Gratin de choux-fleur

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 I was given a medium sized cauliflower and as it's not my favourite vegetable, struggled to know what to do with it. Have kept a few French cookery magazines, and I found this recipe in a very old one from 1998!

 It adds potatoes, lardons [bacon pieces], crème fraîche and cheese to the cauli, which makes it much more interesting

You need: 1 medium cauliflower, 100g lardons [bacon bits], 500ml crème fraîche, 3 medium potatoes, 50 g of grated Conté,  a good strong Cheddar or Beaufort cheese, 1 egg and some salt and pepper

Preheat oven 200C?Gas 6                 Grease a gratin dish [this amount feeds about 4 people]

Break the cauliflower up into florets and peel the potatoes. Cook them in boiling water for 15mins.

Beat the cream and egg together and add a little salt and pepper.

Spoon the cauliflower into the greased dish, slice the potatoes and add with the bacon pieces.

Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle over the cheese.

Bake for 15-20 mins then put under the grill for a nice brown top.


Even my veg hating grandson liked this! It's good on its own or as a side dish with a chop. A great way of using a cauliflower!

Comments

Suelle said…
Making a sauce from creme fraiche and an egg seems easier than making a roux - I'll try it next time I'm making a gratin.

I often add bacon, and mix cauliflower and pasta to make a hybrid cauliflower/macaroni cheese.
9/9/21 11:16 am
Phil in the Kitchen said…
In the 1970s I remember people cooking horrible, over-rich, oddly-coloured cauliflower cheese and then, in the 1980s, there was a fashion for even more horrible, fibrous, ugly roasted cauliflower. I never wanted to see another cauliflower. But in recent years, I've realised it doesn't have to be that way and I really enjoy a cauli now. This is exactly the kind of recipe to remind us of why it can be a really lovely bit of veg.
12/9/21 3:29 pm
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