Not everyone loves steamed cauliflower or just boiled in water. Many children try to remove this useful vegetable from the plate, as they do not like its taste and appearance. They ate cooked cauliflower in batter (batter), it becomes a favorite dish. This small addition gives the fresh vegetable an unusual taste and gives it a crisp. But you need to know how to make batter, so that it emphasizes the virtues of the vegetable, and not spoil them. This article contains several simple recipes for cauliflower batter, which are most in demand among cooks and lovers of fried vegetables in a crispy crust dough.
How to cook regular batter
A simple cauliflower batter can be made from milk, flour and eggs. To do this, mix them in the following proportion: for each one egg one hundred grams of fresh milk is taken, a pinch of salt and flour so that the dough is like liquid sour cream. It is important to mix the ingredients thoroughly so that no small lumps of flour remain.
Such an amount of batter (from one egg) is enough for a 250-300-gram fork of cabbage, and if you plan to cook more dishes, then it is not at all difficult to calculate the proportions.
For crisp
How to make cauliflower in batter according to the recipe above was very crispy? After all, this dish becomes soft and loses its “zest” if it lies on a plate for a while. A special crunch is given to the batter by breadcrumbs, in which vegetables should be crushed after they are dipped in batter. Such a simple technique will allow cabbage inflorescences in the dough to keep a pleasant and such delicious crunch for a long time. It is important to fry them in deep fat or half immersed in boiling oil. Then the cabbage will be a uniform ruddy color on all sides, without the faded white stripes that occur when they fry this vegetable in a pan in a small amount of oil.
If you want crunch and an unusual piquant taste, then after frying the inflorescences of cabbage in the dough, you can put it on a baking sheet, sprinkle each piece with grated hard cheese and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Nobody will refuse such a treat.
Spicy with garlic
You can make cauliflower batter according to the recipe mentioned above, but add one clove of garlic, minced in a mortar or press, and a little (on the tip of a knife) red hot pepper to the batter. To give the batter a nice yellow color, you can add a pinch of turmeric. Such a batter for cauliflower is ideal, as it gives this fresh vegetable a rather rich pungent taste and aromatic crust.
The dosage of acute additives can be adjusted based on your taste preferences. It is worth trying the first piece of the finished dish. If the sharpness in it is not enough, you need to add some more spices to the batter. Note that in hot food, the amount of salt, bitterness and pungency is felt differently than in cooled food. Therefore, it is important not to overdo it with additives, preparing batter for cauliflower.
Spicy batter
To give a more spicy aroma to cauliflower, spices can be added to a simple base batter, which will give the dish unusual notes. The only condition is to correctly combine the components so that the resulting gamut of taste shades is harmonious.
For example, you can use the following combinations:
- Black pepper, nutmeg and garlic: for 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, take no more than a pinch of nut and two cloves of garlic. If you plan to cook a large amount of cauliflower in batter, then you should calculate the correct proportion based on the above diagram, calculated for a batter of two eggs.
- Oregano + parsley + basil. We take these dried herbs in equal quantities and grind to a powder.
- Coriander + black pepper + zira (cumin). You need to take these ingredients in equal parts.
Beer dough
A batter for roasting can be made from beer. It is advisable that these were not residues in the bottle from which all the gas bubbles had already evaporated, but only an uncorked bottle with foam, which would make the dough more lush and crispy. Step-by-step dough preparation:
- Beat two eggs in a bowl, a pinch of salt and 0.5 tbsp. tablespoons dried herbs. A mixture of Italian or Provencal herbs is perfect, but you can be satisfied with dried dill or parsley.
- Add to the mass 1/2 cup of beer and three tbsp. tablespoons of flour. Stir the mixture to a uniform consistency and immediately use for frying cauliflower. The batter turns out to be very fragrant, emphasizing delicate cabbage emphasizing its taste.
If the inflorescences are over, but the dough is still left, then you can fry it with small pancakes, which can be a great addition to dinner. You can serve them with sauce or sour cream.
Cheese based batter
Cheese batter for cauliflower is something magical and completely incomparable with ordinary batter. In this case, it is important to consider that the taste of cabbage will depend on this ingredient. If for cooking we take brackish "Poshekhonsky" or fragrant "Dutch" cheese, the dish can safely take its place even on the festive table. But usually it is prepared for a family dinner. To make a batter with cheese, you need to take:
- 100 grams of hard cheese.
