Cauliflower Vepudu Fry - కాలీఫ్లవర్ వేపుడు

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Preparations:

Take two/ three medium sized cauliflowers and remove the stems. Cut the cauliflower into florets of medium size. Wash them thoroughly and drain them into a slotted bowl. Take these washed cauliflower pieces into a microwave safe bowl and add some water ( around 15 ml). Cover partially and microwave on high power for 5 minutes. Stir once and microwave again on high power for 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes standing time, remove from the oven. You will observe that the cauliflower pieces are 80% done but not fully cooked. Drain them into a slotted bowl to remove excess water.

Method:

Heat a pan and add oil to deep fry the cauliflower pieces. When oil is hot add sufficient cauliflower pieces to it and fry on medium heat. Stir continuously for even browning. Fry till the cauliflower pieces get orange color. Drain them on to a newspaper / paper napkin to remove excess oil.

Take a deep bowl and keep vepudukaram, salt and turmeric powder nearby. Add the cauliflower pieces to the deep bowl and add sufficient turmeric powder, salt and vepudukaram. Toss the cauliflower pieces so that the all the pieces get the spices evenly. Transfer the spice coated cauliflower pieces to a serving bowl.

Repeat the process of frying cauliflower and coating them with spices. Once all the cauliflower pieces are fried toss all the cauliflower pieces once finally. Serve hot with plain rice.

Points to Remember:

Cut cauliflower pieces into even sized (medium) pieces so that while frying they get evenly browned.

Wash the cauliflower thoroughly. At times we see worms on the flowers, so it is better to dip them once in hot water. Just add water enough (10 to 15 ml) to cook the vegetables, so that they are not fully cooked. When cooked, the vegetables should be soft to touch but hard to mash them.

Take care while dropping the cauliflower pieces to the hot oil, as the pieces are wet the oil splutters causing oil burns.

You may choose the level of frying as per your choice. However I feel that if you deep fry too much there may not be much taste of the vegetable left to relish. Instead a medium fry should be good enough.

Add the spices and Vepudukaram when the cauliflower pieces are still hot. The salt melts and the spices would stick to the hot and wet cauliflower pieces giving them good color and taste.

Important Point:

Take around 100 or 125 ml oil to fry the cauliflower pieces. Add just sufficient pieces per batch to fry. This way almost all the oil will be used up. As it is said that it is not good to reuse fried oil, increase the number of batches to fry using less oil for deep-frying.