Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters - Yotam Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi; The Cookbook

We always get cauliflowers and I never know what to do with them... I grew up with them being covered with white sauce and cheese then having the bejeezus grilled out of them. Dont get me wrong, I love cauliflower cheese! But you cant have that all the time... and you need some variety! So I stumbed upon this recipe and thought Id give it a try - my first Ottolenghi recipe! Its from his first book, "Ottolenghi".

 Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the fritters

1 small cauliflower (about 320g)

120g plain flour

3 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley plus a few extra leaves to garnish

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 shallots, finely chopped

4 free range eggs

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

500ml sunflower oil for frying

For the lime yoghurt

300g Greek yoghurt

2 tbsp finely chopped coriander with a couple of leaves reserved to garnish

grated zest of 1 lime

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Make the yoghurt sauce first by whisking the ingredients (reserving a little oil and sprig of coriander) all together in a bowl. Put aside in the fridge, pour over a little oil and sprinkle with a couple of leaves of coriander to serve.

2. Prepare the cauliflower by removing the leaves and dividing into small florets. Cooking in a large pan of simmering salted water for around 15 minutes until soft. Drain.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together in a bowl the eggs, flour, parsley, garlic, shallots, spices, salt and pepper. When mixed well, add the soft warm cauliflower and stir breaking down the cauliflower into the batter.

 mmm spices and parsley!

 batter without cauliflower

 batter with the cauliflower

4. Heat the sunflower oil (at a depth of 1.5cm) in a wide pan and heat.  When very hot, spoon 3 tbsp worth blobs of batter carefully into the oil to cook.  Avoid overcrowding them, cook maybe 3 at a time spacing them apart with a fish slice.  Fry for 3-4 minutes each side then remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.

5. Serve immediately with the yoghurt sauce.

This pic is obviously served without the sauce because we ate it, I didnt make much of it, we gobbled up the fritters and then I remembered to take a pic of them once they were cold! Oooops!

They were quite nice, but a bit heavy. Id say thats because I only had 2 eggs to use and the recipe asks for 4...... again, oooops! If I made them again Id go easy on the tumeric, I could taste too much of it and it was all I could taste. Its a good recipe to use I think, if you wanna get veges in the kids without them knowing (or your bf for that matter!). Id be tempted to see how they cook in the oven, not fried, to make them a bit healthier?