A bland vegetable?

It has been so lovely having our friend Pam staying with us for a few days. She has kicked off the season of friends and family visiting, looking ahead there are a few blocked out dates in the diary.

Pam’s stay is also our first since the renovations, so before she arrived we did a clean up of the guestroom, putting away the boxes, dusting surfaces, vacuum cleaning the floor, making the bed, etc etc, the usual routine. The next thing on my list was, “what am I going to feed her?” We know on this trip, Pam has a full schedule and relaxing at home in the evenings would really make things simple for her and for us. I love cooking for friends and family but I still get a little nervous especially if they haven’t been before. This time I was a little nervous, because I tested a new recipe on Pam! You see, dear readers, the usual tester is my husband, sometimes my mum and my sister, but mostly my one and only. Family gives feedback, sometimes in the form of hiding nothing critique; but most friends are too kind (or scared) to say anymore than, “what an interesting dish”.

Last weekend I had a delicious North Indian lunch and the flavours inspired me to make a dish using spices. This is what I served last night to our guest: a masala curry featuring paneer and cauliflower. The base of this curry is versatile for different ingredients, chicken, prawn, chickpea, or frozen vegetable mix. I happen to have a block of paneer cheese which is a mild tasting Indian style semi hard cheese. I cut them into cubes and soaked them in warm water for 20 minutes, before draining and drying them for pan-frying. I learnt it from an Indian friend that by doing this, the cheeses soften and do not take on too hard surfaces later. The cauliflower is leftover from another recipe.

When i do a quick search for cauliflower recipes, there are lots of stir fries (as with many vegetables), blended soup, smothered in cheese sauce, broken into florets, seasoned and roasted to serve as a salad vegetable, coated in a spiced oil or paste and roasted whole, or sliced into “steaks”, which are really cross sectioned pieces, pan-fried and finished in the oven; or as a pickle like the Malaysian Achar or British Piccalilli. This creamy white vegetable is a staple in Indian curries, such as their aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry). My local vegetarian curry house does a fantastic one in a sauce. My recipe below is an attempt to replicate those flavours.

1/2 head cauliflower, broken into small florets, chop up the core and the tender leaves
1 pack paneer cheese, about 250g
10 fresh curry leaves, optional
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
4cm chunk of fresh ginger, rinsed to remove any grit
1.5 teaspoons garam masala
1 level teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1.5 teaspoons mild chilli powder
5 cardamom pods, crushed
3 whole cloves
3cm piece of cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
4 tomatoes
40g raw cashews, soaked in hot water (just covering the top of the nuts)
Oil, or ghee (clarified butter)
Salt

1) Cut the paneer cheese into 1cm cubes, and soak them in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes, after that drain off the water and take some kitchen paper to pat dry the excess moisture.

2) Peel and finely dice the onion, set aside; in a blender (I used my trusty Nutribullet), blend the peeled garlic cloves and ginger into a paste, you can add a spoonful of water to help it along, set aside.

3) Soak the raw cashews in a bowl of hot water, set aside for 10 minutes. Then, an optional step, I prefer to remove the skin of the tomatoes. To do that, score by making a cross at the bottom end of the tomatoes and put them into a bowl of boiling hot water for 5 minutes. When they are cool enough to handle, the skin will peel off easily. Remove the stalk ends if preferred, and rough chop the skinless tomatoes, set aside.

4) For this one pan cooking, I used a cast iron saucepan. First lightly fry the drained and dried paneer cheese cubes in a little sunflower oil or ghee. After they have taken on a golden brown colour on all sides, remove and set them aside. Leave the oil in the saucepan and add the onions. The onions are ready when they are translucent. Now add the ground spices (leave the whole ones till later), check if you need to add a little oil to fry the spices, if the pan looks dry, don’t hesitate to add a little oil, otherwise the spices will burn. Stir to mix and cook for 30 seconds, add the tomatoes and cashews. Cook for a couple of minutes, then put this base into the blender (or if you prefer, you can use a “stick” immersion blender), whizz them all into a paste. Return this to the pan, add the curry leaves (if using), bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon. Stir in the paneer cheese cubes and cauliflower, add a little water (don’t add too much, no more than 100ml, as the cauliflower will release some juices). Add a generous pinch of sea salt flakes, stir to mix, put the lid on and cook on medium low heat for 15-20 minutes. Be sure the heat isn’t too high or too low, too high it will burn the sauce and too low the cauliflower will remain raw. Check the doneness of the cauliflower, they should still have a little al dente texture and not mushy. The cheese will have softened, taste and adjust seasoning. The sauce will have thickened. Squeeze over some lemon juice or stir in a little tamarind paste is a lovely addition, but this is optional. Garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander leaves or a drizzle of cream would make this dish Instagram-able!

5) I served mine with plain steamed basmati rice, poppadoms, mango chutney and a little fresh salad of cos lettuce and sliced radishes, drizzled over a little Moscadel (pear) vinegar.

It was fa-bu-lous, not a bit left behind. I think this is a really nice entry level curry, because it is not too spicy or chilli hot. Most of the ingredients can be easily purchased in a local supermarket and it is vegetarian friendly. If one wishes to turn this vegan, replace the ghee with oil, substitute the cheese with a legume of their choice and change any garnishes that are vegan friendly. I’m pretty impressed with this dish and will be making it again.