Chal Phulkopi
Seasonal cauliflower cooked with fragrant gobindobhog rice
- Cooking time50 mins
Calories258kcal
Frequently Asked Questions
Ingredients
Serves
5
- 375 g cauliflower florets
- 70 g gobindobhog rice (or any fragrant, short-grained, non-parboiled rice)
- 200 g potatoes
- 20 g tomatoes
- 5 green chillies
- 25 g cashewnuts
- 25 g raisins
- 50 g mustard oil
- 3 dried red chillies
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 cardamom
- 1 cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 10 g cumin powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- ¼ tsp red chilli powder
- ½ tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
- 12 g ginger paste
- 13 g total salt
- 15 g sugar
- 300 ml hot water
- 2 tsp ghee
- ¼ tsp Bengali gorom moshla
Method
- Wash gobindobhog rice, and spread it over a mesh strainer to dry for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, cut cauliflower in 5-cm-large florets, potatoes into 4-cm cubes, and tomatoes into 3-cm chunks. Slit the green chillies.
- Heat 5 g mustard oil in a kadai.
- Add the soaked-and-dried rice and the cashews, and fry them together for about 4–5 mins until the rice is fragrant and the cashews are toasted. Set aside.
- Now add the remaining oil (45 g) to the pan.
- Once it smokes lightly and changes colour to a pale yellow, add the cauliflower.
- Fry the cauliflower for 10–15 minutes on medium heat. Season it with 3 g salt and ¼ tsp turmeric midway through.
- Continue frying, covered, until they are golden brown. Remove from the oil and set aside.
- Now temper the oil with dried red chillies, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and cumin seeds.
- Add potatoes. Season them with 2 g salt. Fry them, covered, on low heat for 4–5 minutes until they are golden.
- Add tomatoes and continue frying for another couple of minutes.
- Make a slurry of the powdered spices: cumin powder, turmeric, red chilli powder and kashmiri red chilli powder. Add this spice slurry to the pan.
- Braise the spices on low heat until the raw smell dissipates and oil floats to the stop. This will take about 10 minutes, and you will have to keep adding splashes of water to prevent the spices from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Add ginger paste, and braise until the raw smell of ginger is gone. About 2 mins or so.
- Add the fried cauliflower, fried gobindobhog, cashewnuts, raisins, and 3 of the slit green chillies. Also add the remaining salt (8 g) and all of the sugar (15 g).
- Mix everything together and add 300 ml hot water for the sauce.
- Bubble for 8–10 minutes, checking to see that the rice and cauliflower stalks have cooked through.
- Finish with ghee, Bengali gorom moshla, and the 2 remaining slit green chillies. Cover and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes before digging in.
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