Sweet Chilli Cauliflower
Crispy battered pieces of cauliflower tossed in a flavourful sweet and spicy sauce, finished with fried lime leaves and spring onions. Perfect with jasmine rice.
Equipment
- Pestle and mortar or Food processor
Ingredients
- 500 g cauliflower (medium sized cauliflower) - separated into bite sized florets
- 2 kaffir lime leaves cut into thin strips
- 3 spring onion greens finely sliced
- Sesame seeds for garnishing (optional)
For the sweet chilli sauce:
- 2 tbsp neutral flavoured oil e.g. sunflower, vegetable, rapeseed
- 3 large mild red chillies
- 3 bird’s eye red chillies optional de-seed to reduce heat
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tbsp gochugaru or Kashmiri chilli powder/paprika
- 3 tbsp white granulated sugar
- 50 ml rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce not dark
- 100 ml water
- 1 tbsp rice flour mixed with 3tbsp water
For the batter:
- 100 g plain flour
- 45 g rice flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 150 ml water
- Oil for deep frying
Instructions
For the sauce:
- Either pound the chillies and garlic in a pestle and mortar or pulse in a food processor until it forms a chunky paste. If using a pestle and mortar, finely slice the garlic and chillies first to make this process quicker
- Transfer this paste to a pan and sauté in the neutral oil on medium-low heat for 2 minutes, stirring continuously
- Then add the gochugaru or chilli powder of choice, followed by the sugar. Increase to a medium heat
- Stir continuously as the sugar dissolves and begins to caramelise, you will see bubbles of liquid caramel forming around the pan
- Once the sugar has caramelised add in the rice vinegar and simmer for around 1 minute to cook out the acidity
- Next add in the soy sauce and water and bring to a simmer
- Finally add in the rice flour slurry. This is the rice flour mixed with the water. Bring the heat to high and allow the sauce to come to a boil. It will begin to turn glossy and thicken quite quickly. As soon as the sauce begins to thicken turn the heat off
For the cauliflower pieces:
- Whisk together the plain flour, rice flour and salt
- Gradually add the water whilst whisking to form a batter. The consistency of the batter should be thick but pourable. If the batter is slightly too thin, add an additional tbsp of both rice flour and plain flour at a time. If the batter is too thick add a tbsp of water
- Add in the cauliflower florets and gently toss with a spatula till evenly coated in batter
- Bring some oil up to 185’C ready for deep frying and deep fry the cauliflower in batches until they’re deep golden in colour. Once fried transfer the cauliflower to a tray lined with paper towel to drain excess oil
- Then fry the sliced lime leaves, these will take 1-2 seconds only. Transfer to a paper towel as well
- Finally place the sweet chilli sauce back on a medium-high heat and add in the fried cauliflower, fried lime leaves and spring onions. Toss to combine
- Garnish with sesame seeds (optional) and serve immediately. I recommend serving alongside jasmine rice