By request of ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
doseybat, I give you...
Feb. 6th, 2007 06:58 pmCauliflower cheese.
Ingredients:
Milk. Plenty of (like get a proper sized bottle, not those microscopic things your mum buys). Any kind will do, but whole tastes best.
Mature cheddar, cut into small cubes or sticks. At least twice as much as you'd probably think would make sense. Like an entire smallish block from the supermarket, or half a big one.
Cornflower. 2 heaped tablespoons thereof.
Onion (finely chopped, optional, but I like it)
Pinch of chilli powder (optional, but again, I like it)
Method:
Cauliflower
Boil the cauliflower until you can push a fork through the thicker parts of the stalks without it feeling rubbery, then drain it straight away. DON'T leave it in the water, or it will keep on cooking and end up mush.
Cheese sauce
Put about a mug's worth of COLD milk in a saucepan (my old nice stainless steel one is perfect).
Put a couple of heaped tablespoons of cornflower into the milk.
Stir very thoroughly, ideally with a balloon whisk (you can use a spoon or fork, but it's much easier with a whisk)
Optionally, add the onion at this point.
Only put the pan on the gas once the cornflour is in suspension. You want a highish heat until the milk starts to steam, then turn it down to a low to medium flame.
Keep whisking continuously. The idea is to keep the cornflour in suspension. Eventually, it will hit a magic temperature, and all of the starch grains explode more or less at the same time, so the liquid goes from runny like milk to very thick like custard. You'll probably need to add a bit more milk at this point and keep stirring. Once you have a sauce (which will still be white at this point) with roughly cheese sauce consistency, dump all of the cheese into it and keep stirring until it is all dissolved. The cheese may make the sauce a bit too thick, in which case adding a tiny bit more milk will loosen it up again. Once you have cheese sauce (which should be fairly obvious!), turn off the gas. You can add a pinch of chilli powder at this point if you like, but stir it in well.
First tip: Make sure you have everything prepared BEFORE you start making the sauce, or it will inevitably go wrong.
Second tip: Don't stop stirring. Ever.
Third tip: As soon as you've poured the cheese sauce over the cauliflower, put hot water and a bit of washing up liquid in the pan or you'll be sorry later. :-)
Finishing touches
Put the cauliflower into an oven dish, then pour the cheese sauce over the top of it. Then put the whole thing under the grill with the grill on maximum. Keep watching -- when you have small bits going brown (about the size of £1 coins), you're done.
Notes:
For the purists out there, yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is actually a cheese blancmange, not a 'real' Roux-method cheese sauce, but it's way easier to get right and actually tastes pretty much as good. Yes, I put more cheese in the sauce than most people, but it Tastes Really Good so I Don't Care.
Ingredients:
Milk. Plenty of (like get a proper sized bottle, not those microscopic things your mum buys). Any kind will do, but whole tastes best.
Mature cheddar, cut into small cubes or sticks. At least twice as much as you'd probably think would make sense. Like an entire smallish block from the supermarket, or half a big one.
Cornflower. 2 heaped tablespoons thereof.
Onion (finely chopped, optional, but I like it)
Pinch of chilli powder (optional, but again, I like it)
Method:
Cauliflower
Boil the cauliflower until you can push a fork through the thicker parts of the stalks without it feeling rubbery, then drain it straight away. DON'T leave it in the water, or it will keep on cooking and end up mush.
Cheese sauce
Put about a mug's worth of COLD milk in a saucepan (my old nice stainless steel one is perfect).
Put a couple of heaped tablespoons of cornflower into the milk.
Stir very thoroughly, ideally with a balloon whisk (you can use a spoon or fork, but it's much easier with a whisk)
Optionally, add the onion at this point.
Only put the pan on the gas once the cornflour is in suspension. You want a highish heat until the milk starts to steam, then turn it down to a low to medium flame.
Keep whisking continuously. The idea is to keep the cornflour in suspension. Eventually, it will hit a magic temperature, and all of the starch grains explode more or less at the same time, so the liquid goes from runny like milk to very thick like custard. You'll probably need to add a bit more milk at this point and keep stirring. Once you have a sauce (which will still be white at this point) with roughly cheese sauce consistency, dump all of the cheese into it and keep stirring until it is all dissolved. The cheese may make the sauce a bit too thick, in which case adding a tiny bit more milk will loosen it up again. Once you have cheese sauce (which should be fairly obvious!), turn off the gas. You can add a pinch of chilli powder at this point if you like, but stir it in well.
First tip: Make sure you have everything prepared BEFORE you start making the sauce, or it will inevitably go wrong.
Second tip: Don't stop stirring. Ever.
Third tip: As soon as you've poured the cheese sauce over the cauliflower, put hot water and a bit of washing up liquid in the pan or you'll be sorry later. :-)
Finishing touches
Put the cauliflower into an oven dish, then pour the cheese sauce over the top of it. Then put the whole thing under the grill with the grill on maximum. Keep watching -- when you have small bits going brown (about the size of £1 coins), you're done.
Notes:
For the purists out there, yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is actually a cheese blancmange, not a 'real' Roux-method cheese sauce, but it's way easier to get right and actually tastes pretty much as good. Yes, I put more cheese in the sauce than most people, but it Tastes Really Good so I Don't Care.