No 3.  The Cauliflower.

I looked after the kids last night, so my partner could go out and indulge her alcoholic fancies in London.  This of course could mean only one thing:  curry for me.

I had already decided to cook a chicken keema curry - the recipe for which I shall withhold for the moment.  In my cupboard a cauliflower lurked - with intent.  I was determined to use it in some way, but a cauliflower bhaji seemed too simple a solution.  I had this inclination to revisit a recipe I have previously cooked - gobi paratha.

Whenever I go for a curry I always have some kind of bread to go with the main event.  Rice, for some reason is invariably contraindicated.  Paratha is one bread I have, in the past, shied away from - my main rationale is that it always sounded so unhealthy.  A bread, fried in ghee and stuffed with fruit and nuts - honestly I might as well cut out the middle man and self resuscitate myself at the table.

This savoury paratha is both easy to make and delicious.  I found the recipe on another blog (www.vegrecipesofindia.com) which is an excellent resource if you have a hankering for something of the photosynthetic variety.  The dough requires no yeast or proving time and the cauliflower does not require cooking!  They are seriously delicious and an excellent way to use up a third of a head of cauli.  Here's how you make them:

Gobi Paratha

•   For roughly 4 paratha, mix 200g of wholemeal flour, or atta if you can source it with enough water to make a pliant, but not sticky dough.  Kneed it for 5 minutes or so until it becomes malleable.
• Grate 3rd of a head of a medium cauliflower.  
• Add one teaspoon of tandoori masala spice mix.  Mix with the cauliflower.
• Divide the dough into 4 or 5 evenly sized balls.  
• Roll one ball out into a disc roughly 20cm in diameter.  Take 2 dessert spoons of the cauliflower and place into the middle.
• Draw the edges of the dough into the centre to make a pouch.
• Flatten the pouch, then roll it back out into a disc of 20cm.
• Heat up a frying pan (or a tawa if you have one) until it is very hot.
• Melt some butter (ghee if you have it).  Paint one side of the paratha with butter.  Place it onto the hot pan.
• Fry it for roughly 2 minutes, or until the paratha is uniformly golden.
• Paint the other side with ghee or butter, flip and cook on the other side.
• Repeat for the other balls.