Today I bring a quintessentially English recipe and guest post from my mother!
Cauliflower cheese makes for a delicious dinner feature, I would also suggest this as a healthier alternative to macaroni & cheese – still packed full of cream and cheese for those good fats but this way you get your veg too! Please imagine the following in a shrill english accent ( ha, sorry mum):
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At the Farmers Market recently I bought a huge cauliflower. It wasn’t on my grocery list but it was like Einstein’s brain just sitting there and I couldn’t resist.
You can do lots of things with cauliflower but I knew I would be making a dish we had as a family 
often growing up – namely ‘Cauliflower Cheese’ ( we Brits don’t bother with the ‘and’).
A simple combination of a nice creamy cheese sauce poured over a head (Einstein’s in my case) of cauliflower then baked in the oven to golden oozing deliciousness. 
Cauliflower can be a bit watery when cooked so I make an extra thick sauce and I also add sautéed leeks (or onions) to interrupt the monotony of endless cauliflower florets.
This is what you do:
Cauliflower Cheese
- 1 head of cauliflower, washed and broken into florets
- a couple of leeks, washed and sliced
- a dash of mirin or cooking sherry.
For the cheese sauce:
- plain flour, 1 cup
- butter, 1/3 stick
- pinch s + p
- a mix of heavy cream and milk, enough for a smooth consistency
- parmesan, swiss, cheddar, ~3 cups, grated
- mustard, 2 generous dollops
Lightly steam the cauliflower florets. Don’t overcook to mushiness – just sort of ‘al dente’ them. Meanwhile sauté the leeks or onions in butter with a generous dash of mirin until they are soft and a bit caramelized.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the plain flour until you have a smooth paste (I use a whisk and a wooden spoon). Then gradually add the milk/heavy cream, whisking all the lumps out until it is smooth. Gently heat, to medium whisking all the time – I shove a dollop of strong mustard in at this point – you could add mustard powder to the flour at the beginning though. Stir until it thickens nicely and is velvety. Throw in handfuls of parmesan until it tastes really cheese – also some of the other cheeses – I tend to cook by adjusting to taste rather than rigidly weighing all the ingredients (Ruby note: this is where I get it from)! Arrange the cauliflower in a pyrex dish. Mix in the leeks, handfuls of the grated cheeses, salt, pepper and then pour the sauce over the top. Grate a tad of nutmeg on (very 1970’s) and then sprinkle more cheese over it so it will look purdy when it cooks.
Pop it in the oven for however long it takes for it to bubble and finish off cooking through the cauliflower. It should be golden brown and crispy – I look through the oven door with the light on rather than set a time…EAT (with crusty bread and a glass of vino).
