Cauliflower Cheese
How to make a Cauliflower cheese with a Parmesan and breadcrumb crust, simple step by step instructions, from start to finish.
Ingredients
Method
- 1 Fresh Cauliflower (Medium size)
- 600mls / 1.1pts Milk
- 155g / 5½ Mature Cheddar cheese
- 40g / 1½oz Butter
- 40g / 1½oz Plain flour
- 100g / 3½oz Bread crumbs
- Extra grated Parmesan and Cheddar cheese for topping
- Start by cutting all of the leaves off the cauli where they meet the stem of the vegetable.
- Once all of the leaves are off, cut off the thick stem too.
- Now cut off the individual florets at the stem.
- Get all of your florets into a suitable pan.
- Add water to pan until it just covers all of the cauliflower florets, add a half tsp of salt.
- Bring the pot to a low boil, cover the pan and let it cook for 10 minutes.
- While the cauliflower is cooking, make the cheese sauce.
- To a saucepan on a medium heat, add the butter and let it melt.
- Now add the flour and give it a good mix for 1 minute.
- Now add your milk in 3 stages, start with a little, switch to a whisk and mix it all together, add the second part of the milk, whick until there are no visible lumps, add the remainder of the milk, and continuously stir until the sauce comes to a simmer
- Don’t add any seasoning just yet, wait to see what it tastes like after the cheese has gone in.
- Once it’s simmering, and add your grated cheese, switch back to a spatula, gently stir in the cheese until it melts.
- At this point, you should taste it for seasoning, add salt if needed
- And that’s it, a beautiful smooth and silky cheese sauce, now cover the pan, and set it aside for now.
- Carefully strain all of the water from the cauliflower.
- Before assembling the cauliflower cheese, preheat your oven to 180°C / 355°F / Gas mark 4.
- Gently tip the hot cauliflower into a suitable ceramic baking dish, see the video for the dimensions of the dish I use.
- Evenly spread them out, arrange the florets so they are pointing upwards.
- Ladle on the cheese sauce so the whole of the cauliflowers are covered, gently tap the dish on your worktop, to settle it down, and fill in any gaps.
- Sprinkle the breadcrumbs all over the top of the sauce.
- Finely grate the parmesan over the bread crumbs, use this sparingly, you do not need a lot.
- For extra colour, you can add a little grated cheddar or Red Leicester cheese, once again use this sparingly, you do not need a lot.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow it to settle on a wire rack for a moment or two, serve piping hot, on its own, or with other meals of your choice, see video for examples.
- Enjoy.
Equipment & products used in my kitchen and videos
