Cauliflower Cheese

                                                     cauliflower cheese

Join me on Facebook

I laughed out loud when I saw that this months ABC baker's challenge was cauliflower cheese, you forget we don't all have the same food experiences. To me cauliflower cheese is bog standard but lovely, old school cooking, something that could still be part of your Sunday roast or you have a distant memory of your gran's. 

Cauliflower cheese is served mainly as a side dish, paired with a roast dinner or another protein. Cauliflower in Australia now is more often seen in curries, stuffed in flat breads like Gobi ke Parathe (YUM!!), salads, roasted, stir fries, soups, as a faux pizza base or the popular cauliflower rice but there is still a place for the classic cauliflower cheese in your repertoire. 

supermarkets and fruit/veg shops carry the already chopped cauliflower for quick low carb cooking. 

Baking along with a talented group of bakers that are a part of ABC (Avid Baker's Challenge), this month was 'Cauliflower Cheese' from Smitten Kitchen. 

I've made the basic cauliflower cheese in individual portions with a couple of small changes to Smitten Kitchen's recipe. I also include a wasabi variation and a gluten free cauliflower and cheese soup recipe.  

The first printed version of cauliflower cheese is in the 1861 publication of 'Beeton's Book of Household Mangement'. Where hot white sauce (Mrs. Beeton uses a sauce blanche) is poured over the cooked cauliflower, topped with grated parmesan, bread crumbs and then put under the griller (broiler/salamander) until bubbling and golden.

The cheese sauce for the cauliflower cheese today is a Béchamel (white sauce), a sauce that is Italian in origin but now is probably more well known as one of the French mother sauces. Béchamel is the base to other sauces, add cheese like we are today and it's "Mornay sauce".

I made buckets (literally) of Béchamel decades ago when working in seafood retail/catering, some became mornay sauce, used in seafood crepes, seafood pies, seafood bakes and goodness proving it was a long time ago seafood "vol au vents". 

Start by preparing your cauliflower by cutting it into florets and either steaming them or boiling them. I cooked them to the "cooked but still holding shape stage", as I didn't bake the dish further as Smitten Kitchen did. 

cauliflower florets ready for steaming

Whilst the cauliflower was steaming, butter was melted and flour added and stirred together until flour is cooked off, 2 to 3 minutes to make the white roux.

Milk is added and stirred continuously until thickened and hot. Grated mature cheddar cheese (tasty) was stirred in then.

*I upped the flour used to 40 grams and reduced the butter to 50 grams. I reduced the cheese too, Smitten Kitchen uses 155 grams, I used 75 grams to be added to the sauce and 25 grams to be sprinkled on top and I used 2 cups (500ml) of 2% milk. I prefer to make the sauce thicker because you can always thin it with a little warm milk but not visa versa.  

Time to add the seasonings. 

Coleman's mustard strong enough to "put hairs on your chest"as nan would say.

I added a large teaspoon of prepared English mustard, a grate of fresh nutmeg and a shake of white pepper for the seasoning. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning to personal taste. 

Cauliflower was arranged in 4 separate ramekins, then topped with the sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and put under a hot grill (we say "grill" in Australia... it's broiler or salamander elsewhere) to gratin. Serve when bubbly and golden. 

Change up your cheese or veg

Change your cheese for another strong tasting cheese (be careful if using a blue cheese, you could end up with a gray coloured sauce) or if using a milder cheese pump up the flavour with more mustard or chilli and the like. Use broccoli or cauliflower and broccoli instead of plain cauli, or how about potatoes or sweet potatoes for a change? Mornay sauce matches most vegetables, adjust seasonings accordingly and if your not going for a baked or gratin finish then add a crispy finishing touch. 

I used a wasabi cheddar for an alternative version of cauliflower cheese that I'll be serving with fish this Easter. A ittle wasabi paste was added for an extra kick. Wasabi cheddar cheese was swapped out for the mature cheddar and wasabi paste used instead of the mustard, nutmeg and white pepper. Pour the hot sauce over your cooked cauliflower, I topped with butter browned panko crumbs and wasabi sesame seeds. 

wasabi paste

wasabi sesame seeds 

Ooops, I was supposed to use the black bowls my "gee this is such a yellow sauce" thought carried onto the bowls.

