Gobi manchurian

Before you start

• oil for deep frying
• the sauce takes two minutes — have it mixed before the cauliflower comes out

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 500gcauliflower
• 60gplain flour
• 30gcornflour
• 3 tbspoil for frying
• 2 tbspsoy sauce
• 3 tbsptomato ketchup and chilli sauce
• 1 thumbgarlic, ginger and green chilli
• 3spring onions
• 1 tspsesame seeds
• 2 tspsugar

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 6m

   Cauliflower broken into florets no bigger than a walnut, so the batter has something to hold on to.

2. boil · 6m

   Florets into salted boiling water for two minutes, then drained and dried thoroughly. Battered raw, the middle is still hard under a shell that has already gone dark.

3. fold · 3m

   Plain flour, cornflour, salt and water beaten to a batter about the thickness of single cream.

4. fry · 14m

   Dipped and fried in batches at a good heat until crisp and properly brown — pale ones collapse the moment sauce touches them. Pan a third full, and never moved while hot.

5. fry · 4m

   Garlic, ginger and chilli in a spoonful of the oil for a few seconds, then soy, ketchup, chilli sauce and sugar boiled down to a syrup that coats the spoon.

6. fold · 1m

   Cauliflower in and turned twice. Twice only — this is served the minute it is tossed and everything after that is a slow decline into soggy.

7. finish · 1m

   Spring onion and sesame scattered over the top on the way to the table.