Say Cheese

Having to rework last night's dinner at short notice I had to turn to what ever I could find at the bottom of the fridge and cupboards. Fortunately there was a passable cauliflower in the fridge which, when the outer sorry looking green leaves had been stripped away, was still in a pretty good condition.

Last night there was only one thing that could be done with the cauli and that was to combine it with cheese.

Cauliflower Cheese is one of those dishes that can be wonderful, yummy and more-ish or gloopy, bland and, to be frank, fucking horrible.

This is how I do mine:

Take the head of the cauliflower and cut out the central core. Split it into separate florets. Let the face of the cauli talk to you, a little gentle pressure means that it should split into it's natural florets.

Put them in one layer in a thick bottom pan and just cover with cold full fat milk. Add a whole peeled shallot, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, half a dozen whole pepper corns and a good sprinkle of salt.

Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the cauli is soft to the end of a knife.

Remove the cauli florets, keep them warm and discard the shallot, strain the warm milk and set it aside for the cheese sauce.

To make the cheese sauce melt a good chunk of butter then add a tablespoon, maybe less, of plain flour. Cook the flour out and then start to add the milk a slosh at a time. The roux will go lumpy and thick, keep adding the milk a little at a time, whisking, whisking and whisking... it will go smooth. I don't like cheese sauce too thick so I tend to keep the basic white sauce on the thin side.

Now add the cheese. Lots of cheese. A good, strong English cheddar. At least a couple of handfuls. Stir it in until melted, then add a couple of teaspoons of proper English mustard, to taste. But you do want to be able to taste it so don't be shy with it.

Stir. Taste. Season.

Just before pouring over the top of the cauliflower florets stir in one egg yolk.

Put in a medium oven for about 20 minutes.

Now... if your cheese sauce splits because your oven is a bit too hot or you left the cauli cheese in there too long all you have to do is take the florets out of the sauce, let the sauce cool a little and, in the same pan, whisk the sauce by hand. It should come back together again.