue me.  I love your stuff.

...and just in case you think that I'm really getting my Hestia Domestic Goddess-shit together. Here are a couple of photos of the kitchen directly afterwards...

Ignore the ice-cream wafers, they're erm, for medicinal purposes only.

Evidence of Domestic Trollopesque behaviour

Have a lovely Easter Sunday, dear reader!

oh - meant to say, keep leftovers (fritters and/or sauce) in the fridge and dive in whenever you feel the munchies coming on!