This may be the best Indian cauliflower I've ever made. And I've cooked many versions of that dish over the years.
Green beans join cauliflower in the rich-tasting, subtly spiced and creamy sauce. This is real Indian comfort food, from Bengal.
The recipe appears in the cookbook "Home and Away" (Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver) by Darcy and Randy Shore. The Shores are husband and wife global travelers who recreate what they have eaten away when they return home to Canada, thus the title of the book. Randy Shore is a food and sustainability writer for the Vancouver Sun.
Paging through, I want to make dish after dish. I loved this delicious salad centered around grilled haloumi cheese.
And a simple bean dish from Turkey, which worked even though I used the wrong bean, dried limas instead of the Great Northerns called for in the recipe--these had vanished from my cupboard.
And soy and honey-braised chicken, blackened by the soy sauce-laden braising liquid.
The book is divided into sections covering East Asia and Australasia; Africa, India and West Asia; Europe and the Americas. In each place, the Shores have ferreted out great dishes and recreated them in authentic detail rather than dumbing them down.
Their rule for travelers is to "ask what the locals eat." As Randy Shore writes in the introduction, "...nearly every day on the road presented an opportunity to discover a local secret, learn how to consider food in a new way, and indulge in the visceral pleasure of eating."
Bengali Cauliflower, which is accompanied by recipes for fragrant rice and puris, "has been among our go-to Indian recipes for 30 years," the Shores write. This photo shows the ingredients before cooking.
Click here to order their book through Amazon.
BENGALI CAULIFLOWER
From "Home and Away" by Darcy and Randy Shore
2 tablespoons salted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup diced onions
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 cups diced, seeded tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 pound cauliflower florets
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and halved
In a large pot on medium heat, brown butter in oil. The milk solids will turn golden after about 1 minute. Take care they don't burn.
Add mustard seeds and stir for 15 seconds. Add ginger, garlic and onions and saute, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and the oil has separated, about 5 minutes.
Stir in cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne and saute for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and salt and cook until the tomatoes break down into a paste when mashed with a spoon, about 5 minutes.
Add water, cream and tomato paste and stir to combine. (If you like a smooth sauce, puree with an immersion blender.)
Add cauliflower and green beans and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender and the sauce is reduced, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.
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