Curried Cauliflower Fritters

Ingredients

1 cauliflower
Flour, for dusting
Vegetable oil
1 small piece potato, peeled, optional
1 small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
Sea salt
1 lemon

For the batter:

1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp black mustard seeds
2–3 dried red chillies
1 tsp black peppercorns
200 g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp turmeric
350mL cold beer
sea salt

Method

Ground cumin and mustard seeds, chillies and peppercorns in mortar and pestle to a fine powder. Put the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in ground spices and turmeric.

Pour in most of the beer and whisk gently. Consistency should be the same thickness of double cream. If it’s too thick, whisk in a little more beer. A few lumps in the batter are fine. Season with sea salt and put aside.

Trim the bottom off the stalk and break the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Slice up stalk into 2cm pieces. Wash all cauliflower pieces, drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Place the cauliflower pieces in a bowl and dust with a little flour.

Pour the oil into a deep saucepan (about 10–12cm deep) and heat it to 180°C (hot enough to fry a thin piece of potato almost straight away).

Shake any excess flour off the cauliflower.

One by one, dip pieces into beer batter, then carefully place them in the hot oil, moving them away from you as you do so. Make sure you stand back so you don’t get splashed. It’s best to fry them in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan (but serve them as soon as each batch is ready).

Each time a batch of cauliflower is nearly ready, add some battered parsley leaves to the pan and fry for 40 seconds to serve them scattered over the fritters.

Fry the pieces gently, turning them a couple of times with a slotted spoon. Once browned and crisp, lift out of the oil, allowing any excess to drip back into the pan, and drain on kitchen paper.

Dust with sea salt and squeeze over a little lemon juice. Serve straight away.

Credits: Jamie Oliver