a lovely-and foolproof- cauliflower cheese recipe please

[lunavix]

I've never made anything with a cheese sauce before... I'm not entirely sure if it's anything like a white sauce (that's the one you put on lasagne, right?) but I messed that up the one time I've tried.

So easy please, but most importantly yummy

Yep, white sauce. By chance was just discussing caul cheese with my mother in law this evening. She says the trick is to make the sauce much thicker than you think, because then when the cauli oozes a bit it won't spoil the sauce and make it watery.

For foolproof white sauce buy cornflour and follow the pack instructions (works SO much easier than normal flour) except, bearing in mind what I said above, play with the proportions to make a super thick one in this instance. I add mustard as well as cheese, and a big dollop of crunchy peanut butter too. Then steam the cauli, put in dish, chesse over top, oven till looks done, say 20 mins.

My sis does a mean cali cheese - she cooks the cauli in microwave until more or less done, then puts dolmio white sauce for lasagne over it, with loads (and I mean loads!) of grated mature cheddar cheese, stirs it around, pops in oven and lets it all melt in, cauli softens a bit more etc and then adds an extra layer of grated cheese on top and pops back in oven for it to get a nice golden crispy top...mmmmm!!

Ooh...I'm hungry now....

To make a basic white sauce - melt a big bit of butter (anywhere from 50 - 100 g, depending on how much sauce you want!) and once it's melted, stir in teaspoonfuls of plain flour with a wooden spoon until it goes clumpy, but all the flour has been absorbed by the butter (ie it's a yellow clump). Put the pan back on the medium heat for a minute, and then take it off the heat (I just pick it up) and stir in milk a bit at a time. It's easier if the milk is room temperature or warmed a bit, but I do it with milk straight from the fridge sometimes! Mix like crazy after you pour in each glug of milk. (Don't worry if it's lumpy - you can mix the lumps out, or whisk the sauce). Once you've got a runny sauce, put the pan back on the low heat and stir as often as you can until it starts to boil. Let it boil v v gently and keep stirring, adding more milk until it's the consistency you want. Then take it off the heat, and add grated cheese until it tastes as you want.

Then pour this over cauliflower that has been boiled or steamed for a few minutes, sprinkle more cheese over the top and put into a hot oven for 15 mins or so, until golden and bubbling.

Fantastic with sausages!

My trick is to let the cauli steam until really squelchy and mushy. For years I was cooking it more or less al dente thinking that dh would turn his nose up at my secretly favourite over-steamed soggy heap and after 15 years together he finally confessed last week that he likes it soggy but didn't want to offend me and didn't want me to think he could commit a crime against vegetables such as liking them squelchy!

But we think it goes with the sauce so much better if it's mushy.

I recently made a cauli cheese that turned out watery. My chef friend said the trick is to make sure the cauli is well drained. So if you boil it, make sure its drained and dabbed of any excess water.

You need mustard and far more cheese than most recipes suggest. A sprinkling of cayenne over the top (or paprika if you prefer it milder) also adds a bit of zing.

I agree that it is important to drain the cauliflower well after par boiling it ( I must admit I like it with texture) I quite like shallots and mushrooms with mine, so you saute them till softened and then mix them up with cauliflower and season.
For the cheese sauce, do a roux sauce like has already been mentioned, but I think a teaspoon of mustard which you add to the flour and butter mixture works really well. Then add loads of grated cheese (cheddar usually)
So pour sauce over your veg mix and then grate some extra cheese on top. I think Red leicester works well as it adds a bit of colour.
Put it in the oven at a medium temp until the top is brown.

cook the cauliflower and drain well (you can mix in some broccoili ). Melt a knob of butter in a sauce pan. Pour but not all 1/2 a pint of milk into the pan and heat gently. Mix 2 tablespoons of cornflour with the remaining milk to form a smooth paste. Then add to the sauce pan stirring constantly. As its verging on boiling it will start to thicken remove from heat and add grated cheese (as little or as much as you like) return to heat and stir til cheese is melted. Pour the cheese sauce onto the cauliflour and sprinkle with cheese and place in the the oven to brown or if you are in a rush like me i stick it under the grill. Also for alternatives i sometimes add cooked pasta to the dish and broccoili aka cheese and pasta broccoili bake hmm delish....

all these "sprinkle the top with cheese"-ers - what about the breadcrumbs? Mixture of breadcrumbs (croissant crumbs even better) & parmesan gives a really good crispy tangy top. I make mine in a very shallow dish so's to have enough topping to meet demand.

Also make lots more sauce than you think you want - fill in all the cauli gaps.

Like the idea about the shallots and mushrooms ...

We steam the cauli - keeps it nicely shaped and not soggy. Also use a whisk to make the sauce rather than a wooden spoon, as is usually recommended. Love Lio's peanut butter idea - as soon as I can eat pnb again, I'm definitely doing that!