Cauliflower Tater Tots

Tater tots are a relic from my childhood. These are crispy little crispy potato nuggets that were sold by Ore-Ida, frozen in bags and ready to be refried or baked. Somehow these remind me of many moments in front of the TV watching batman cartoons and reruns of Charlie’s Angels.

This was a mini-experiment to make a low carb tater-tot. In the end they ended up being more like cauliflower croquettes than tater tots but at the end of the day I wasn’t too unhappy – what’s not to like about fried, right?

Doing this cook taught me something about cauliflower – it is versatile and an awesome potato mash substitute, but when making patties or little croquettes, can be soggy or fall apart if you don’t get rid of the extra liquid. I swear I used up a good part of a kitchen towel roll when trying to soak up extra fluid, but it was probably worth it to get the right consistency. Which reminds me at the backend of the Singapore elections, just a final word to the opposition parties who expected a high number of votes but actually saw a 10% vote swing against the opposition – you got to put in the hard work and squeeze out the sogginess of your substance if not you will see your work falling apart when you are under high heat. 😉

Cauliflower Tater Tots

Servings: 4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 large head of cauliflower
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup arrowroot flour
1 cup of vegetable oil.

Method

Steam the cauliflower whole for 18-20 minutes.
Remove from heat and drain.
Cut the cauliflower into florets and using a food processor, coarsest grate to rice-like size.
Line a sieve with kitchen towels and layer some grated cauliflower over the towels, and lay a few layers of towels over the top of the cauliflower. Using your hands, squeeze out the excess fluid from the cauliflower. Repeat again, changing the kitchen towels when soaked.
Add the salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne paper to the cauliflower. Mix in the beaten egg and arrowroot flour.
Shape the cauliflower mix into thumb shaped tots and lay out on a pan.
Heat up the oil in a wok over medium flame. Carefully slide in the cauliflower tots. Fry about 1-2 minutes per side till golden brown. Drain on more kitchen towels.
Serve hot with low sugar ketchup.

Misshapen and not quite tot-like but still passable in flavour.