23 Apr 2011

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!


14 comments:

  1. Looks very tasty. Glad you could get Sonshine to eat his veggies.

    Very impressed with the state of your worktops, I don't think I've seen worse since my Anchovy experiments.

    I notice that the "ice cream wafers" are actually nougat wafers. Goodness I miss nougat, they're not the same here in NZ; too sweet.

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  2. I just bought a nice head of cauliflower (one of my fave veggies). I will have to try this! It looks WONDERFUL!

    Sig

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  4. Great recipe. I've been looking for a good cauliflower recipe so I went ahead and stole this one to try later. Thanks so much, and a Happy Easter to you too. And by the way, my kitchen looks just like yours when I've been cooking. Somehow I just prefer to clean everything up in one go when I'm washing dishes anyway, rather than cleaning up as I go and taking twice as long to cook.

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  5. They sound rather yummy. Your kitchen looks like mine when the OH has been cooking!

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  6. They look awesome, must try!

    That is what the kitchen looks like when Dave is allowed to cook!

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  7. looks yummy. and wow! no sultanas! i thought they added sultanas to every single one of their recipes.

    merry egg day!

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  8. You know how to torture a woman when Asda's closed and all we've got in the house are baked beans,10p Value noodles and a mouldering rind of month old Parmesan. I'm definately creating this just as soon as we've gone shopping. xxx

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  9. Dear Ali, thanks for all your nice comments on my blog recently most kind - the idea of me coming home with a Spanish hunk just made me think of that dodgy waiter from the TV series Benidorm (top quality TV only for me). This recipe sounds promising - my boys won't eat any veg except carrots but they love battered things - pancakes, fish, chicken - and anything promising fart potential is bound to be a big hit..xx

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  10. Ooh, I love cauliflower and may well try this. My favourite way of eating cauliflower is a la Polonaise (naturally), which is basically boiked or steamed and then pour over fried breadcrumbs :D

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  11. OOh a recipe you make me ashamed.Love th Ottolenghi book though a committed omnivore:)x

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  12. NS - they do do food for omnivores, but confess it's only veggie food I've tried so far.

    Ania - fried breadcrumbs? That will do for my gallstones!

    Blighty - yep, anything that promises wind is always a hit. Asparagus also popular because it makes pee smell of hay :-)

    Vix - hope you do make it, it's tasty as - esp with the lime sauce.

    Polish Chick - raisins are TASTY!!! But then I've got a really sweet tooth!

    LM - that's what mine looks like after every meal. Even breakfast :-)

    Mrs Fab - ditto!

    Dancer - I've got a great one from Delia Smith for cauliflower with Rochefort cheese, it tastes gorgeous and rich.

    Sig - let me know how you get on.

    TSB - ssshh you're not supposed to notice the nougat wafers. Sometimes we make DOUBLE nougat wafers. *memories of ice cream van in 70s*

    Ali xxxx

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  13. Dear Ali, that sounds lovely!

    The pictures of kitchen are brilliant.

    I love anything to do with cauliflower. One of my favourite dinners is a whole cauliflower cheese all to myself eaten out of the oven dish.

    When you come to London we should go to Ottolenghi, it's five minutes from me xx

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  14. Try the same recipe with any vegetable you have going! Courgette works well in fritters!

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