Cauliflower Fritters with Dill and Garlic Mayonnaise
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Recipe Intro From oliahercules
A simple batter is used all over Ukraine for frying all sorts of things, from chicken or pork schnitzel to whole river fish. I love vegetables fried in this way, and cauliflower is especially good. Normally, plain white flour is used, but buckwheat flour was a popular choice in the past and I tend to use it instead of wheat flour – it is healthier, and much more flavoursome. You can use the batter in this recipe for vegetables other than cauliflower. Normally the fritters are eaten just as they are, but I like them with a spoonful of dill-and-garlic-spiked mayo. If you come across some good-quality chipotle mayo, that wouldn’t go amiss either. - Olia Hercules
This recipe is excerpted with permssion from Olia's Cookbook: Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine. Click here to preorder your copy!
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ingredients
Cauliflower Fritters
- 1 small cauliflower
- vegetable oil, for frying
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/2 buckwheat or all purpose flour
- sea salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
ingredients
Dill and Garlic Mayonnaise
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1 clove garlic, finely grated
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh dill
Method
Step 1
Cut the cauliflower into small florets, keeping any sprightly smaller leaves too. Blanch the cauliflower and its leaves in a pan of boiling, salted water. Take the leaves out after about 2 minutes, and the florets after 5 minutes. Refresh both in cold water, then drain well and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Step 2
Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat: it should cover the base of the pan; if not add a little more.
Step 3
If you are using buckwheat flour, make the batter just before you are ready to fry as it becomes gloopier by the minute. In a bowl, whisk the egg with the milk, then add the flour and whisk until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper.
Step 4
Drop four pieces of cauliflower into the batter bowl at a time, making sure they are all thickly coated.
Step 5
When the oil is really hot, bring the bowl over to the pan (otherwise everything will get super-messy!) and pop the batter-coated pieces of cauliflower into the pan. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to fry between 4 and 8 fritters at a time. When they are golden all over, drain on kitchen paper. You might need to wipe out the pan with kitchen paper and add more oil in-between batches.
Step 6
For the dill and garlic mayonnaise, simply combine all the ingredients in a small bowl.
Step 7
Serve the cauliflower fritters with the garlic-spiked dill mayo.