Cauliflower and potato bhaji

I've been picking up really handsome specimens of cauliflowers at the farmer's market recently and thought I ought to share my go-to recipe for this glorious brassica. Not many would agree but I love the humble cauliflower. Not with cheese. Not that over cooked atrocity that gags the cauliflower with gallons of melted cheese. That is a crime against cauliflowers. No to make this white globe sing, you have to use spices. Indian style.

You can't beat a simple aloo gobi i.e. Cauliflower bhaji with potatoes - Bengali style. It can be a stand out side dish for an Indian meal or with rice and a poached egg on top, you can make it into a main meal. Your call. 

Once you cut off the outer leaves you are left with this flower - don't chop of the stem/core as it contains all the nutrients and is perfectly edible as are some of the small lighter leaves. Personally I think the core is the best bit!

Ingredients:

Cauliflower: cut off bite sized florets and dice the core

2 small brown onions or 1 medium: peeled, diced

1 or 2 medium potatoes: peeled and diced

2 cloves of garlic: whole or just crushed slightly

Turmeric: 1/2 a teaspoon

Garam masala: 1/2 a teaspoon

Spice mix: pinch of panch paren - fenugreek, cumin, fennel, black onion/nigella, mustard seeds 

1 small whole fresh green chilli: stab it with a knife so that it doesn't explode when you fry it but don't open it up [you want the flavour not the heat]

Salt

Rapeseed / vegetable oil

Panch paren spice mix of seeds

Method: You need a large frying pan with a lid for this dish

1. Put the diced potatoes into a small pan with cold water and bring up to the boil - let it boil furiously for 1 minute then drain and set aside

2. Temper the oil in the frying pan: Heat a couple of good glugs of oil gently and add a couple of pinches of the spice mix of seeds, the chilli and the garlic

2. When the seeds start to spit and pop, chuck in the diced onion with some salt and gently fry for 5min on low heat with the lid on - sweat the onions and soften

3. Add the potatoes, turmeric and the garam masala and stir well

4. Crank up the heat and add the cauliflower - stir quickly and then pop in a splash of water and stick the lid on immediately. Then turn down the heat. This will allow the cauliflower to steam. Leave it alone for 5 minutes

5. Take the lid off and stir well - turn up the heat to evaporate excess water: the end result is a dry bhaji. If it sticks add another splash of water - don't let the spices burn

6. Check the seasoning [both potatoes and cauliflower can take a lot of salt] and when the potatoes are cooked through switch off and pop the lid on for 5 min. It doesn't matter if the cauliflower is under cooked - they taste better slightly al dente and in any case everything will continue to steam in the pan after the heat is switched off.

I hope you give this dish a go .. eat it with rice or chapatis and some cooling yogurt. Don't worry if you can't find all 5 of the spices in the seed mix. Even a couple of them will give this dish a great flavour. Some Bengali shops will have the mix ready made but if not you can source the seeds individually from most supermarkets and make up a batch for yourself. If all else fails, if you ask nicely, I'll give you a batch! This mix is used in many veggie dishes to temper or flavour the cooking oil and it always gives the most incredible results!

Jamie's seeded bread

I made bread!! The very first loaf out of my erratic oven, that no longer has the door seal or any temperature indicators on the dials, as they have been scraped off over years of hard cleaning. It looks pretty good I think and sounds like bread i.e. when you rap it with your knuckles ala Paul Hollywood style, it sounds hollow. I think it is a good bake but I can't be sure! After watching the bake off bread extravaganza last night, I got the urge to bake and the only recipe that got me excited was Jamie Oliver's high protein bread recipe in last weeks' Sunday times magazine. It's a seeded protein loaf, wheat free, gluten free and right up my street! 

I've looked at Jamie Oliver's recipes for inspiration many times over the last decade because I like his rustic, honest style but I have never followed any of his recipes to the letter. Mostly I admire his efforts for social change such as his fight to improve school dinners and help our nations obese children, his projects to train unemployed youth in his restaurants to give them a chance for a better life and now he is going to be working on something close to my heart. I hear he is declaring war on sugar! Let's see what happens.

Today I followed his recipe and in time honoured bake-off style, I spent many moments kneeling before the oven alter, praying it wasn't burning or under-cooked as visibility into this ancient, much abused oven was minimal. The sexy bread crack that was evident in the rise was most reassuring . 

In the taste test I was delighted, but my husband who loves white sliced bread the best, turned his nose up and proclaimed it too chewy. Whatever. The texture from the crunch of the seeds is more-ish. Just think smoked salmon and cucumbers or poached eggs and avocados as toppings for this bread this weekend. And as this has no sugar or butter in it - eat as much as you want.

So here is Jamie's recipe and my pictures..

Ingredients:

1 x 7g sachet of yeast

375ml of luke warm water

4 table spoons of water

250g of Gram flour

100g of mixed seeds

50g of linseeds [I used brown linseeds]

100g of ground almonds

Sea salt

4 large free range eggs

1 spring of rosemary - leaves finely chopped

3 teaspoons of marmite [optional]

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C [170 degrees C fan] and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper

2. Put the yeast and oil in the water and set aside for 5 minutes while you mix the batter

3. Mix the flour, seeds and almonds with a pinch of sea salt

4. Add the rosemary and the 4 eggs

5. Mix well with a fork and then add the yeast water

6. Mix again and pour the batter into the tin

7. Place into the middle shelf for 45 min then pop onto a cooling rack

Jamie says to wait 20min before eating - I couldn't. In fact I may go and have another slice now. Be warned it's a hefty snack - all those seeds make it quite filling and not like any other bread. I think I may re-name it a savoury seed cake. Just add cream cheese and toppings. Delicious.