I made my first aloo gobi last week. It was really good. And then cauliflower came up as the theme ingredient for the week in the Steemit Iron Chef contest and I thought I should try to make some permutation. But, as a stew, I didn't know how to try and make it pretty.
I decided to start with pretty ingredients -- bright purple potatoes, a young white cauliflower that would take color from the cooking environment, fresh herbs and contrasting condiments:
Then I had this idea where I could build a textural contrast by pulling out some of the select pieces of potato and cauliflower, and blend the rest. In my head I was going to pour the blended part into the bottom of a plate and place an island of the still-large chunks. There were some issues.
First, the pretty purple potatoes were browned by the saute and took on the color of the spice blend, so they were kind of muddy. Once we started eating, we discovered they were still beautiful inside, but that didn't help at plating time:
Additionally, the blended mixture was pasty, not soupy, and had to be spread, not poured. I experimented with whipping a little of it with water, but that just tasted bad.
But, I had what I had and was going to do my best. I decided to bring in two condiments to help. I used a commercial spicy mango chutney and I mixed up a sauce that was about 1/3 each: crema, homemade yogurt, and a cilantro pickle that I get at a south-Asian grocer. That latter sauce was a little loose, but I piped it over the plate for both taste and beauty. And I put four blobs of the mango chutney on each plate (little blobs on my wife's because it's pretty spicy). And then I dressed it with fresh cilantro sprigs.
It was prettier in my head, than it turned out, but at least it tasted good.
The closeups that I took and lost last week were better, but at least this time I got some: