Cauliflower, today is your day

I had a cauliflower hanging around in my fridge. And everytime I opened the door, it would ask me, when and what I was going to be doing with it. I thought it's a nice piece of vegetable and it tastes good, but, that I would like to do something else with it this time than just cook it in boiling water, as I usually do. So, I searched and browsed, and found a recipe for a cauliflower gratin from Chocolate & Zucchini. A gratin! Of course! why didn't I think of that before! Basic in a way and yet I hadn't done it before. And what's so great about this particular recipe is, that it uses Comté - a french cheese which has a great taste and the béchamel sauce adds a nice soft taste to it. I accompanied it with some chicken and green salad. And white wine. I recommend.



Cauliflower gratin ( for four people as a side dish)


One 1,5 kg cauliflower (trimmed into florets)
coarse salt
ground nutmeg
60 g Comté grated
25 g butter (unsalted)
25 g flour
1/3 liters milk
fine salt and ground pepper
2 tablespoons bread crumbs


Cook (or steam) the cauliflower with some coarse salt until soft. Heat oven to 180 °c and transfer the cauliflower into an oven dish. season with a hint of nutmeg and sprinkle half of the cheese on top.

Preparing the bechamél: measure the butter, flour and milk and set aside. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. When it starts to sizzle add all of the flour and stir well with a wooden spoon. Cook for three minutes, stirring constantly until creamy. The mixture should not get colour. Then pour in the milk and whisk well, so that any clumps are not left. Bring the sauce to simmer and cook for a few minutes, stirring the whole time as it thickens. Set aside to cool for a few minutes, then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Pour bechamél over the cauliflour, top with the remaining cheese and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until well gratineed. Let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.





Source: http://chocolateandzucchini.com