Cauliflower cheese bake

½ large or 1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1 small tin sweetcorn (optional)
250 ml milk
1 heaped teaspoon flour
2 tsp olive oil or similar amount of butter
Salt, pepper, 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
A little more butter and milk for the potatoes
c 60-100 g cheese, grated (should be 60 g but I'm greedy!)
If liked, a tomato or several cherry tomatoes, sliced or halved

Steam cauliflower florets and potatoes. Make a whisked or roux sauce, as preferred, with milk, flour, seasonings, oil/butter.  Add the tin of sweetcorn, if using, and half the cheese.

Place the cooked cauliflower florets into an oven-proof dish, and tuck the hard-boiled eggs in beside the handles (so you know where they are!). Top with the sauce, then with the potatoes you have mashed with the extra butter and milk (and seasoned), with the rest of the grated cheese and, if liked, the sliced or halved tomatoes.  Bake in a moderate oven for 30-45 minutes.

Cauliflower recipes

No posts for ages, then two come along at once. Mostly because we have, for the first time for ages, bought a cauliflower, and I have been thinking of my two favourite ways to eat it.  The first is very quick to make:

1 small, or ½ large cauliflower, cut into florets
Large chunk of butternut squash, peeled and diced
Small slab Feta cheese
1/2 cup (125 ml) by volume dry couscous
Olive oil
Rosemary or thyme
1 tin tomatoes      )
1 heaped tsp flour )

OR

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Steam the cauliflower florets; spray the squash with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary or thyme.  Microwave it for 4 minutes (you can roast it if you have time, which is nicer, but this is a quick meal).  Soak the couscous in 250 ml boiling water for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make a tomato sauce by whisking the tin of tomatoes with the flour (seasoning it to taste) and then adding this to a saucepan with c 2 tsp olive oil; bring to the boil, stirring all the time, and ideally simmer for a few minutes.  If you prefer, you can make a fresh tomato sauce with 1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes, pierced, cooked for a few minutes in olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar and then mashed!

Mix the squash, couscous and feta and served topped with the cauliflower and the tomato sauce.