Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Jim on Food: Spicy Chicken & Cauliflower Crunch


Ingredients (in order of appearance):


Olive Oil

Pecans

Rocket Chillies

Cauliflower

Sea Salt

Herbs: Dill

Garlic Puree

Sandwich Chicken

Lime Juice

Baby Spinach


Result: Mixed


A mad culinary science experiment turned hearty lunch!


I had a simple query: can you successfully pan-fry cauliflower florets, without having to part-boil them first. I was just going to have whatever-the-results were as a snack, but then things kinda got out of control!


Let’s face it, a bed of raw spinach leaf is as rock and roll as you can get.


The answer to my question is a resounding: “No, not really”, although I was absolutely fine with how crunchy the cauliflower turned out to be. That is, after a tension-filled half-an-hour of frying. However, for your average diner, I’d recommend boiling it for 10-minutes-or-so first.


Lotta hyphens going on in this post.


I also overdid the sea salt somewhat, which was more of an eyesight issue, and the pecans turned out to be chewy, not crunchy.


The cooked wafer chicken, designed for sandwiches, and lime juice were last minute additions. The chicken actually soaked-up the lime juice, in an astonishingly delicious way, so I’ll be doing that again! The oil that came out of the pecans made the wok go crazy, so I ended up having to turn the heat down considerably. This bode well for my planned long cooking time.


Oh and I chucked the lime halves in just to extract as much flavour out of them as possible, but I didn’t actually eat the remaining husks. Their presence in the above picture is purely as a garnish.


The dill, as usual, was picked by me going through my dried herb collection and seeing what I liked the smell of today. You know, just like how the pros do it.


So, yes, positive for me, but most-likely mixed for others. I shall definitely be doing it again, only with the necessary tweaks implied above.


And it was half a cauliflower I used, just in case you’re curious.


Do stay in touch, darlings.


Toodles!

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