A Flower That's a Vegetable

Yes,I am talking about the Cauliflower,a vegetable that we cook often.We see two varieties in our markets...the usual one and the "gavti" variety.The first is white and the latter yellowish white.Gavti means that which is grown wild or naturally.I tried making the same dish using both and that the gavti one turned out more flavourful.Abroad one sees other colours like orange,purple and green.There are many Indians dishes using cauliflower cush as Gobi Paratha,Cauliflower Korma and Gobi Masala.

I will talk of a recipe that is made in homes and not found in recipe books.Simple but tasty.

As I have mentioned before, the tadka is the determining factor of how the dish will taste.Cooking it for too short a time will cause the dish to have less flavour whereas overcooking will give a burned taste.The commonest tadka or phodni used in Maharashtrian cooking is mori,halad,hing or a combination of mustard seeds,turmeric and asafoetida.Hing comes from the mountains of Kashmir and Iran.The resin is drained from the trees and allowed to dry.The chunks are then sold and are available in select places in Mumbai but mostly it is sold as a powder.Hing aids in digestion.

While cooking make sure you aren't multi- tasking else your dish is going to get burnt.

First I took some oil and added mustard seeds.After they spluttered,I added the cauliflower,reduced the flame and added salt and pepper and cooked covered for about ten minutes,stirring intermittently.That's it.

The other option is to heat oil,add the mori-halad-hing and then add cauliflower and cook for ten minutes.No need to add water.Lastly garnish with coriander.

Cauliflower provides B and C vitamins and is also a source of purines.It therefore needs to be restriced in those with kidney problems/gout.Some thyroid disorders also require it to be limited.