Hey there fellow foodies!
Welcome back to my recipe blog.
Well, it looks like summertime has finally hit jolly old England at last! Blue skies (sometimes.), Sunshine (usually when I'm at work.) and people everywhere showing a complete disregard for style as milk-bottle white legs get revealed underneath daft shorts and football shirts are proudly worn.
Oh, and I think there's some sort of sporting event happening in south America.
At this time of year there's nothing I like more than a fresh crisp salad of an evening, with a few ripe tomatoes and good olives, simply dressed and maybe lying alongside a nice rare tuna steak or stuffed chicken breast with some good bread. I have, you'll be pleased to know, been doing some cooking as well so I can share more recipes with you.
As it turns out both the recipes this week are vegetarian sides, rich tangy braised red cabbage and creamy unctuous cauliflower cheese. ( as I write this now I'm also scoffing down left over cauli cheese, just warm, with salad and I think it makes a good meal in itself.)
Also, you may like to know, cauliflower was one of the last things I didn't used to like when I was young, I think it was standard practise in the '80's to boil it till it was grey and mushy and serve it, still soaking wet so that it watered down everything else on the plate. Horrible!
Thankfully I think people everywhere today are more aware of good cooking in general, and cooking vegetables properly in particular, These days Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables, especially when it's smothered in a good cheese sauce.
The braised red cabbage recipe is also one of my favourite sides, it's one of the things I cooked on Masterchef and I've barely changed the recipe since then, the only real difference is that I let it braise for longer and slower these days. It's easy to do and goes great with steak, pork chops, duck or venison. It also freezes really well so you can make a load of it and freeze it for later use, it's easily re-heatable then for when you need it in a hurry!
Right then, lets crack on as I want to go out for a walk in the cooling evening air.
Creamy Cauliflower Cheese Recipe:
Equipment:
Large saucepan of salted boiling water.Deep fat fryer set at 150 degrees c. (or you can use a wok or deep frying pan with about 1" of oil )
Gratin dish 10" x 5" x 3" deep.
Medium saucepan.
Clean dry tea towel.
Ingredients:
1 large cauliflower.2 tablespoons of butter.
2 tablespoons of plain flour.
approx 500ml/ 1 pint of milk.
200g of extra mature Cheddar, grated.
50g of Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, finely grated.
Approx 3 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs. ( I've used Panko breadcrumbs for mine, but home made are as good.)
A good grate of nutmeg.
salt and ground white pepper. ( you can use black pepper if you like, but the reason for using white pepper in these sort of sauces is so that you cant see the pepper in the finished sauce.)
Method:
Cut the florets of cauliflower from the stem, try not to break them up too much, it doesn't matter if they are different sizes.Separate the larger florets from the smaller ones. We are going to deep fry the smaller ones as they add a nice difference of texture to the finished dish.
Put the larger florets into your pan of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes. You want the cauliflower to be just done, to test for this, find a medium sized floret and stick a sharp knife into the thickest part of the stem. It should still be firm.If you are happy with them take them off the heat, remove from the saucepan straight onto a clean tea towel.
This will remove a lot of the excess water, and they will gently steam away the rest of the water.
Now take the smaller florets and drop them into the pre-heated deep fat fryer for about 5 minutes until they start to take on a lovely golden brown colour.
Arrange all of the cauliflower in the gratin dish and pop it in the fridge whilst you make the cheese sauce.
This will help remove any traces of water.
In your medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour to make a roux. Mix together well and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add a little of the milk to the roux and mix until smooth, then add the rest of the milk a bit at a time stirring constantly. if you do get any lumps then a quick whisk will get rid of these.
Gently bring the sauce up to the boil, stirring constantly then remove from the heat and add the two cheeses. Season with salt and pepper and grate in the nutmeg. You should end up with a good thick pouring sauce about the thickness of double cream.
Cover the cauliflower with the sauce and you can either bang it in the oven straight away or cover with clingfilm and return to the fridge until you're ready to cook it off.When you are ready to cook it off, remove from the fridge, take off the cling film and
heat your oven to 160 degrees c/ gas mark 4.
Braised Red Cabbage Recipe:
This is dead easy to do!Equipment:
Large cast iron cooking pot.A good sharp knife.
Ingredients:
1 large red cabbage, about 800g/ 2lb in weight.
350ml of good medium or dry cider.
1 Bramley, or cooking apple, peeled and finely sliced.
4 shallots or 1 medium onion, finely sliced.
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced.
approx 100g of butter.
A splash of red wine vinegar.
a grate of nutmeg.
salt and pepper.
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 120 degrees c/ gas mark 2.
Remove any tough outer leaves from the red cabbage and cut into quarters. Remove the core from each quarter and slice the remaining cabbage as finely as you can.
Put your pot on the stove over a medium heat and add a knob of the butter, then gently saute the sliced onions for a few minutes.
Add the sliced garlic and, after a couple of minutes, add in the cabbage and the apple slices.
Give everything a good mix round and add the cider.
Bring to the boil on the stove then remove from the heat, add the rest of the butter and season very well with salt and pepper and the nutmeg.
Put the lid on the pot and stick in the oven for 2-3 hours, remove a couple of times to check how its doing and to give it a good stir.The apples will dissolve into the braised cabbage and there should be very little liquid left in the bottom of the pot. The cabbage itself will be very tender, sweet, and delicious. check the seasoning and add some more salt and pepper, if you like.
If there is a bit too much liquid left after cooking, just pop the pot back onto the stove and heat, uncovered, stirring constantly until the liquid has steamed away.
As I said, the braised red cabbage is great to freeze, let it cool first then either portion up in freezer bags or plastic containers. I used some the other day that had been in the freezer since Christmas day, and it was still absolutely gorgeous!
Well, thanks again for viewing blog buddies. I'd especially like to thank the 10 people in Iran who had a look at my Key lime and coconut jelly pie recipe last week! If you are looking at this one, I'd love to know if you made the pie, or if you have made anything else from my blog.
Until next time then foodie friends, wherever you are in the world!
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