Baked Cauliflower and Potato Patties

I am doing my very best to find ways to reconfigure cauliflower into delectable and delightful concoctions, for cauliflower has never been my favourite veggie and never will  be.  I am not saying my efforts have been herculean but they do indeed require adding all sorts of other ingredients in order to make cauliflower palatable, to take the edge off the intrusion of its clumsy flavour.  I made a rather good cauliflower salad recently, for instance, using the following recipe: http://tastefoodblog.com/2014/08/10/warm-cauliflower-couscous-with-lemon-and-chiles/ … and the reason it turned out to be so appetising was, as mentioned, the addition of a series of ‘companion’ ingredients.

The recipe I am presenting today is similarly reliant upon a sexy bedfellow to bolster the cauliflower’s unattractiveness: the dipping sauce, a shop-bought barbecue sauce at that, full of goodness know what filthy additives and colourings.  I suppose ketchup would have done equally well.  Repeat:  Cauliflower simply cannot hack it doing solo.

Boil the potatoes until they are mash-able …Simmer the cauliflower florets until they are tender … and yes, I mean tender, no undercooking.

Mash the potatoes and the cauliflower together … add some paprika and plenty of salt. Add a good grating of parmesan cheese … Add one egg  … and maybe a twist of nutmeg while we’re about it.Now shovel on the breadcrumbs and perhaps dot the mixture with some fresh thyme or other herb of your liking. Add as many breadcrums as are required to create a thick ‘paste’. Make patties out of this ‘paste’ … Place them in a baking tray, lined with parchment paper … anoint with some olive oil and bake in a preheated oven (180* C) for about 20 minutes.  Turn them over and bake for another 5-10 minutes (the baking time will depend on your oven). On the serving platter, as part of nibbles preceding dinner.  The barbecue sauce acting as dip in the centre, with wedges of lime for extra reinforcement if required.  (For those of a visually fastidious bent, as I myself can be on occasion, I would like to apologise for the dab of BBQ sauce ruining the aesthetic effect on the side of the dipping bowl.  I had to snap the photo quick before all got eaten and didn’t have time to remove the offending slither of BBQ sauce.)

I will never concede that cauliflower can be delicious … but let’s say that these patties were all right and that it was well worth the effort.

Vegetarian friendly, naturally, and without the parmesan this would be vegan friendly too. And last, for those who are afeared of frying, the fact that they are baked in an oven must assuredly be a bonus, am I right?

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