Cauliflower super-cheese
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 160g good quality bacon lardons
- 1 large cauliflower, leaves removed, broken into pieces
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 300ml whole milk
- 300ml double cream
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 50g butter
- 50g plain flour
- 2 tsp English mustard or mustard powder
- ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
- 200g cheese, grated – Moz Murphy, owner of grate Newcastle suggests Lincolnshire Poacher or Doddington (original)
- 2-3 tbsp white breadcrumbs
Method
- Preheat oven to 190C/Gas 5.
- Place bacon lardons in a sauté pan with 1 tsp vegetable oil and fry over a low heat for 5 mins until lightly browned. Remove bacon and set aside for later.
- Place the cauliflower in a shallow baking dish, brush lightly with grease from the bacon pan (adding a little olive oil if you run short), season with salt and pepper, place in the oven and roast for 20 mins until browning. Remove from the oven and set aside until needed.
- Meanwhile, mix together the milk and cream in a small pan. Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the onion and bay leaves, and set aside to infuse for 20 mins.
- In another pan, melt the butter over a low heat, add the flour and stir to a paste (roux) with a wooden spoon, and cook, stirring, over the heat for 2 mins. Remove the onion and bay leaves from the infused milk/cream and gradually add milk/cream to the roux, using a balloon whisk to mix to a smooth sauce. Keep stirring over the heat until thickened. Season and stir through mustard and nutmeg.
- Add ¾ of the cheese (reserving some to top the dish) and, keeping the pan over a low heat, stir through until the cheese melts.
- Place the roast cauliflower in a shallow oven dish, scatter over the bacon lardons, pour the sauce over the top, scatter over the rest of the cheese and the breadcrumbs, and bake for 20-30 mins until bubbling.
