This dish is called 'green garlic cauliflower' because it does, in fact, have garlic in it and the colour is actually green. I was originally going to call it 'green garlic cauliflower and potatoes' which, if you apply a bit of basic inductive logic, would lead you to assume, quite rightly, that it also included potatoes amongst its constituents. I decided to change the recipe a little after feeding it to Anatoly.
When you're doing experimental cooking and inventing recipes, it's worth paying attention to whether the people on whom you try them out actually eat what you cook. Of course, if you say, 'This is a new recipe, what do you think of it?' everybody's going to tell you it's delicious, aren't they? They're your friends after all, and they don't want to hurt your feelings, especially if you suffer delusions about being able to cook well enough to be a fair-to-middling vegetarian cook-book writer. They're not going to tell you your recipes are crap now, are they?
The best way to road-test new recipes is to introduce them quietly along with a bunch of other things. Give people a choice of what to eat and put more than enough on the table so that they don't feel they're being impolite if they leave the insides of some of the serving dishes unpolished. Then sit back and enjoy the evening with your friends, while discretely observing who's eating what and with how much enthusiasm.
That's exactly what I was doing when Tanya and Anatoly visited us for an evening of eating, chatting and beer-drinking. Everything seemed to be disappearing from the table at a fair rate and Anatoly, who's a big lad, was having second and third helpings of a few things - always a good sign that people are enjoying the food and usually a good indicator of what they are enjoying most. The 'green garlic cauliflower and potatoes' in particular seemed to suit the big man's taste, and at one point he even commented that he was 'really enjoying the cauliflower'. Only later, when I was clearing up, did it become clear that he meant exactly what he said. All the cauliflower had disappeared from the dish while most of the potatoes remained.
Here then, is the modified version.
Wash your cauliflower and cut it into florets. As your doing this you'll notice that the big florets are near the base, while the top is made up of lots of little florets all packed together. Set some of these little ones aside for frying and put all the rest in a large pot with about 4 cm of water in the bottom. Put a lid on the pot and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat a little when it's boiling but keep up a good head of steam. It should take about 10 minutes to cook the cauliflower - don't let it turn to soup.
While the pot's steaming away, chop the coriander and garlic roughly then give them a good pounding with your pestle and mortar - smash them up until the consistency is nice and smooth. Add the lemon juice. Your cauliflower should be about ready by now so drain off the liquid, saving it for stock, and leave the cauliflower in the pot with the lid on for a few minutes while you fry the small florets you saved earlier. Chop them finely and fry in a little olive oil until they are turning golden. Pour the oil and chopped florets over the cauliflower in the pot, add the green sauce and a pinch of salt, then mix it all together.
This is quite a dry dish - try serving it with a fresh tomato and cucumber salad to off-set the dryness. A bit of garlic bread or some mashed potatoes would also be nice.