I wanted some ideas for a cheesy cauliflower casserole, so I looked around online and came across this one...
Cauliflower Cheese from BBC's "good food"
The recipe amounts were listed in grams and mls. (it's English/British), but you could click to change it to American measurements. It had good reviews so it seemed like something good to try out.
I disobeyed the recipe at the beginning. The directions said to boil your fresh cauliflower florets...but every time I have ever boiled cauliflower, it gets horribly waterlogged (and why boil the nutrients out of it?). So I baked the florets until they were tender crisp.
Next, they have you making a white sauce with butter, flour and milk.
Then you add shredded cheddar and stir until cheese is melted. The recipe never mentions salt and pepper...but I added some and also some paprika.
Pour this over the cauliflower in a baking dish.
Top with bread crumbs (I used panko), and bake. It looks good, doesn't it?
Nope, it wasn't! It was bland and paste-y. It was edible...but just not really good.
I have tried macaroni and cheese recipes that start with a white sauce like that, and I never care for those either. I just don't like that extra starchiness.
So thumbs down on this one.
We tried to force a little of it down...along with our Sunday dinner of grilled bratwurst and polish sausage with sauteed onions and green peppers, homemade macaroni salad, skillet fried cabbage, and crash hot potatoes.
Dessert was Vanilla Pear Custard Kuchen with a side of vanilla ice cream.
If anyone has a good method or recipe for a cheesy cauliflower dish, I would appreciate having it!
No recipe from The Beeb. There's this saying the difference between heaven and hell is who has which job. In heaven the Germans are the Engineers, the French are the Cooks, and the British are the Police. In hell the Germans are the Police, the French are the Engineers, and the British are the Cooks.
ReplyDeleteHa! I wish I had heard that before trying the recipe! Should have known it would be bad when I noticed a recipe for baked mackerel on the same site. I won't be trying that one!
DeleteI liked it pretty well. The cheese sauce part was tasty. I was thinking potatoes instead of cauliflower and maybe a little cayenne pepper for some heat... Or maybe broccoli would be better.
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks! Those are some good suggestions...maybe I could work on this recipe and improve on it. Less flour too, and maybe some velveeta instead of all cheddar.
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