Seasonal Recipe No 43 – Quick cauliflower curry

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients for this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in The Guardian.  He says: “This makes for a light, easy and tasty dinner with some rice and naan or chutney.” 

This dish has a delicious nutty flavour and none of the pungency associated with this much-maligned vegetable.   At home in St Mabyn I served it with grilled, spiced chicken and extra yogurt.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5-10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes

2 tbsp groundnut oil
2 small onions, peeled, halved and finely sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 green chilli, seeds and membrane removed, chopped
3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tsp garam masala
 ½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp turmeric
3 cardamom pods, bashed
350g small potatoes, quartered
1 cauliflower, trimmed and broken into large florets
250g whole milk yoghurt
1½ tbsp tomato purée
1 small handful fresh coriander, tough stalks removed
1 small handful cashews or pistachios, toasted

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, then fry the onion until just golden. While the onion is cooking, pound the garlic, chilli and ginger with a pinch of salt until they form a paste. Add this to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes.

Tip in the rest of the spices and stir until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the potatoes and cauliflower, and fry, stirring frequently, for five minutes, so that the veg are well coated with the spice mixture. Pour in about 400ml water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.

In a bowl, whisk together the yoghurt, tomato purée and some of the hot cooking liquid. Remove the curry from the heat, stir in the yoghurt mixture, return the pan to the heat and warm through very gently. Stir in most of the coriander, adjust the seasoning and serve scattered with the remaining coriander and the toasted nuts.

Try these other cauliflower recipes: -
A fried cauliflower
Cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins
Cauliflower and three cheese comfort supper

Seasonal recipe No 38 – Cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins

Henrietta recommends this recipe from Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro cookbook. They say that the white cauliflower shows off the saffron’s colour beautifully and turns this “parochial vegetable into quite a glamorous one”.

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower, broken into small florets (keep the smallest leaves)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
50 strands saffron, infused in 4 tbsp boiling water
3 tbsp pinenuts, lightly toasted
75g raisins, soaked in warm water
sea salt and black pepper

Method
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the cauliflower, put the lid on and bring to the boil again. Blanch the cauliflower for a minute then drain in a colander and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan until hot but not smoking then add the onion with a pinch of salt. Stir well, reduce the heat to low and cook very slowly for about 15-20 minutes until golden in colour and sweet in smell. Be sure to stir the onions every 5 minutes so they cook evenly and do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat, drain the onion and keep the oil.

Set the same saucepan over a high heat and add the olive oil back to the pan. When the oil is hot, add the cauliflower and leaves. Fry until the cauliflower begins to colour, then add the onion, the saffron-infused water, the pinenuts and drained raisins. Give everything a good toss and cook for 5 more minutes until the saffron water has more or less evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Fresh caulis in the veg boxes

This week everyone will have:
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)
spring greens (Rest Harrow Farm)
white sprouting broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes will have larger quantities of some of the above plus:
* rocket (Jeremy Brown)
* coriander (Jeremy)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

And large boxes will also have:
red cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
kale (Rest Harrow Farm)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal recipe No 33 – A fried cauliflower

This seasonal recipe for cauliflower served with a salsa verde is from Nigel Slater’s latest book, Tender. He deep fries the cauliflower but, if that’s a problem for you, shallow frying would probably work pretty well.

Serves 2 as a main course

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: max 10 minutes

Ingredients
a medium cauliflower
sunflower or groundnut oil for deep-frying
3 tbsp gram flour
½ tsp paprika

For the salsa verde:
handful parsley leaves
6 bushy sprigs mint
handful basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method
Break the cauliflower into florets. Boil in deep, salted water for a couple of minutes (a little longer if you can only shallow fry), then drain thoroughly.

To make the sauce, chop the herbs quite finely, then stir in the garlic, mustard and capers. Pour in the olive oil slowly, beating with a fork. Stir in the lemon juice and season with sea salt and black pepper. Be generous with the seasoning, tasting as you go. The sauce should be bright tasting and piquant.

Get the oil hot in a deep pan. Toss the cauliflower with the gram flour, a little salt and pepper and the paprika. When the cauliflower is coated, fry in the hot oil until crisp – a matter of three or four minutes or so. Drain on kitchen paper before serving with the sauce.

What we’re getting in our vegetable boxes

We can expect to find some tomatoes and a cauliflower among the contents of this week’s veg boxes.

These vegetables come from Richard Hore, our new supplier at Rest Harrow, Trebetherick (between Daymer Bay and Rock).  They’re not grown to organic principles, but are freshly picked and have clocked up few food miles – barely five in fact.

The potatoes and onions are our own contribution to the harvest.  They’ve been grown by our volunteers on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s two-acre plot at St Kew Highway. 

Our expert growers are providing the rest of the box contents.  Salad bags – Jane Mellowship, cucumber and curly parsley – Jeremy Brown, celery – Mark Norman. 

See this week’s Recipe No 8 – Braised celery