These are so good! Golden, crispy, crunchy goodness. They’re kind of begging for an ice cold beer, or some other tasty beverage to go along with them but you can also get all virtuous and have them on top of a nourish bowl situation. I like to think of them as one of two things: sustainable coconut prawns or sustainable sesame fried chicken. Sustainable because they’re not either of those two things. Hilarious (don’t hate me).
I have written at length about my love of fried chicken so I won’t do it again, but have I told you how much I love coconut prawns? My dad splits them and stuffs them with this fragrant chicken mince and then coats them in shredded coconut and deep fries them. They’re all time, last meal sort of territory. This is my healthier ode to those. You could serve them with sweet chilli sauce like dad does his coconut prawns but you all know I’m obsessed with that herby yoghurt sauce so I had them with that. Plus it went better with the quinoa and crispy kale salad i ate on the side (see above, about being virtuous) while dreaming of it being Friday already and eating this with friends while having draaaanks (also see above).
I think if you’re having them with beers you should definitely go the sweet chilli sauce option. The Healthy chef has this healthier version that would work really well thinned with a little extra lime juice and water.
Don’t worry if you’re florets are all different sizes, it really won’t matter and will just mean you’ll have little extra crispy nuggets of joy at the end, I think these are called ‘chef’s treats’ or something like that, anyway you get to eat them.
Use any flour you like, I used buckwheat because I was keeping it gluten free for a friend and because I didn’t have any other flour on hand.
Serves 4-10 (depending on whether your eating as a meal or a snack)
Ingredients
1kg cauliflower, stalk removed (save for stock) and broken into bite sized florets.
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
salt and pepper
3 eggs
2 cups desicated coconut (no added sugar)
1 cup sesame seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
3 Tbs olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees and place racks on top of two trays. This is going to help you keep the cauliflower super crispy.
Put caulifloer florets in a alrge sauce pan and just cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes. Drain well. Ideally allow to drain for 15 minutes so they’re not excessively moist (sorry bad word).
Prepare coating by placing flour in one bowl, season it. In another bowl break and lightly whisk the eggs. In a 3rd bowl mix together the coconut, sesame seeds, salt and cayenne.
Work in batches, you’ll probably want to do at least 3 depending on the size of your pan. Place a few handfuls of the cauliflower in the flour and shake around to lightly coat. Shake flour off and transfer to egg. Toss to coat, shake of excess and transfer to the coconut bowl, toss to lightly coat.
Heat 1 Tbs of oil (or enough to coat the base of your pan) in a large frying pan, add coated cauliflower and fry lightly on each side, for a couple of minutes, turning frequently so it doesn’t burn. Once lightly golden transfer place on the prepared racks in your oven. Fill the top tray first.
Repeat until you have used all the cauliflower. Switch over the trays in your oven at this point, so the top one is now on the bottom and bake the cauliflower for 15-25 minutes or until crispy and golden.
Serve with sauce of your choice. See notes above for links to options.
HH. x
