Cauliflowers thriving in big wet - this recipe will tantalise your taste buds

And it's cauliflower.

The crop is thriving in the wet conditions and that means there are plenty of this vegetable to go around at the Slow Food Earth Market Maitland in The Levee.

There are so many things you can do with it - baking, frying, steaming - and even crispy cauliflower katsu.

Now, if you haven't heard of katsu before, it involves breadcrumbs and deep frying.

Slow Food Hunter Valley leader Marcus Bridges was inspired by Jamie Oliver and gave this dish a go, but he opted for baking it instead of deep drying it. The results were delicious.

Here's how to create your own. Most of the ingredients will be at the earth market on Thursday, July 4 from 8.30am.

Ingredients:

2 heads cauliflower

3 mixed-colour chillies

Salt and black pepper

3 limes

100g plain flour plus 50g extra

3 large free-range eggs

200g panko breadcrumbs

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

5cm piece ginger

1 carrot

1 bunch fresh coriander (30g), leaves and stalks separated

Olive oil

2 t garam masala

1 t ground turmeric

3 t mango chutney

2C basmati rice

To make the dish, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Cut 6 cauliflower slices, season with salt, put finely chopped chillies in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Grave over the zest of 2 limes and squeeze the juice over it.

Add 100 grams of flour into a bowl, beat the eggs in another bowl and dip the breadcrumbs into a third bowl.

Coat the cauliflower in flower, then in egg and then add the breadcrumbs. Put on a baking tray and push them down before baking them for 45 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Peel ginger, carrot, garlic and onion and finely chop them. Finely chop the coriander stalks.

Fry these in a large pan on medium heat with 1 T of oil and the spices for 15 minutes. Mr Bridges likes to use extra vegetables. Stir in 50g of flower and mango chutney, and 1 litre of boiling water. Whisk it together and then simmer it for 15 minutes.

Cook the rice and serve it all up. Add coriander leaves if you wish.