Last week Carnivore Rick and I did something different and went out to dinner with some friends at Little Seed (next to Wray Organics for all you locals).
I say different, because when Rick says he wants to go out for dinner, he’s generally already got his heart set on the Reef and Beef at the Meringandan Hotel! But this time we both wanted to try Little Seed, a vegan/plant based restaurant in town. They’ve started buying our produce recently and we were keen to see what they were creating with it, and also to taste more of their range (because the first day we went there the salads and hot chocolate they gave us to try left a very positive impression! Yum!).
We were very impressed. They are definitely gifted chefs. One of the entree’s, the fried cauliflower wings, was especially delicious, and inspiring, because we had a stack of cauliflower at home to play with. Rick strongly suggested I try making the fried cauliflower at home.
Ours wasn’t quite the same as Little Seeds (theirs was amazing!), but it was still delicious, and the children loved it! This was encouraging, because they usually whinge like there’s no tomorrow if I tell them we’re not eating any meat for dinner!
Excuse the photo, I’d been working in the paddock that day and couldn’t be bothered with stylish food photography!
Here’s what we did:
Tempura batter:
200g organic stoneground flour
4 eggs, separated
4Tbsp cold pressed olive oil
Extra oil for frying
And your cauliflower of course. This much batter should see you through a large cauliflower. We used several smaller purple cauliflower from the garden.
If you are using a standard cauliflower from the shops, you should cook your florets in boiling water for 2 minutes before battering them. Our homegrown cauliflower didn’t require pre-cooking.
Grab a large bowl and add your flour and a pinch of salt
Whisk your egg yolks and 350ml water together. Then whisk this into the flour and add the oil.
Sorry to make more washing up, but now you need to grab a clean bowl and whisk those 4 egg whites until they’re stiff, and then you can fold them into the rest of the batter.
Now the fun part, heat that frying oil and start coating your cauliflower florets in batter and frying them for a couple of minutes until they colour the way you like them 🙂 If they’re big, you may need to fry each side separately. Now place your cooked tempura cauliflower on a plate with paper towel and try to make sure you save some for the rest of your family!
PS I’m sorry to say we’re sold out of cauliflower until the next rotation is ready for harvest! But I wanted to share this with you anyway.