On Cooking: Walnut and Cauliflower Curry

Something a little different from my cabin's galley kitchen for Curry Night

I love curry. I like “mainstream” curries: yellow, red, green. And I usually like their regional variations. I also like “not so mainstream” curries!

I’m not a “hot” food person, so I tend to be drawn to low to medium heat levels. I do like hot food when I’m in a hot climate, but I avoid the tropics. Even Florida is too much for me except in winter.

Walnut and Cauliflower Curry - Mild [my adaptation]

So I came a across a method for Walnut and Cauliflower Curry. I was immediately drawn to this pairing, something I had not seen before. I adapted the recipe ingredients to align with using one whole cauliflower’s worth of florets. Since I pureed the cauliflower, you could use all and not just the florets by upping the rest of the ingredients by about 10-15% in weight. I also adapted to grams of measure—because I am traumatized by volume/SAE measurements. At home I don’t even use teaspoons or tablespoon measures anymore. But I’ve included them for you [this time.]

In this recipe I used cayenne instead of Nik’s Thai chilies. The Thai chilies are out of my comfort zone. heat-wise. Sub those back in if you like that kind of heat and have access to them. Where I live there are zero pan-Asian food stores, so without ordering dried products I’m a bit stuck. As I mentioned, they’re a bit too hot for me, so I ran for the exit on those.

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I like this recipe because it brings cauliflower [romanesco, which is actually a cauliflower in Nik’s original] and walnuts together as the base. It’s genius IMO.

Creamy and flavorful. I would say it’s quite subtle compared to most curries, so plan accordingly.

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Ingredients

• 8g [2t] kosher sea salt

• 580g cauliflower, cut the florets, ~1 cauliflower trimmed

• 200g [2+ cups] chopped raw walnuts

• 700g [3+] cups stock

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 25g [1 inch] root of ginger, grated

• 65g [1/2 cup] shallot, minced

• 2g [1/2 t] nigella seeds or cumin

• 2 g [1/2 t] cayenne ground, hot [Nik’s recipe: 2 green Thai chili peppers (use one if you prefer it less hot, you can also leave the seeds out)]

• 1 g [1/4 t] ground cloves

• 1 g [4 peppercorns] ground black pepper

• 2 g [1/2 t] cinnamon, ground

• 14g [1 T ] vegetable oil

• walnuts toasted for garnish (optional)

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Method

1. Add 1/2 of the salt to a large pot of water to boil. Add the cauliflower florets to the water and boil for about 8-10 minutes until tender. When they are soft enough to blend, remove from heat and drain, set aside. You can use the cauliflower liquid instead of stock if you don’t have any. Adjust the salt accordingly.

2. Blend walnuts, 1/2 the stock, garlic, shallot, ginger, onion, cumin, cayenne, cloves, peppercorns, 1/2 salt and cinnamon. Pulse until you get a fine and smooth paste. You might need to add more stock to keep things moving in the blender.

3. Add the cauliflower and remaining stock to the walnut paste and puree. You may need additional stock or water, but be mindful of thickness. I added just enough liquid so that my hand blender would circulate the curry. If you want a thinner curry, use more liquid.

4. Cook on low-medium heat about 10 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid burning.

5. I made the curry mid-day and when reheated at 5 pm it was more flavorful and better integrated, so make it ahead if you can. Even better the next day.

Adapted from Nik Sharma cooks.

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Make a Meal

I made a dinner by cooking some large shrimp with garlic, ginger and sea salt, served on top of the curry with a chopped mixed greens bed. Side of sage flavored Caroline Gold rice.

Shrimp curry

This was a nice change of pace from my normal crazy foodways. I hope you give it a try and enjoy it.

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As always, thank you for reading my food pandering and my wanderings away from supermarkets and into local and wild food worlds. It inspires me that people follow me and subscribe. Know that I am honored by your attention and feel blessed too.

Start with whole foods and cook them yourself. Or sucker your children into cooking like my mom did. Eat slowly, together mostly and deeply enjoy your food—no matter what the rest of the world thinks. Food is life.

Good cooking, good eating, good loving - K. Paul

Happy cooking - Jacques Pépin