Jamie Oliver's Cauliflower Tikka Masala

The jury is out on this recipe I made a couple of nights ago,  I'm not sure that it was worth the slightly fiddly preparation. My husband loved it, but as far as curries go it certainly wasn't one of the nicest I have made. It was rather sweet and I like a curry with a bit more heat and spice. I added chilli and some tikka masala curry powder to the recipe and also added some frozen spinach.  I gave a portion to my mum who didn't realise it was a curry and put parmesan cheese on. Now that would have been a strange mix. 

I didn't feel like the meal needed rice and just ate it with a pitta bread. I didn't have cinnamon and instead of sun dried tomato paste I whizzed up some sun dried tomatoes. I didn't really get the relevance of the blending of that stage and would have thought the onion and ginger could just be fried normally in the pan. 

The picture below is the sum total of vegetables in my fridge last night, it's usually packed, but I have certainly been getting my five portions a day with all the vegetarian food we have been eating. Why did I leave one pepper and not put it in Jamie vegetarian chilli I made last night? Good question.

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• Ingredients
• Serves 4
• 60g cashew nuts
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 tbsp of mango chutney
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• olive oil
• 1 knob of unsalted butter
• 200g paneer cheese
• 4 cloves of garlic
  5cm piece of ginger
• 1 onion
  2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
  1 bunch of fresh coriander (30g)
  3 cloves
  1 cinnamon stick
  ½ a head of cauliflower (400g)
  
• 3 cardamom pods
  
  METHOD
• Put the cashews, saffron and mango chutney into a jug,  cover with  700ml of boiling water and set aside to soak. Preheat the grill to high. Finely grate the lemon zest into a large bowl, add the yoghurt, paprika, a pinch of salt and black pepper and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, mix well. Chop the paneer and break the cauliflower into florets (roughly the same size as the paneer). Toss in the marinade. Tip into a large roasting tray and grill on the middle shelf for 12 mins or until gnarly at the edges.

Put butter and a tsp of oil into a large casserole dish on a low heat with the cinnamon and cloves and bash the cardamom pods, adding just the inner seeds. Peel and finely slice the garlic, and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Peel the onion and ginger then place in a blender and whiz to a paste with the tomato paste and a splash of boiling water.  Pour into the pan and cook for 10 mins, stirring regularly. 

Tip the cashew mixture into the blender and whiz until super smooth. Pour into the pan, bring to the boil, then leave to cook away for minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the paneer and cauliflower, season to perfection with salt and pepper, then place under the grill. Once golden and bubbling stir and pick over the coriander leaves.