Allotments 4 All

I'm putting this here in answer to a PM - but also as an Aunt Sally. As ever, everyone will do things differently. Even to be cussed!

I agree with the typical ingredients of:

Cauli - really fresh, in bite size florets
Cheese - mature Cheddar
White sauce - either with all milk, or milk + cauli cooking water
Mustard
Nutmeg - some like it, some don't
Breadcrumbs - preferably wholemeal
To me, the main variables are the cooking of the cauli & the use of the cheese & breadcrumbs. Much depends upon whether you have the oven on hand (AGA) or use a grill.

!. We use the AGA, so we either don't pre-cook the cauli, or we steam it for 5 mins. Whether boiled (shame) or steamed, it MUST retain a crunch & identity.
2. If you grill, then obviously the veg must be at least al dente - but NO MORE!
3. We like to process ALL the cheese with the bread & use it as a topping crust.  However, 1/2 the cheese in the sauce works very well.
4. The sauce should be of thick, coating consistency - especially if you've boiled (shame!) the veg.

I also like to ring the changes by adding mini plum toms (our own frozen, for the last few mins), chicken stock, a bit of leek, or small red onion, lightly cooked in the roux for the sauce., or diced lardons................., & I always include the tender inside leaves!

This sounds good enough to be served on its own ... ?

As it normally is?  'Specially for the veggies!

Hard boiled eggs are nice added to it as well  :)

mmm... feel reet peckish now. :)

Me an all Sarah!  ;D

Ah obviously local differences Tim, as a Midlander, my plate has always had its share of carbohydrate. Fill em up so they stop crying ... My preference in this case would be for new potatoes, simply boiled so as not to compete ...

In a cauliflower cheese, Curry??

Sorry Tim no ... heaven forbid !!! As an accompaniment, on the same plate, basically to bulk the meal and balance it nutritionally. But the cauliflower cheese should be the centre, anything else is merely support.

I've not come across the use of breadcrumbs, Tim. White sauce flavoured with curry leaves or bay. Chopped green chilli used in the roux. Parmesan rather than cheddar. Mustard powder, of course. Difference here is that I didn't learn to cook til I lived abroad - and that's how it was cooked there & I've followed that recipe.

thank you ever so much my other half's step mother made it for him about 6 years ago most unfortunately for me he hasn't spoken to her for nearly 3 years and it was only Monday just gone that he told me (i had to nag ) Ware he had it from mine is never good enough  :'( ill try mixing the three recipes i have up a bit ill get  it right one day but when i do it will be (sods law) that i dont write down what i have done to make it thank you once again from a very frustrated loulou

Go for it lou, there isn't a wrong way. ;D

Geoff.

May I suggest NOT putting everything in? Hedge your bets!

Lishka - like kedgeree? But the crumbs are the essence of the home grown one.
Love parmesan, but the others don't!

about thirteen years ago when I first moved to this town and didnt know more than a couple of people, I met a georgous guy.
That winter I came down with an illness which laid me low for many weeks and I was a poor and sorry soul shivering in a horrid bedsit watching daytime television and feeling extremely sorry for myself.  There came one day a knoocking at my window and opening the door I found standing there the gorgeous guy holding out a steaming oven dish containing a humble cauliflower cheese.  It was a day a I will always remember.  He was so lovely I just had to marry him. :)

What a lovely tale.

That's the missing ingredient in my list!!

;D

romance is always better with a good cheese sauce! :-*

Keep your parmesan rinds till you make a cheese sauce.  After getting past the roux stage and onto the not-much-milk getting gloopy stage, shove the parmesan rinds in.  Carry on as normal and remove the rinds just before serving. The parmesan oils leech into the sauce giving a deeper flavour.

Also use the rinds by shoving into a wide necked bottle with good Extra V olive oil for 4 days or so, remove and use oil on salads, pasta etc. Haven't tried this one yet, but sounds great, particularly for summer food.

Well that's a new one!