Whole Cauliflower in Traditional Curry Sauce

1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Bantra
Cookbook 5, Recipe 1 (total 10)

Happy Birthday Mom (yesterday). Mom picked out this recipe for her Birthday meal from the cookbooks I had selected for this project. Neelam Bantra is an excellent Indian cookbook author - I've used this book many times in the past. Mom looked through the many post-it noted recipes and choose this dish not realizing that the cauliflower is cooked whole.

Did I like it? I tasted good - the look was appropriate for an MST3k evening - brain on a plate...

Recipe

Take a 1.5 lb cauliflower and cut out the stem as deep as you can to form a cavity inside the head while still leaving it whole. Steam for 15 -20 minutes - until slightly tender.

While it is steaming blend together the following ingredients to make a paste: 1 onion, two "thumbs" of ginger, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 jalapeno. Place into a bowl. Then blend 4 canned whole tomatoes and set in a separate bowl. Then blend 1/2 cup yogurt with 1 cup water and 1/4 tsp nutmeg, place in a third bowl.

In a small bowl combine: 1.5 tps ground cumin, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp salt.

Heat a wok on high and add 1 T oil - brown the head of cauliflower until browned as best you can all over - set aside. Add the onion paste and cook for 10 minutes or until well browned. Add the tomatoes and cook until most of the moisture is evaporated. Add the dry spices and cook for 2 minutes. Then add the yogurt mixture and bring to a boil.

Move the sauce to a pan with a lid and add the cauliflower - cavity side down - cover and simmer 10 minutes. Flip the cauliflower cavity side up - fill the cavity with sauce - cover and simmer 20 minutes.