Sunday night supper food for 6
Seeing as cauliflower is such a good price at the mo….
This is basically another form of eggeh (for which there is a recipe on page 74 of the book), but the Iranians would have you believe that the dish is entirely their own.
My mother-in-law always makes these in little round-ish patty shapes, but it is much easier to make one big one and cut it. I should add that the mother-in-law would never dream of adding cheese to it: she has such an aversion to the stuff that panir is banned in her household. Oh, and she mashes the cauliflower. But apart from that this is her recipe.
Kookoo is good snack fodder as it is equally enjoyable hot or cold, and is often wrapped into sandwiches in Iran. It is also a tasty picnic option: just serve it with some crunchy pickled veg.
It is similar to but simpler than the kookoo sabzi recipe on page 48.
You will need:
- 1 large cauliflower
- olive oil for frying
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 60g plain flour
- 1 level teaspoon each salt and pepper
- 8 eggs, lightly beaten
- ½ bunch of fresh chopped parsley
- ½ pack halloumi (i.e. about 125g), cut into 1cm cubes
Wash and trim the cauliflower and cut it into small florets. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and tip the onion in, followed by the cauli and the turmeric, and cook until the onion is lightly browned and the cauliflower cooked.
Sieve the baking powder, flour and seasoning together, and then whisk in the beaten eggs and the parsley and pour the whole lot over the cauliflower in the frying pan. Drop the halloumi into the kookoo at fairly even intervals, and then turn the heat down, cover the pan and leave to cook for about 10 minutes. At the end of this time, slide the pan under a hot grill for about 2 minutes to brown the top, and then serve with an ample bread basket and some fresh herbs. Or cut into wedges and pack into your lunchbox for Monday morning.
