Cauliflower handvo - a savory bake with Cauliflower and woes of a failed cooler

I have been slow with my blog posts for the past month or so, anyone noticed:-). All valid reasons, first it was work & the Arangetram, then it was work & house guests and later (which is now) has been work & work :-) and underneath all of this was the fact that my 3 year old laptop decided to die on me. Well, it didn't exactly die but is going through a very painful and noisy phase since the cooling fan decided to shut down and not work any more. For the initial couple of days when we were running around completely brain dead trying to finish up last minute tasks, the machine started humming and then graduated into really loud noise like something was coming down. No prizes for guessing that all logistics details were on my lap top. I asked the BH to take a look which he did cursorily, decided that my hard drive was on its last leg and told me to shut it down once I had made a back up of everything precious I had. That is when I realized how dependent I had become on this little piece of machinery. I had to keep it switched on long enough to atleast get some files transferred over so I could continue to function, make a back up on to a hard drive and then put the PC to sleep (Err, rest in this case).

After all the guests had left, I made another attempt to switch it on, the noise seemed to have decreased on decibel but when I switched on it made a very clear, dummy proof opening statement that said the cooling fan was not working. BH said a non working fan was better than a dying hard drive and very generously offered to call the geek squad to get an estimate but after the phone call he was convinced that I was better off buying a new PC instead of spending a fortune on the old one :-). Then it took a little while for us to get our home & affairs in order since lotsa things were happening together and I was set up with a temporary solution of an external fan to keep the cool (of my PC - not me definitely). While this allowed me to login & out for short durations, I was totally handicapped since I couldn't lug all that paraphernalia to wherever my creative mood directed me to go and sit. So, finally I decided to call it quits and got my new shiny PC earlier today :-). Yep, it is shiny but is also factory made with the latest OS I had been resisting upgrading my older laptop to so there is some learning curve. While the tech savvy (ier) and already experienced BH & DD snigger around I am determined to conquer this new challenge in a matter of minutes (or hours or days or weeks, who is in a hurry?) but in the mean time am trying to minimize fat fingering apps on this touch screen and look forward to visit my favorite blogs and be more active on my own.

On to today's recipe, this is something I saw on a You tube channel one day while generally surfing the big bad web. As I have said before, I am extremely partial to savory/spicy dishes, finger foods/snack items and especially Gujarati food. This dish fit the bill perfectly on all counts and tried it the next day, took it to a friend's house as I was visiting and it was very well received. I made it for a second time the same week and then the next and so on. When my in laws were here last month, I tried it on them and they liked it too especially the fact that it is baked. So, it is another much loved cauliflower recipe. I have packed this on travels and it stays fresh upto 4 days if kept in the refrigerator. I make the traditional Handvo often which requires some pre-planning, soaking, fermenting etc but this is a very easy and quick recipe with 100% satisfaction guaranteed.

I have experimented with the amounts from the original recipe and what I give below is my optimum quantities for ingredients, cauliflower brings in its flavor full force, the final dish is moist without being wet and crumbly. Make your own changes, keeping the spirit of the dish and I am sure you will love it just like we do. This is a perfect snack when the craving hits to have with your favorite cuppa.

What do you need to make Cauliflower handvo?
3 cups grated cauliflower
1.5 cups besan/gram flour/chick pea flour (plus or minus a couple of spoons, see notes for details)
1  cup finely chopped onion
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 inch piece ginger
2-3 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
1 cup grated coconut
2 Tblsp oil
2 Tblsp bread crumbs

How do you make Cauliflower Handvo? 

• Pre heat oven to 400F.
• Clean and pund ginger & green chilies to a rough paste using a mortar & pestle.
• Mix all ingredients in a bowl except for besan. Add besan slow to form a moist dough that you can hold in your hands and drop in clumps. 
• Prepare a 8 inch round pan with cooking spray.
• Put the mixture into the pan and gently even the top surface. 
• Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

• Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife comes clean. 
• Let cool for 10 minutes before taking the handvo out of the pan. 
• Lay it upside down on a flat surface and let cool slightly before slicing and serving. 

Notes: 

• Like the traditional handvo, you can add grated carrot, grated zucchini or bottle gourd to this recipe. 
• As the recipe contains raw besan/gram flour, it is important to cook the handvo thoroughly. Adjust your baking time until a tooth pick comes through clean from the center of the pan.
• Adjust the amount of Besan depending the moisture in your cauliflower, onion and cilantro. You can increase or decrease the above mentioned quantity by 2 Tblsps.