Quick & Easy Cauliflower With XO Sauce

Want a quick side dish for Chinese food or just a tasty, simple weeknight meal? Cauliflower is versatile and gets a big burst of flavour from XO sauce. This cauliflower with XO sauce is ridiculously easy and made in 20 minutes!

I first saw this on a Chinese restaurant menu and had to order it because I love both cauliflower and XO sauce. When the dish arrived, it was good but it wasn't quite as strong in XO sauce as I had hoped. XO sauce (here's my mother's recipe) is usually an expensive ingredient (although not prohibitively so and certainly not one relegated to special occasions). So a lot of restaurants use it somewhat sparingly.

Speaking of menus, although Mr NQN and I have been together for so long, sometimes we forget each other's peculiar traits. And it's only when we're on holidays and living a symbiotic existence instead of our independent normal lives that these peculiar traits come to the fore.

This month we were on holidays in Thailand, one of my favourite destinations. And it was really an actual holiday where we could do what we wanted and sleep in and be lazy. And so Mr NQN was looking forward to a slower pace.

A slower pace isn't really in my genes though although I did relax and relish being able to go to sleep at 9pm and wake up at 6am (I was still on Sydney time). What I especially loved was the food and planning all our meals out. I had a little list of places, times they were open and I had a little spreadsheet of where we could go and when. For me, being on holiday is all about eating and after a couple of weeks of eating I had collected myself quite a collection of menus.

"Let me show you the menu for tomorrow!" I said to Mr NQN while we were relaxing. "I can show you what we are going to eat tomorrow," I said to an unimpressed looking Mr NQN. "Umm okay," he said, mentally bracing himself for food talk in which he would have no interest.

I shuffled through the collection of menus until I found the right one. "I think this is what we're going to have-or maybe this, this looks good too. Or maybe this?" I nattered. "Have I mentioned how much I love eating?" I said, sighing happily. "Yeah you've mentioned it three times today," he said drily.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you collect menus? Do you plan your meals out when you're on holidays? And do you like XO sauce?

Cauliflower With XO Sauce

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

• 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
• Oil for frying
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 tablespoons black vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons XO sauce
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• 2 branches curry leaves, leaves only

Step 1 - Heat frying pan or wok on high. Add oil and fry the cauliflower until golden tossing and turning to get it cooked on all sides. Add a bit more oil and add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Step 2 - Add the black vinegar and soy sauce and cook for another 30 seconds. Then add the XO sauce and curry leaves and toss to coat. Served with spring onion.