My Turkish housemate cooked a traditional Turkish cauliflower dish similar to this recently (he fried the cauliflower in a batter – I’m guessing it was a dish called Karnibahar Kizartmasi), and I really loved it, somewhat to his surprise. I think the combination of the creamy yoghurt, hot chilli flakes and nutty spices made it special. I made this on the basis of a recipe in Casa Moro (hands down one of my favourite cookbooks), without the batter, and added the yoghurt sauce, brown butter and toasted seeds.
head of cauliflower, separated into florets
cumin seeds
coriander seeds
chilli flakes
Greek yoghurt
garlic
knob of butter
some seeds (sunflower, pumpkin etc.)
Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan (careful: they burn easily – and it’s easy to burn your mouth on them, too!). Take out the seeds, then briefly dry-toast the cumin and coriander seeds (or ground cumin and coriander, if that’s what you have). Mince the garlic and stir into the yoghurt (how much yoghurt you use is up to you; I would take about four tablespoons per person).
Fry the cauliflower in some olive oil with the spices. Depending on the size of the florets, this should take about ten minutes. While the cauliflower is cooking, slowly heat the butter in a small pan until it is quite a dark brown, but take care not to burn it. Stir occasionally to prevent the solids from sticking to the bottom of the pan. It should develop an irresistible nutty smell.
To serve, put the fried cauliflower florets on a plate, spoon over the yoghurt, then pour the brown butter in a circle on top. Sprinkle over the toasted seeds.