Salt and Pepper Cereal Crusted Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 2 heads (650 g total) raw cauliflower, cut into florets
- 10g fresh sweet or thai basil leaves (around 20 leaves)
- Canola oil or other neutral oil, for frying
Batter
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/4 cup corn meal
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup room temperature water
Coating
- 2 cups finely crushed/processed corn flakes
- 2 cups roughly crushed corn flakes
For pan-frying
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 bird's eye chili
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
Preparation
Mix the flax seed meal and water. Leave for 10-15 minutes until thick.
While waiting, add the rest of the batter ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.
When the flax egg is thick, mix it in the batter as well.
For the coating, process the cornflakes until very fine.
For the crushed ones, I simply just used a mortar and pestle.
Coat each floret by first dipping it in the batter then into the finely crushed corn flakes. Then dip it back into the batter before coating it in the roughly crushed corn flakes.
Repeat this step for the rest of the florets until everything is coated.
Heat a frying pan with canola oil. Once hot, place the florets. You may need to cook them in batches depending on the size of your pan.
Fry the florets for 3-5 minutes, moving them around until evenly golden brown. Remove from the heat and drain any excess oil.
Fry the basil leaves until crisp, around 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat.
In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add in the lemon zest and chili (if using) then add in the basil and cauliflower. Evenly sprinkle the salt and black pepper then mix well. Turn off heat and enjoy while hot!
