The bland taste of cauliflower makes it the ideal canvas for creating different flavour sensations. My personal favourite being Amma‘s cauliflower and pea curry. I have to admit I was much less accepting of cauliflower as a substitute for pasta during childhood. My older sister once made cauliflower in white sauce, let's just say that the taste of that dish left a lasting impression! Since then cauliflower has become my favoured substitute as a guilt-free alternative to high carb foods like pasta and rice. Cauli rice is even perfect for making a Durban style biryani! I have made several attempts at making cauli rice biryani, using ‚traditional‘ biryani cooking methods. The result was unsatisfactory often soggy cauli rice. This is my lastest recipe, which I am pleased enough to share. I opted for a cauliflower cauli biryani, it can be adapted to make meat biryani or use a combination of vegetables to make different flavoured biryani. No Durban biryani is complete without black lentils I also added peas to this dish.

I have used more frozen food products during the past year than I have during the last decade. Their convenience has grown on me, especially vegetables which require very little preparation. Most surprising is frozen raw seafood. This New Years‘s Eve, I discovered that you can bake frozen prawns! It is not fresh off the boat but satisfying none the less. The key is preparation - defrosting and not to overcook.  I made garlic prawns and squid in the oven. It was my first experience with frozen prawns, a rather satisfying one. They are certainly better suited for making prawn biryani than pre-cooked ones are. For this recipe, I opted for a lemon, rosemary and olive oil marinade. My favoured flavour combination after making lemon and rosemary leg of lamb. I used olive oil instead of butter, under the guise of a healthy start to the year. Served with oven Belgian fries (believe it or not also considered a healthy potato chip) More about that in another post. The perfect compliment to this meal was tapenade and dry white wine.

Roast leg of lamb was a typical New Year's Day dinner, growing up. Over the years it evolved from Amma‘s  lamb pot roast to more elaborate creations by my older sister. Lamb roast recipes which included the use of red wine both in cooking the lamb itself and in making poached pears for dessert. This New Year‘s Day I am opting for seafood (oven-baked prawns and squid) for a light end to an extraordinary annus horribilis. Horrible the year may have been in changing the way we live, I for one am grateful and glad to have had time with my family, good health and the opportunity to write this blog again. Back to that roast recipe. This Christmas I made leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic and lemon, a change from my usual mint and garlic lamb. I am fond of using these flavour combinations for making roast chicken, it was my first attempt at rosemary lamb. Rosemary is apart of the mint family Lamiaceae, along with basil, oregano and thyme which make it a worthy complement to lamb meat. I combined rosemary with lemon and garlic. Lemon to help tenderize the meat and garlic for its ever-faithful flavour contribution to any dish. I used a rather large portion of lamb, slow cooked over four hours with noteworthy results, succulent, delectable lamb.