Gobi 65
Gobi 65 recipe – Gobi 65 is a delicious crisp fried appetizer made with cauliflower, spices, yogurt and herbs. 65 recipes are quite popular starters in South Indian restaurants. They originated from Chicken 65. There are many varieties made like Paneer 65, aloo 65. They are served as a evening snack or starter along with other South Indian foods.
We love the crisp fried appetizers made with gobi. My boys often ask for this Gobi manchurian. But I end up making this gobi 65 as it needs no bottled sauces and can be made in a jiffy.
About gobi 65
Gobi 65 is a fried cauliflower snack inspired from the popular South Indian Chicken 65. To make gobi 65, cauliflower florets are batter fried until crisp and tempered with lots of spices, garlic and curry leaves. These fried cauliflower florets are simply superb, flavorful & addictive.
Gobi 65 is immensely popular on the restaurant menus & a lot of South Indians love to serve this as a side with their meal. This also makes a fantastic tea time and party snack.
In this post I share 2 ways/recipes to make gobi 65 – one is the restaurant style and the second one is a baked recipe that is a healthier version. You can also follow the same method and make in air fryer.
In the first recipe of gobi 65, cauliflower florets are batter fried until crisp. Then they are seasoned with a spicy masala. Crisp fried curry leaves, green chilies, spice powder and yogurt bring in a magical aroma to the gobi 65.
For the second method, we just follow the easier way and coat the gobi with flour, spices and a splash of water. Bake them until crisp.
Serve this as a starter or as a side in a Indian meal. It is best served hot since the fried cauliflower bites begins to loose their crispness as they cool down.
How to make gobi 65
1. Clean 2 cups cauliflower florets and add them to a pot of slightly hot water. Let sit for a while and drain them off and rinse them well in a colander. Set aside. To a mixing bowl, add
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour or wheat flour
- 3 tablespoons rice flour or cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
2. In a small bowl, mix 1 tsp red chili powder with few drops of oil and little water. Make a fine paste and add it to the flour. This helps gobi 65 to get a good color. Also add 2 sprigs of chopped curry leaves.
3. Pour water little by little. Start with ¼ cup water and add more only as required.
4. Mix everything well to make a thick batter. Taste test and adjust salt. It has to be slightly salty.
5. Add cauliflower to the bowl.
6. Toss and coat the florets well with batter.
Frying gobi 65
7. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. When the oil is hot enough, drop a small portion of batter to the oil. It has to sizzle and come up without browning. This is the right temperature. If your oil is not hot enough, the coating will come off the gobi while frying so make sure it is hot.
Pick up the florets one by one and gently slide to the hot oil. Do not disturb for a few minutes. Then stir and deep fry until golden and crisp. You can also fry some curry leaves and slit deseeded green chilies for garnishing. This way fry all of the gobi in batches ensuring the oil is hot enough before frying each batch.
8. Remove gobi 65 on a kitchen tissue or a steel colander.
9. If you do not like to use yogurt for this recipe you can serve after this step after garnishing with curry leaves and green chiles.
Tempering
To avoid the curd from splitting please use thick full fat curd that has lesser whey. For additional safety you may also stir the garam masala and red chilli powder with yogurt before adding to the pan.
10. To make a restaurant style cauliflower 65, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds to hot oil. When they begin to splutter add curry leaves, 1 to 2 slit green chilies and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes without burning.
11. When the garlic begins to smell good, reduce the flame to low. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons whisked yogurt (curd), ½ teaspoon red chili powder and ¼ teaspoon garam masala.
12. Stir and saute until the mixture thickens.
13. Add fried cauliflower and saute well on a high flame for 2 minutes.