My next recipe to the Bengali cuisine blog hop theme is Spicy Cauliflower Curry or Dhonepata Fulkopi. I wanted to make dum aloo to go with luchi, but we just had poori with potato masala two days back and I didn’t want another potato curry. The cholar dal goes well, but that recipe has been taken by another member of the Culinary Hoppers team. So I finally decided to go for something totally different. I happened to discuss about this to a very good Bengali friend of mine. The first question she put forth was “You want a Bengali vegetarian recipe?”. It sounded like a wrong question because Bengali cuisine is famous for its Non-vegetarian food. She gave a couple of ideas and I chose this coriander based curry because you all know how much I adore this gorgeous herb.
Fresh herbs are one of the greatest ways to increase the taste of your food healthfully. I often toss whatever leafy herbs, liberally into any curry to add unexpected variations in flavour. Fresh herbs can add punch to the sauces or create intensely flavourful dishes.
I always try so hard to follow a recipe to a T the first time I make to get an idea what the recipe could taste like and then I can make improvisations to suit my taste. But I never manage to do that and tweak the recipe on the first go-around. Though I was so tempted to tweak this recipe, I decided not to.
To know more about the recipe, I surfed the net but I really couldn’t find this particular recipe but found a few recipes with chicken (Dhonepata Murgi), fish (Dhonepata Maach), fritters and chutney. Inspired by these recipes and the directions given by my friend, I decided to go with Dhonepata Fulkopi or Spicy Cauliflower Curry
Dhonepata is the Bengali name of coriander leaves and Fulkopi is cauliflower. Coriander leaves are very common in most of the dishes for its nice aroma. This is a very simple recipe with lots of fresh flavours. This recipe is definitely for you if you love fresh coriander like me. This lovely dish is light and subtly spiced, no heavy spices or creamy richness to dominate the flavours of coriander.
Surprisingly it came out so delicious. I almost felt like I’m making a cauliflower dry curry with green chutney minus the mint leaves. My hubby thought it was a broccoli curry…it indeed looks so!! The coriander paste used is almost similar to the stuffing I make for stuffed brinjal recipe but without the ginger factor. This recipe is so quick that you can make on any busy day. It is also no onion no garlic vegan curry.
This is a dry curry but you can always alter the consistency of the gravy as per your taste. It is comfort personified with some white rice or luchis. I am sure it will tantalise your taste buds.
Off to the recipe for Spicy Cauliflower Curry!!
Step-by-Step process to make Spicy Cauliflower Curry:
The process involves 3 steps:
- Roasting cauliflower florets
- Making the coriander paste
- Finally preparing curry
1. Roasting Cauliflower Florets:
- Cut the cauliflower into florets.
- Place them into a colander and wash under running water.
- Heat a pan with oil over medium high heat.
- Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder to the cauliflower florets. Mix well and add it to the pan.
- An extremely important step in this curry is to shallow-fry the cauliflower florets on a low heat till they are browned and soft, yet firm.
- Turn off the heat and set aside.
2. Making coriander paste:
- Grind Coriander leaves and 4 green chillies with pinch of salt to a coarse paste.
3. Preparing Curry:
- To prepare the curry, heat oil In a thick bottom pan over medium heat and season with kalonji and slit green chillies.
- Once the spluttering of the seeds stops, add in the roasted cauliflower and give it a nice stir.
- Now add the coriander paste, sugar and adjust salt.
- Sauté for 4 to 5 minutes till the coriander mixture coats well to the cauliflower and the raw smell goes off but at the same time let it not loose the green colour.
- Turn off the heat and enjoy with hot rice, luchi, poori, roti or paratha.
Doesn’t that look like broccoli ??
Spicy Cauliflower Curry Bengali Style |Dhonepata Fulkopi
Ingredients
- To roast:
- 1 Cauliflower cut into florets & wash
- 1 to 1½ Tablespoons oil
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ to 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- Required salt
- For seasoning:
- 1 teaspoon mustard oil or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon Nigella seeds kalonji
- 2 green chillies
- For the paste:
- 3 cups tightly packed fresh coriander leaves
- 4 green chillies
- A pinch of salt
- Other Ingredients:
- ½ teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- To Roast Cauliflower:
- Heat a pan with oil over medium high heat.
- Add salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and the cauliflower florets. Mix well.
- An extremely important step in this curry is to shallow-fry the cauliflower florets on a low flame till these are browned and soft, yet firm. This may take about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and set aside.
- Coriander paste:
- Grind Coriander leaves and 4 green chilis with pinch of salt to a coarse paste.
- Making curry:
- In a thick bottom pan, heat oil over medium heat and give seasoning with kalonji and green chillies.
- Once the splutter stops, add in the roasted cauliflower and give it a nice stir.
- Now add the coriander paste, sugar and adjust salt.
- Sauté for 4 to 5 minutes till the coriander mixture coats well to the cauliflower and the raw smell goes off but at the same time let it not loose the green colour.
Notes
2. Adjust spice levels with green chillies and red chilli powder.
3. An extremely important step in this curry is to shallow-fry the cauliflower florets on a low heat till they are browned and soft, yet firm.
4. Do not cook for long time after adding the coriander paste, it will lose its colour and doesn’t look appealing.
5. If you want a tangy element to it, squeeze in some lime at the end.
6. I would love to include some ginger and garlic the next time I make. Do give it a try and let me know.
Do check out my other posts on Bengali cuisine….Luchi recipe and Mishti Doi.
Many more to come…..Stay Tuned!!!
Happy Cooking 🙂
Cheers!!
Padma.