- Four eggs.
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of milk or liquid sour cream.
- 3 tbsp. tablespoons of wheat flour.
Grate cheese, beat eggs with milk, add flour to them, stir everything thoroughly until a homogeneous mass is obtained. At the very end, add cheese and mix again. This amount of dough should be enough for a whole kilogram of vegetable. Cauliflower in cheese batter is better to eat immediately after cooking. Then the taste and appearance of the dish are more attractive.
Another cheese dough option
How to prepare a batter for cauliflower, if the cheese is not enough, and a simple recipe does not attract at all or is already tired? You can combine the two batter recipes together to get a new version of this dish. To do this, beat two eggs with two tablespoons of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt, add 100 ml of fresh beer and mix so that the bubbles are evenly distributed by weight.
Then add 80 grams of flour to the dough, mix until smooth, then pour 80 grams of grated hard cheese on a fine grater. Optionally, you can add a pinch of nutmeg to the dough to give the dish an exotic flavor that will surely appeal to lovers of vegetables in the dough. It will not be superfluous to notice that processed cheese is not suitable for such a dish, because it is too soft. With it, the batter loses its strength during heat treatment. The same remark applies to all soft cheeses.
From mayonnaise or ketchup
Cauliflower batter with mayonnaise is also easy to prepare. This sauce has a spicy taste that is passed to the dough. Moreover, it is in such a batter that it is good to fry not only cauliflower, but also broccoli, Brussels sprouts, even onion rings. For cooking, you need to prepare the following ingredients:
- 100 grams of mayonnaise and milk.
- 1-2 eggs.
- 5 tbsp. tablespoons of flour.
- 1/3 teaspoon of salt, coriander and black pepper. You can add a couple of cloves of garlic, if you wish.
The dough is kneaded in the traditional way: the eggs are slightly beaten with a fork in a deep bowl, spices and spices are added, and then mayonnaise. The whole mass is thoroughly mixed and sifted flour is added in the process. Beat the dough well until smooth, so that no small lumps of flour are left in it.
A batter with ketchup is prepared according to a similar principle. In this case, milk is excluded from the composition of the ingredients.
Egg-free dough: the secrets of vegetarian cuisine
To prepare a delicious batter for cauliflower without the use of animal products for vegetarians is not a problem, because cauliflower is a special treat for them. Some people simply replace eggs and milk with water, but then such a fresh batter is not very pleasing in taste. It’s better to do this:
- 1 teaspoon of chia seeds, grind in a mortar and pour them with 100 ml of water.
- In just a few minutes, you will notice that the mass has become like a pudding or slightly melted jelly. Thanks to this property of chia seeds, vegetarians make such wonderful cakes and make amazing desserts. Add to the resulting mass 1/4 teaspoon of curry, a pinch of black pepper and salt, as well as 1 teaspoon of sugar.
- Having mixed the mass, add 3 tbsp to it. tablespoons of flour and beat until uniform.
- In the resulting dough, dip the boiled cabbage inflorescences and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown.
How to fry cauliflower in batter?
There are many recipes for making batter, in which you can fry various vegetables. Each housewife has her own "secret" ingredients, with the help of which such food becomes unusually tasty. However, preparing an excellent batter for frying cauliflower is only half the battle. If the inflorescences are not properly fried, even the best dough will not help to avoid disappointment.
It is important to remember a few simple rules. If you stick to it, then this dish will turn out amazing.
- Cauliflower is pre-boiled. Do not cook until cooked when the vegetable melts in the mouth or crumbles at the touch of a fork, but slightly crunches. Therefore, the ideal time for cooking cabbage is no more than four minutes in slightly salted water with two leaves of laurel.
- Never batter in advance, that is, three to four hours before it starts to be used.
- It is always good to heat the oil in a pan. Only then proceed to frying the cabbage. How to find out that the oil has reached the right condition? You need to drop a drop of batter into it. If it begins to "boil" and becomes rosy, then the oil is ready for use.
- Be sure to spread the prepared cauliflower in batter on a paper towel to remove excess fat. Fried inflorescences do not need to be placed on a plate slide (so they become soft, the crust will lose crunch). It is better to put them on a dish in one layer. Top can be decorated with fresh herbs.