Fiery Fried Florets

Indian Cuisine has come a long way and the conventional cooking methods, many spices and even dishes have evolved a lot to offer something irresistible, exciting and decadent to suit taste buds of not only Indians but the world. Today, DSB brings to you one such dish which uses asian flavoured sauce and Indian masalas to create some tantalizing gastronomical experience !

Indo- Chinese cuisine is becoming a new style of fusion Indian cooking and many Indian home chefs like myself have been busy developing some exciting flavours with the combinations of 2 elaborate cuisines – Indian and Chinese. In India, the Chinese cuisine is not perceived in the way the world knows it to be. This is something i learned when i traveled to China. The Chinese food palate is often complicated but uses a very distinctive set of ingredients and spices which is not common to a typical Indian taste bud.

Chinese food uses lemon grass, bamboo shoots for flavoring and the food is often light sauce based or uses very less oil (excuse me for my ignorance about Chinese cuisine but that is the extent of my knowledge about it. Being a vegetarian, i do not have many Chinese food options to give a try). In India though, the Chinese food would usually be greasy, with emphasis on soya sauce, vinegar and red chilies (ya , i know what u are thinking… duh.. won;t u say :P). Indians call this fusion cooking : Indo- Chinese and we all love it ! It is increasingly gaining popularity and people have been going gaga over momos, machurians and hakka noodles

To add a few feathers of those Indo-Chinese flair to my recipe spice box, I have created my idea of “The most exciting Cauliflower appetizer ever ” 🙂 These fiery little awesome somethings are sure to stir up your evening tea into a gala affair. Loaded with crunchy bites laced with smooth, lip smacking sauces, this dish is sure to win some hearts.

Fiery Fried Florets

Servings: 4
Time: 30 mins
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Recipe

The recipe can be divided into 2 components: Fried Florets and Fiery Sauce

For Fried Florets :

2 cup cauliflower florets (par boil in microwave for 4 minutes with 1/2 cup of water)
Corn starch 2 tablespoons
Rice flour – 3 tablespoons
1/2 cup All purpose flour
Black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
2 tsp oil for batter
3/4 cup water
1 tsp chili paste
Oil for frying

For Fiery Sauce :

2 tablespoons Sichuan Sauce (recipe here) . You can also use sore bought Sichuan/Schezwan sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp oil
1/2 cup spring onion whites – finely chopped
1/2 cup green/yellow/red bell peppers – finely chopped
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
1 tsp hot chili sauce (optional)
1 tsp tamarind chutney (recipe here)/ dry mango powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chaat masala

Method

We would begin with preparing the fried florets.

Take a deep bowl. to this, sift in the corn starch, rice flour and all purpose flour and mix well. Next, add in salt, pepper, chili paste, oil and water to make a smooth (without lumps) and slightly thick batter. Note that the batter has to be a little thick/ slurry like so that cauliflower florets get an even coating throughout.
Now, in a pan, heat oil for frying. Once the oil is hot, add in the batter coated florets and fry till lightly golden. Remove on an absorbent paper and keep aside. The Fired florets are ready.
How we will begin with the Fiery sauce. For this, i am using my own recipe’s sichuan sauce. Please find and follow the recipe for the same here – Sichuan Sauce
For the Fiery sauce, take a separate pan and heat 1 tsp oil. Once the oil is hot, add in spring onion whites, bell peppers and garlic and saute on high flame. Since we are using finely chopped vegetables, they will take about 1 minute to cook. We don;t want them over cooked, just a slight crunchy.
Now add in the Sichuan sauce and Tamarind chutney. Mix well. Saute for about one minute.
Now dilute the cornstarch in 1 tsp water and add to this sauce. Mix well. This will thicken the sauce.
Now, add in the fried florets and coat well with the Fiery sauce. You can add in the chili sauce at this moment if u want your florets extra spicy and hot.
Saute on for about half a minute and serve hot with sprinkle of garam masala and chaat masala on top. The Fiery Fried Florets are ready !!

The dish was made in under 30 minutes and it added a lot of oomph to my evening tea. The orange florets glistening with the smooth, exotic sichuan sauce worked really well with the crunchy, colorful bell peppers. Me and the husband was done with devouring the dish in minutes.. it was so delicious that i could not stop eating. It was almost Addictive ! For someone who does not like Cauliflower much, i had conquered one idea which made cauliflower an awesome vegetable 🙂

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