Cauliflower cheese

Here’s a little something you didn’t know about me: I am obsessed with Sunday lunch. Like, can’t stop thinking about it, want it every-single-day kind of obsessed. I think it’s because Sunday lunch was such a huge thing in our family when I was younger. My gran was the ultimate cook. She used to run her own catering business as well as a small hotel in the coastal town of Margate so she knew her stuff. Sunday’s saw us going over to her house after church for a proper Sunday Lunch. We were met with a warm smile, an even warmer hug and the delectable scent of meat roasting, vegetables cooking and gravy simmering. As lunch time crept closer, my beloved Ouma would bring out dish after dish of the most delicious food. There would often be more than one type of roast meat, a chicken pie, perfectly roast potatoes, steamed rice, gravy and a plethora of vegetable dishes. “Soet patats” (sweet potato cooked then mashed with sugar and butter), carrots, green beans cooked with potato and onion until soft and savoury and cauliflower or broccoli in cheese sauce. This was followed by another table filled with desserts. The thing with these lunches was that yes, the food was amazing and I would give anything to be able to have her cook me a meal like that again, but the thing that stayed with me the most was that we were together as a family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. We would all sit together and eat and laugh and build memories. That is why I am so obsessed with Sunday Lunch. But of course, the food is absolutely essential. There would be none of that bonding if we didn’t all have a healthy plate of food in front of us. As a child, I would have a bit of everything except for the cauliflower cheese. I didn’t like the look and smell of it and my mother told me that if I dished something, I had to eat it so I didn’t even look at the casserole dish topped with melted cheese. Now, many years later, cauliflower cheese (along with crispy roasted potatoes and gravy) is my favourite part of Sunday Lunch. I make it often because C could live off the stuff and every time I make it I could kick myself for being such a little brat when I was younger because I know that my gran’s would’ve probably been the best I had ever tasted. This cauliflower cheese recipe is made in much the same way my gran used to make hers. The cauliflower is cut into florets and then mixed with a very-cheesy cheese sauce flavoured with nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne pepper and lots of white pepper before being baked under a blanket of grated cheese. Absolutely mouth-watering!

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Cauliflower cheese

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 20 mins

 

Course: Casserole, Vegetarian

Servings: 6 -8 as a side dish

Author: Alida Ryder

Ingredients

for the cheese sauce

• 125 g/1 stick butter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 4 cups milk heated with 1 bay leaf and 2 peppercorns
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 cup grated mature cheddar
• salt to taste

for the cauliflower cheese

• 2 large heads cauliflower cut into florets
• 1 cup grated mature cheddar

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°c.
2. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan then whisk in the flour until you have a thick paste/roux.
3. Slowly whisk in the warmed milk until you are left with a smooth, silky sauce.
4. Lower the heat and allow to simmer whilst stirring until the sauce is thick and the flour is cooked.
5. Add the nutmeg, cayenne, pepper and salt then remove from the heat and stir in the cheese.
6. Place the cauliflower in an oven-proof casserole dish then pour over the cheese sauce.
7. Cover with a sheet of greased foil then place in the oven and allow to bake for 30-45 minutes until the cauliflower is cooked to your preference.
8. Remove the foil then top with the remaining cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the cheese has melted.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.