Cauliflower cheese

 

The Culinary Consultant has been growing both broccoli and cauliflowers this year, and very successfully if I might add. There is just one teeny tiny problem - the cauliflowers were supposed to be three different cultivars which would produce at different times. Nice idea if it would have worked. However, it seems like all the cauliflowers came out all at once. And they don't keep for very long on the plants before they start going green and woody. So we have been having plenty of cauliflower lately. Last week's cauliflower and bean soup is finally gone, and I thought something slightly less healthy tasting would be great for a change, so I made some cauliflower cheese.

Cauliflower cheese:
1 cauliflower
500 ml milk
50 g butter
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
100 g mature cheddar, grated
a few tbsp bread crumbs

The Howto:
Wash the cauliflower and break into pieces. Bring a large saucepan to boil with enough water to cover the cauliflower, and cook for about five minutes. Take off the heat, discard water and rinse with cold water to stop the boiling. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. In a smaller saucepan bring the milk to a boil. In another saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour and cook for a minute or two, but do not let it brown. Slowly add the milk while whisking vigorously with a balloon whisk to produce a smooth white sauce. Add the mustard, two thirds of the cheese and season to taste. 

Put the cauliflower in an oven proof dish, cover with the sauce and sprinkle the top with cheese and bread crumbs. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbly.

The Verdict:
This certainly didn't taste healthy. It was creamy and cheesy and delicious. The perfect way to indulge in some very unhealthy veg. Does it still count towards your five a day if the veg is smothered in a rich creamy bechamel sauce? I would say it does. The best part was certainly the cheesy and crumbly topping. 

Viva Veggies

The other night we had a power cut at home. It followed a very short but rather extreme winter storm with high wind, pouring rain and some loud thunder and lightning. First we thought it would be really quick, as we were assured engineers were already on site when we called the electricity company. But it started to get dark, and still no sign of electricity. It was rather nice and atmospheric to have the house lit with candles, and the Culinary Consultant soon started snoring on the sofa. But I started worrying about what would happen with all the stuff in the fridge, not to mention the freezer in case we would have a longer power cut. And then I realised we have an even bigger problem - the snakes! They are dependant on electricity to keep their tanks warm. So we started to plan for what we could do in case the power cut would be long. Over the Christmastime, I know there were households without power for days. Luckily the power came back on after about six hours, several of which we actually spent at a friend's house enjoying wonderful Cosmopolitans. But after the incident we made a contingency plan for future power cuts. We will buy hot water bottles and get some equipment so that we can boil water even without electricity to keep the little ones warm comfy in case of an emergency. Things I never thought I would do: make plans for snake re-heating.

The power cut was a great reminder that it is always good to keep some emergency food at home you can eat even if you don't have any electricity at all to heat things up. Crackers, jams, tinned food... Although I guess we could have driven off to the nearest Tesco in case of an emergency, but you never know. It could be extreme weather, or something else weird. We already learned last summer during some problems with the water supply that having a few gallons of drinking water always stocked in the garage is a great idea. And there are probably a few other things we should stock up on, such as a few flashlights and batteries for them. So remember to keep safe out there and plan for unexpected emergencies. Particularly, we are so dependant on electricity that it becomes quite hard to imagine life without it, but extended power cuts do happen. 

Well, after the above public service announcement, on to more interesting subjects. Such as today's yummy dish. Looking back at my food diary from the last few years, I used to eat much more veggie dishes than I do now. I guess having a dedicated carnivore in the house has shifted my cooking to include meat or fish at almost every meal. I'm not sure I'm happy with this, I would love to eat more vegetarian. The Culinary Consultant will eat anything I put in front of him, but I know he prefers a meal which contains something from the animal kingdom. 

I got this recipe from a friend and she said this was the best vegetarian dish she had ever had. So obviously I had to try it out. And tell you all about it!

Viva Veggies (serves 4-6 as a side):

1 bunch broccoli

1 bunch cauliflower

2 tbsp butter

225 g (1/2 lb) mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Parmesan, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tomatoes, sliced

55 g (1/4 cup) butter, melted

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

The howto:

Precook broccoli and cauliflower until tender crisp. Sauté mushrooms in 2 tbsp butter. Grease a 20x20 cm (9x9 in) dish. Mix mayo, sour cream and parmesan and mix the sauce with the veggies. Transfer to an oven proof dish and cover with tomato slices. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix melted butter with breadcrumbs and sprinkle over tomatoes. Although not in the original recipe, I sprinkled some additional grated parmesan on top. The original recipe instructs to cook for 20 minutes at 160 C (325 F), I cooked for about 30 minutes at 180 C to get to my desired result.

The verdict:

As my friend suggested, this was a rather tasty meal. I'm not sure I would go quite as far as calling it the most delicious vegetarian dish ever, as there was a oven roasted aubergine I had in an italian restaurant once which is pretty hard to beat. But this was definitely delicious. I particularly liked the topping with the cheese and buttery breadcrumbs. I also liked the combination of mayo and sour cream, it was tasty and yummy but at the same time refreshing because of the slight sourness. And the Culinary Consultant ate it without complaining, so I think it had to be quite good as he prefers things from the animal kingdom.

