First make your batter. Smash up the cumin and mustard seeds, chillies
and peppercorns in a pestle and mortar until you have a powder. Put the
flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the ground spices and the
turmeric. Pour in most of the beer and whisk gently. Check the
consistency – you want it to be the thickness of double cream. If it’s
too thick, whisk in the rest of the beer. Don’t worry too much about
having little lumps in the batter, as they’ll just become nice crunchy
bits when you start frying. Season with sea salt and put to one side.
Trim the bottom off the stalk and break the cauliflower into bite-sized
florets. Slice up the stalk into 2cm pieces – this way it will all cook
at the same rate. Wash the cauliflower, drain it and pat dry with
kitchen paper. Place the cauliflower pieces in a bowl and dust with a
little flour.
Pour the oil into a deep saucepan – you want it to be about 10–12cm
deep – and heat it to 180°C. If you don’t have a thermometer don't
worry, just drop a piece of potato into the oil. When it floats to the
surface and starts to sizzle, the oil will be at the right temperature
so remove the potato from the pan.
Shake any excess flour off the cauliflower. One by one, dip the pieces
into the beer batter, then carefully place them in the hot oil, moving
them away from you as you do so. Make sure you stand back so you don’t
get splashed. It’s best to fry them in batches so you don’t overcrowd
the pan (but serve them as soon as each batch is ready). Each time a
batch of cauliflower is nearly ready, add some battered parsley leaves
to the pan and fry for 40 seconds (you want to serve them scattered
over the fritters). Fry the pieces gently, turning them a couple of
times with a slotted spoon. When they’re browned and crisp, lift them
out of the oil, allowing any excess to drip back into the pan, and
drain on kitchen paper. Dust with sea salt and squeeze over a little
lemon juice.