Cauliflower Curry with Spiced Gram Flour Flatbreads

I made this curry after a visit to Chennai Dosa on the London Road in Croydon.  It’s an ace South Indian restaurant that has canteen style decor and  friendly and receptive staff.  It does Dosa by the dozen in any form you could think of and is delicious and very reasonable, they even do a 5 foot family dosa – now that’s something I might have to come back for!  When we went we tried the Gobi (cauliflower) Dry Curry to start and then had Masala Dosa and Masala Dosa Paneer for mains.  I love dosas but unfortunately haven’t tried making them as yet, I think it involves fermenting ground rice and that is perhaps a step to far in our a little flat.  But it was the gobi that got me thinking, cauliflower is an excellent vegetable for taking on spice in a curry and after buying myself a nice head of it at my local green grocers I felt I ought to have a go.  I went for a dry style curry like they served in the restaurant ( I think this is a bit more of a north Indian dish, tell me if I’m wrong).  It is really easy to make and instead of the dosas I had dreamed of, I whipped up a kind of flat bread/pancake style gram flour mix to eat the curry with. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a head of cauliflower, split into little florets
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• An inch of ginger, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
• 1 heaped teaspoon of medium curry powder
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• Salt
• Splash of water

For the flat breads:

• 2 heaped tablespoons of gram flour (chickpea or besan flour)
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala
• 1 teaspoon of mild curry powder
• A big pinch of salt
• Water

Method:

Par boil your cauliflower florets for 5 min, drain, rinse with cold water and set aside. 

Soften the sliced onion until translucent then fry for a couple of minutes with the garlic and ginger and the spices.  Add the cauliflower and spring onions and mix together in the pan making sure the cauliflower absorbs all the flavours whilst still frying and heating through.  Season and add a splash of water if it begins to stick.

For the breads: 

Mix the flour, spices and salt with water until you get a pancake like batter the consistency of double cream.  Heat a large frying pan and add enough oil to coat the base of the pan.  Once hot add a ladle of the batter and tip the pan like your making pancakes so the batter spreads into the shape of the pan (basically treat this as a pancake batter).  Once air bubbles appear on the surface, flip and cook until golden brown.  If you are making more than 2 keep them warm in the oven whilst you finish off your curry. 

Serve the curry and the breads together with some raita and get stuck in! I reckon this would work well as hot wraps as or as an additional dish to whole banquet of other curries.