Cavolfiore Fritto (Deep-fried Cauliflower)

When we went to Spain, in Barcelona to be precise, in 2010 hubby and I enjoyed the fried vegetables being sold at a vegetable fast food shop on La Rambla, a pedestrian street mall. We were there almost every day while we were touring the city. It was just so good we kept on coming back. There was a variety of vegetables that they offer but our favorite was the cauliflower. And since then I really hoped that I could make it at home.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have this amazing Italian cookbook by Carla Capalbo – The Ultimate Italian Cookbook and guess what – one of the recipes was this Cavolfiore Fritto or Deep-fried Cauliflower! What are the chances that this may taste like the one in Spain, after all deep-frying veggies seem to be quite popular in the continent. So when I got myself a huge cauliflower, I tried this recipe immediately and I sure was not disappointed! So I simply adapted the recipe from the book, just a minor tweaking of the number of ingredients but pretty much followed it to the letter.

The only thing I will note is that when you make it – make sure that you cut up the cauliflower in small pieces. The cauliflower florets I made were quite big the first time I tried the recipe and it was fine but it took longer to cook/deep-fry them so I discovered that the smaller the chunks, the quicker they cook (or brown) and they are much crispier too so make sure to note this when you make it. I think the white wine batter just made this flavorful and scrumptious, too. Enjoy!

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Ingredients

1 large Cauliflower
1 Egg
Salt and Freshly ground pepper, to taste
3/4 cup Flour
3/4 cup dry White Wine
Enough Oil for deep-frying

Procedure

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg. Season well and beat in the flour. Add the wine slowly, a little at a time, until you achieve a fairly runny batter. The measurement above worked for me but you can adjust it to the thickness and consistency you desire.

Quickly blanch/boil or steam the cauliflower until just tender (not mushy). Do not overcook it. When it’s a little cooler to handle, cut into small individual florets.

Heat the oil in a deep pan until it reaches about 375 F. I just wait for about 10-12 minutes ’cause I don’t have a thermometer. One test to do to know if your oil is hot enough is to drop a small piece of bread in it – if it sizzles as soon as it’s dropped then the oil is hot enough or if you dip a skewer in the oil and bubbles form at the tip, then it’s hot.

Dip each cauliflower floret into the batter and then deep-fry until nicely golden and crispy. You may have to do this in batches. Do not soak them for a long time in the batter as they will be mushy.