The only curry I associated with Shorshe (mustard), prior to seeing Moni Dadi’s diary, is Shorshe Ilish. But now I know better, Ilish is not the only item that goes well with mustard. Mustard Chicken is a fabulous dish. Oh you want mustard in something that is not just a curry? Well then you can try tomato shorshe chutney! These two are just the recipes that I have come across in Moni Dadi diary so far. I bet there are more mustard related recipes hiding in her diary, quietly waiting to be cooked.

While the other mustard curries wait for their turn to be digitized, today we talk about and cook Shorshe Kopi. It is a cauliflower (and potato) curry with added mustard paste. I felt a little iffy about Mustard Chicken because I was not quite sure if it would be something to my liking. But a dish with cauliflower and potato? Sign me up!

When I looked up Shorshe Kopi, most results were about Shorshe with Badhakopi (Cabbage). So if you are here for Mustard Cabbage, this is not it. But I would ask you to stay because any dish with cauliflower is surely superior to anything with cabbage.

Cauliflower and potato are my two favorite vegetables. And I am very glad that Moni Dadi decided to write down multiple variations of Fulkopi Alu (Cauliflower and potato). I am always more than happy to try out any dish with these two. But unfortunately Moni Dadi did not write down any kind of Fulkopi Alu Bhaji (Cauliflower and potato fry), which is my absolute favorite. Though the Fulkopi/Cauliflower Dalna that I have already tried was really good so I have no complaints.

What I like most about cauliflower is that of course it is just so delicious. Whatever dish you put it in instantly becomes more tasty. The taste itself is so different from other vegetables, but maybe that’s just my bias. And I know saying “not like others” is clique but those are the words I wish to use. Don’t quote me though.

Cauliflower is also appreciated by the people for its versatility. I think I’ve made it pretty clear so far that I am not really knowledgeable about culinary arts, I just like eating and talking about them. But my lack of knowledge extends to knowing dishes too. So take it with a grain of salt when I say that I think cauliflower might be the one of the most used vegetables. You can make curry, labra, khichuri, bhorta, bhaja (fry), pakora, daal (lentil soup), fish curry, and so much more with cauliflower. And I just named dishes in day to day Bengali cuisine. I was curious about cauliflower in other cuisines and the stand out dishes were cauliflower sauce and cauliflower steak.

But one thing I did not expect to see was pizza crust. Apparently cauliflower is a great substitute for regular pizza crust and pizza crust with cauliflower is used for keto diet. Learning these little, unnecessary and unexpected things is why I like talking about food. Also this trivia transcends just blogs, something I learned yesterday. I was making ramen with a friend on call instructing me. Unfortunately talking doesn’t translate into actual skill and my culinary capacity is still stuck at noodles, but that’s not the point. My friend’s mother saw me cooking, randomly said cauliflower oil tastes really good and left.

But after singing cauliflower praises so much, I have to say that to me Shorshe Kopi is not the best display of cauliflower’s magnificence. But Lima Apu absolutely loved it. The strong pungent taste of mustard just didn’t sit right with cauliflower and potatoes. But that might just be me. You should try it out yourself.