Gluten free Cauliflower Cheese soup

A simple pureed veg soup is a nice gluten free addition to your Easter feast. 

Ingredients

1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets

1 large leek or 2 medium onions, diced

2 stick of celery diced

I medium potato, peeled and diced 

1.5 litres of salt reduced vegetable or chicken stock

200 grams of grated matured cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil 

English mustard

fresh nutmeg

salt and pepper

optional extra cheese for garnish

Method

In a large pot over heat the olive oil over a medium heat, and add all the cut vegetables. Stir and place a lid partially over pot, continue to cook for ten minutes. Stirring occasionally to prevent catching. 

Add the stock and bring to the boil, reduce the heat then and simmer until veggies are soft. 

Remove pan from heat, add the grated cheese and heaped teaspoon of English mustard and a light grating of nutmeg. Puree the soup in pot with a stick blender. If soup is too thick, thin with a little boiling water. Taste the soup, add salt and pepper to suit you and your family being mindful of what garnishes, if any, you are using. Serve the soup piping hot with extra crumbled or grated cheese and grated nutmeg. 

Happy Baking :)  

You might be interested in a quick and easy peach verrine 

or make some agar agar jelly pearls

Blueberry muffins: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

going, going, gone.  blueberry muffins. 

Going, going, gone!!   Well, I've just eaten my first ever blueberry muffin which coincides with my first blog post for the brand new bread baking group... 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers'.

Same format as previously; once a month baking from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible'. However, this time there is a few new bakers and we are starting earlier in the book.  I'm so happy to be involved, and looking forward to sharing my experiences. 

Oh and the rest of 'The Lone Baker' blog will continue as per usual with chocolate, fondant and the like. 

"It's a quick bread" 

In Australia I don't believe we generally think of muffins as quick breads or something to have for breakfast... it's more "like cakes, but not as good"... or at least that's how I think of them. I could count the muffins I've eaten in my life on one hand, until today that is when I've started the "other hand" with these ....

Blueberry Muffins

It began with butter, sugar and lemon zest being beaten together until light and fuffy. Egg and vanilla were added. 

Then flour was whisked together with baking soda (bi-carb to Australians) and salt. 

Oooo I know people that don't do the whisk or sift step (you know who you are!). Whisking makes for an even bake if the raising agent is evenly incorporated. 

The flour mixture plus some sour cream were then folded alternatively into the whipped butter mixture.

The resulting batter is thick.

Blueberries Ok they were supposed to be tiny in season Maine blueberries, instead in Australia as blueberries are out of season I've used large frozen blueberries. 

Once I folded through my "land of the giants" blueberries in their frozen state as to not stain the batter too much. I then used to an ice cream scoop to portion the batter into muffin cases. 

Nutmeg laced sugar was scattered over the top of the muffins. 

Rose called for fresh nutmeg, I used my microplane to grate a little nutmeg.

Nutmeg fruit photo courtesy of wikipedia.

Nutmeg fruit, contains this seed... the red you can see is "mace", under the mace is a seed similar to a stone fruit... that's the part that is dried and sold as nutmeg. 

Here just starting to fill the empty cake pan holes with water as Rose suggests. 

Then they were baked, five minutes longer for mine because they contained frozen berries.

Eating time, bite through the buttery sugar crust into the open textured but soft and moist interior, where you pick up hint of lemon and a burst of warm blueberry (mine were giant bursts of blueberry!!). The nutmeg flavour is more of a whisper than a shout but adds a bit of the "oh what is that flavour?"

Loved the blueberry muffins warm, not so much cold, so I'd eat them quick or reheat later on. Rose has reheat instructions in the book.

The Bread Bible  by Rose Levy Beranbaum is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores.

Happy Baking :)  

You might also be interested in individual chocolate pavlovas

or no bake Speculoos (Biscoff) tarts