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.
Now when I do this, I put a bay leaf in with the cauliflower while it's cooking - which stops the place smelling of cooked brassica. And I leave the potato in chunks that I mix in with the florets before putting the sauce round and more grated cheese on top.
ReplyDeleteHaven't tried it with hard-boiled eggs in, so that's something for another day, but have done it with sliced tomatoes between the cauliflower/potato layer and the cheese topping...
I nearly made it with a tin of tomato instead of milk, as we were a bit low on milk, but in the end there was just enough, and the Swan Whisperer picked up some more on his way home. And my daughter uses all sorts of different vegetables when she makes it.
DeleteThe eggs started from a vivid memory of "Eggs in corn and cheese sauce" as a very nice supper when I was at boarding-school (sadly, they lowered their costs by moving to communal kitchens half-way through my time there, and the food deteriorated quite dreadfully), and it does add another hit of protein to it.