Cauliflower Fritters (Cauliflower Bajo)

Who doesn’t love spicy, crispy cauliflower fritters right? :-) In India we love our Gobi. Served as Gobi 65 in majority of the restaurants. 

Here's the recipe to make super yummy, spicy and crispy cauliflower fritters or Gobi-65 as they are called in restaurants. These cauliflower fritters are made using a spicy, ground rice batter. They can be served as a starter or as a side dish for lunch/dinner. It can also be served as a tea time snack. 

Cauliflower fritters are called as cauliflower bajo in Konkani, cauliflower baje in Kannada. You can also make cauliflower fritters in two other ways using gram flour. You can whip up the gram flour batter in a minute and they are quick to make unlike the ground batter needed in this recipe. Check out those recipes too: recipe 1 and recipe 2.

But my personal favourite is this spicy, crispy, crunchy cauliflower bajo we make using the ground rice batter. Here’s the recipe for you:

Ingredients:

• Half a cauliflower
• 3/4 cup rice
• Oil for deep frying
• 5-6 dried red chillies
• 1/1 lemon sized tamarind
• A pinch of crystal asafoetida (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of gram flour
• Salt to taste 

Serves: 3-5

Preparation Method:

1. First soak rice for a minimum of 30 minutes. Also soak crystal asafoetida in a tablespoon of water. Meanwhile get the cauliflower florets ready. 

Prepping the cauliflower:

2. Cut cauliflower into small florets. Chop off the excess stem portion of the florets. Keep the tender most stems.

3. Add cauliflower florets into hot water with rock salt and turmeric so that any worms, etc., present goes off. Allow it to stay in hot water for 15-20 minutes.

4. Drain the water and give the florets 2-3 washes with fresh water every time.

5. Add washed cauliflower onto a sieve and strain it so that any excess water present in the florets drains off.

6. Add salt to florets & let them stay for 10-15 minutes. During this time it gives out water & takes in salt. This process helps remove out excess water which helps them get crispy & crunchy.

7. Remove cauliflower florets into a bowl draining out water present. 

8. Batter used to coat the cauliflower becomes watery if florets with any excess water are added to it.

Preparing the batter to coat the cauliflowers:

8. Grind soaked rice with red chillies, tamarind, salt, crystal asafoetida into a smooth paste with just enough water to make a smooth paste.

9. Batter has to be thick so be careful while adding water. 

The best thing to use to make a thick, dry batter, super quick is this. 

10. Trasfer ground batter into a bowl. Add gram flour and mix well. 

Gram flour makes it a little soft on the inside. Without it the rice batter makes it weirdly crunchy all around. 

11. Add very little water if required to the batter. The batter has to be in between thick and dripping thin. We want the batter to stick to the cauliflower so keep the consistency of the batter medium thick. If it’s too watery it'll drip off from the cauliflower florets and won't stick to it. Too thick and you'll have a very thick coating of flour around the cauliflowers on deep frying them. 

12. Check and adjust salt. Keep the batter aside. This batter is used to coat the cauliflowers which are then deep fried.

13. If the batter gets watery, then add in gram flour spoon wise to bring the batter to the desired medium consistency.

Deep frying the cauliflowers:

14. Add in the cauliflower florets (that were kept aside, drain any excess water) to the batter and mix well until the florets get coated with the batter all around uniformly.

15. Heat up oil for deep frying. Check if the oil's hot enough by dropping one floret coated with batter. If it emerges on top of the oil, then the oil's hot enough for deep frying. If not wait for few minutes.

16. Lower the flame to medium and add batter coated cauliflowers one by one into the hot oil. Add about 6-7 florets or as many as your wok can hold at a time into the hot oil and fry them until they change colour and are cooked through.

17. If the flames high, the cauliflowers will be crispy on the outside and raw in the centre. Medium heat ensures uniform cooking. Low heat makes cauliflower absorb in a lot of oil.

18. Remove cauliflower florets out of the oil and transfer them onto a blotting paper.

19. Similarly fry all of the cauliflower florets.

20. Serve cauliflower fritters while they are hot, or else they tend to get soggy, oily and lose their crispiness. They taste best while they are hot. 

21. Enjoy crispy, crunchy delicious cauliflower bajo.

Side Note:

Adjust the amount of red chilli you add depending on how spicy you like your Gobi to be. 

You can make gobi manchurian using these fritters like this.

To make these fritters healthy:

1. Use coconut oil for deep frying instead of refined oil. Please skip anything that's refined. You'll help take care of your body. 

2. Use organic cauliflower as much as possible if you can find them. 

Find more fritter (bajo, phodi) recipes here.

Tags: Fritters, Cauliflower, bajo, tea time snack, crispy, spicy, side dish, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food.