I made this as a light (well, light as in no meat, but not necessarily light as in low calorie) lunch and served it with bread. This makes a good lunch or veggie main on it's own, but both me and the Culinary Consultant agreed that it would also make a wonderful side to any meat or fish dish. This will definitely go on the list of dishes I will make again. The only change I will make is to add a bit more mushrooms, but I guess the proportion of mushrooms to cauliflower and broccoli depends on the size of your bunches of veg. Mine were rather big so there was a lot of cauliflower and broccoli compared to the mushies, but that is of course easily remedied. I very warmly recommend you try this, it's very yummy!

Potato, cauliflower and cheddar bake

I really need to get out of my latest bad habit. This very self destructive pattern of behaviour, i.e. writing my blog posts in bed, is proving very unproductive. Mostly because I fall asleep within ten minutes of snuggling up in bed with my warm laptop. Even as I'm writing this, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open mid-Sunday afternoon. Which possibly explains to you why the contents of my posts are never really mindbogglingly intellectual. Eat and sleep seems to be pretty much all I do these days. And obviously struggle to get through the days at work, four more weeks to go and I'm so ready to give up on it all. Three month notice periods should be illegal.

Ok, I'm back, I did fall asleep for a full hour. This will mean there is no way I will be able to go to sleep on time tonight. 

Today's recipe is a side I made for the delicious apple and cider roasted chicken I wrote about earlier. This dish would work either as a vegetarian main or a side to something nice and meaty. It is rather decadent with all that cheddar. But we had a big chunk of leftover cheddar which was starting to look like it would try to make it's way out of the fridge on it's own unless I used it up rather soonish. The recipe is again from the great The English Kitchen blog, and I have used it pretty much unaltered, I just doubled it as I wanted to have plenty of leftovers to feed us during the week.

Potato, cauliflower and cheddar bake serves 4-6 as a side (from The English Kitchen):
4 large potaoes
1 small head of cauliflower
1 large or 2 medium onions
2 cups of cheddar (this was not doubled from the original recipe as I thought it was more than plenty)
2 tsp dried thyme
black pepper
150 ml chicken stock

The howto:
Peel and slice the potatoes and onions into 1/2 inch thick slices. Similarly, slice the cauliflower. In a large saucepan, cover the potatoes generously with water and bring to a boil. Then add the cauliflower and onion and cook for 8-10 minutes, until potatoes start to soften. Discard water and let stand for about 10 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Transfer half of the potato, cauliflower and onion mixture into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle over the thyme, some black pepper and half of the cheese. Add the rest of the veg, thyme and some black pepper. Pour the chicken stock into the dish, and top with cheddar. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until golden and bubbling.

The verdict:
This was a really nice side to go with the chicken. For me, it would have been enough as a main dish in itself, but I don't think it would have been quite substantial enough to keep the Culinary Consultant happy. But with all that cheese in there, it definitely isn't a light and healthy vegetarian choice. But boy did it taste good.

Cauliflower and almond soup with Harissa

I'm sure you are all familiar with this dilemma. You find a great recipe, but it contains ingredients you don't usually use. However, the recipe looks so great you just have to run off to the grocery store, buying jars of x, y and z. You open all your little jars and cook whatever wonderful thing you were craving. After cooking that recipe, all those jars get pushed to the back of the fridge and won't get used again. Six months later you find them when you are doing a deep cleaning of your fridge, and realise there is mould in every colour of the rainbow growing in your jars.

Last week I made a batch of one of my favourite soup, Moroccan chickpea soup. So I opened a new jar of Harissa paste. And almost showed the jar into the back of the fridge. Then I decided this time I will be using up all that Harissa, not letting it go to waste. After all, it's quite a small jar, so I figured it can't take too many different dishes to use it all up.

I got this recipe from Best Friend, as we were exchanging recipes over lunch. The recipe is from BBC Good Food although I did add some roasted garlic to the recipe. Roasted garlic is absolutely amazing. I know using a whole garlic sounds like too much, but the flavour gets really rounded and much milder after roasting. So you can easily add a whole garlic to the soup. I originally got the idea of combining cauliflower and garlic from this amazing roasted cauliflower soup featured at Avocado Pesto. And it's such a great combo. So I thought it would be nice in this soup as well. The soup is very quick and easy to prepare, perfect to cook on a weeknight after coming home from the gym. Chuck the garlic in the oven and the cauliflower in the pot, let it all cook while taking a shower, and then hit it up with the old blender after drying your hair and dressing in your favourite jammies. Slouch on the couch, watch an episode of Downton Abbey and enjoy a big bowl of hot soup. Maybe with a glass of white wine.

Moroccan spiced cauliflower & almond soup (serves 4):
1 garlic
1 large cauliflower (I used 1.5 medium sized ones)
2 tbsp olive oil plus a drizzle for the garlic
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp Harissa paste
1 l vegetable or chicken stock (I used chicken)
50 g toasted flaked almonds

One serving contains 223 kcal (15 g fat, 17 g total carbs, 7.6 g protein).

The howto:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the top off the garlic, drizzle with oil and wrap in aluminium foil. Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until soft. Or if you are lazy, do as me, just toss a whole garlic onto a roasting tray, no oil or foil. Meanwhile, separate the cauliflower into florets, and prepare the broth (i.e. turn on the kettle, and mix the hot water with a chicken stock cube). Heat the oil in a soup pot, add spices and Harissa paste and cook for two minutes. Add cauliflower, almonds and stock, and cook until cauliflower is soft, about 20 minutes. When the garlic is done, let it cool until cool enough to handle, and use a fork to remove the garlic cloves from the shells. Add the garlic to the soup and blend to desired consistency. Serve with some Harissa and almond flakes on top. 

The verdict:
This soup is a bit more spicy than I would usually like, but in a good way. It not spicy enough to hurt my mouth, but it has a bit of a kick. It's great and warming when you sit in your apartment and look out the window at the rain pouring down outside. The garlic goes great with the kick from the Harissa and the smooth mellow flavour of the cauliflower. Almonds were the part of this recipe that I felt a bit ambiguous about as I'm not a huge fan of almonds in general. But in this recipe the almonds really work well, they make a great contrast with the garlic and Harissa. I think this soup would be great served with a drollop of sour cream or yoghurt, or maybe cheesy garlic bread. I had it with rye bread which was also a great combo, especially when I popped the bits of the rye bread into the soup so that they got all soft and mushy. 

This recipe will definitely be a strong contender for favourite cauliflower soup as I'm really into Harissa right now. I don't like really spicy foods especially if they have heat from chilli as I just don't like the flavour of chilli, I like my spicy foods to be a bit on the sweet side. But in Harissa it works perfectly as the chilli is combined with sweeter flavours such as sweet pepper and tomato. So although I will remain a food wimp until the day I die, at least I have found one recipe that lets me pretend I like spicy food.

Friday quickie

To celebrate the fact that nothing too bad has happened to me on this Friday the 13th, I decided to whip up some quickie comfort foods and curl up on the sofa to enjoy them (yes, I do lead such an exciting life...). For me, Friday food has to be something quick and simple, with only a few ingredients and not too much fuss, but it also has to be something yummy. Funnily enough, it also seems to contain cumin very frequently.


I had a cauliflower lying around in my fridge which needed to be used up, so I decided to make roasted cauliflower with yoghurt and pomegranate, a recipe I stumbled upon at Epicurious and have made semi-regularly. Mint is one of my favourite herbs, but I hardly ever use it for some strange reason. Here, I love the freshness of the mint and yoghurt combined with the warm softness of the cauliflower. And it's really quick to prepare (apart from seeding the pomegranate, which is a bit of a messy task, but well worth it when you taste the result).


I also wanted something sweet for dessert (I *will* get back to my "no sugar, no wheat, no dairy" nutrition plan next week, I promise...). The perfect excuse to make this dessert was that I wanted to use up the last quark and cream which were left over from my Easter baking bonanza. This quark dessert is something I can remember all the way back from my childhood, so it truly counts in the category of comfort food. 

Quark is a soured milk product, basically a type of soft and velvety cheese. The taste is very mild, a bit like cream cheese, but a bit more sour and fresh. Back home you can buy all sorts of flavoured quarks, which is something I really miss. Berry quark, vanilla quark, white chocolate and lime quark and many more. In the UK, it seems like you can only get fat free, natural (i.e. non-flavoured) quark. Quark makes a nice, fresh and not too sweet dessert which is great on it's own like served here, or amazing served on meringue nests with a bit of chocolate sauce. There are endless variations you can make by substituting other berries or fruits. A great mix is strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, or mango and banana. If you want to make it more healthy you can completely leave out the whipped cream and mix quark with berries or fruits and maybe a drollop of honey.

And finally, the actual recipe for the roasted cauliflower (serves 2):
1 large cauliflower
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
sea salt flakes, pepper
100 g organic, natural, full fat yoghurt (I prefer Greek yoghurt)
1 pomegranate
a few mint leaves


The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 C. Break the cauliflower up into florets, toss with oil, cumin, salt and pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes, or until the florets look a bit darkened and crispy. Meanwhile, deseed the pomegranate, and mix pomegranate seeds with yoghurt, a pinch of salt and pepper and finely chopped mint. 


One serving contains approximately 280 kcal (13.6g fat, 35.5g total carbs and 9.6g protein). I use MyFitnessPal to estimate nutritional content, and take no responsibility for the accuracy of the estimates.

Ingredients for quark dessert (serves 3-4):
250 g quark 
150 ml double cream
40 g Whittard Rhubarb White Hot Chocolate (or 3 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla extract)
200 g strawberries
100 g raspberries

Quark howto:
Mix cream and hot chocolate (or sugar and vanilla extract) and beat until peaks form (the quark is pretty thick so don't overwhip the cream to get a nice smooth texture of the dessert). Mix cream with quark, and add berries. Try to refrain from eating the whole batch in one sitting. Or just overindulge...


One serving (a third of the whole recipe) contains 400 kcal (28g fat, 23.6g total carbs, 13.5g protein).


The verdict:
Cauliflower: yummy. Quark: yummy. Could I have some more, please?