Choû-Fleur Au Gratin - Cauliflower Au Gratin

'Choû-Fleur' has an elegant ring to it doesn't it?  Well, it's simply French for cauliflower.  I love cauliflower in any form I can get it; raw on a crudité platter, soup, tempura, steamed.  Mostly, at my house, it gets steamed, mashed and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper.  That is my dinner many nights when I get home from work and am not super hungry.

I've been reading this book for quite some time now.  It was published by Gourmet Magazine in the 1950's and 1960's.  It's like a travel guide to the food in the different Provinces of France.  During those decades we in the United States were not as familiar with French cooking as we are now; thank goodness for Julia Child, so this served as an introduction to many basic French foods that are common place to us now. It's been a super interesting read and I have been having fun with basic French cooking through this book.  It was in this book that I found the recipe that I use as the base for any quiche I make.

Back to the cauliflower....  This evening I wasn't particularly hungry so I decided to do something with a head of cauliflower, oh, pardon me, choû-fleur, that I had in the fridge.  I decided to go very French basic.

Using this book I made Cauliflower Au Gratin.



Start with a nice, head of cauliflower.  Select one that is very white and void of a lot of brown spots.



Remove the green leaves and core the head.  Coring will help the separation into florets easy.



Separate the head into florets.  This is a pretty good size.



Rinse in a colander.



Place the cauliflower in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook the  cauliflower until tender yet a little crunchy; about 3 to 4 minutes.  Pierce one of the larger pieces of cauliflower to test.  You don't want to cook it completely.  

Normally I would steam the cauliflower but I want to boil the cauliflower this time so I will have some cooking liquid to add to the sauce.  Drain the cauliflower and save 1/2 cup of the liquid.  Set the cauliflower aside.

Since this is a gratin, there is going to be a sauce that the cauliflower bakes in.  To be a proper gratin this sauce will form a crust on the surface of the cauliflower when baked.

So now we make the sauce.  The base of most French cream sauces is a Béchamel sauce.  In the U.S.  we all learned to make this in Home Economics class as a white sauce.

The sauce we'll make for our gratin is a Mornay sauce which is a Béchamel glorified with cheese and cooking liquid from whatever you are cooking with.


 
Let's make a basic Béchamel which is equal parts butter, flour and milk seasoned with a little grated nutmeg. For this recipe we are going to make 2 cups of white sauce.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in the same saucepan that you cooked the cauliflower.  Once the butter has finished bubbling, whisk in 2 Tbsp. flour and blend until you make a paste, or a roux.  Whisk off fire and allow to cook for a minute or two to rid the mixture of a floury taste.



Add 2 cups of very hot milk and whisk until smooth.  Return to fire and whisk until the sauce begins to thicken.

Now, here is where the Béchamel sauce becomes Mornay Sauce.  Add the 1/2 cup of reserved liquid that you cooked the cauliflower in.    Boil until you have reduced the sauce by a good quarter.  This is an important step.  If you don't do this your gratin might be a little watery (which in itself will not ruin this dish.  But not much can ruin this dish).



Stir in the Parmesan and Gruyère cheeses.  Return to a low heat and stir in make sure the cheeses melt.


 
Add the nutmeg.  Remove from the heat and finish the sauce with 2 Tbsp. butter.  (hey, remember this is a French dish.  There will be a lot of butter).



Coat the bottom of the dish with some of the Mornay sauce.



Fold the cauliflower into the remainder of the sauce and coat thoroughly.



Pour the cauliflower into the gratin dish and top with the reserved Gruyère cheese and bake in a 375°F. oven for 40 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.



This is so fabulous and will make the perfect side dish for any entreé.


Choû-Fleur Au Gratin - Cauliflower Au Gratin
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients: 
1 head cauliflower
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg, preferably fresh ground
1/2 cup reserved cauliflower cooking liquid 
3 ounces Gruyere cheese, divided
2 ounces Parmesan cheese

Mise en Place:

• remove green leaves from cauliflower, core and break into florets.  Rinse and set aside
• measure out salt
• divide butter in 2 Tbsp. portions
• measure out flower and milk
• measure out nutmeg
• shred cheeses and set aside 1 ounce of the Gruyère from rest
• equipment:  saucepan, colander and gratin dish

Method:
Preheat oven to 375°F.  Place cauliflower in saucepan and cover with water.  Add 1/2 tsp. salt to the water.  Bring to a boil and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until cauliflower is tender yet still crunch.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and drain cauliflower in a colander.  Set aside.

Prepare the sauce.  In the same saucepan you cooked the cauliflower, melt 2 Tbsp. of the butter.  When the butter has stopped bubbling, pull saucepan off the heat and whisk in the flour until you have a roux.  Allow to cook off heat for a minute or two.  Heat the milk in the microwave for 3 minutes or until very hot.  Return pan to heat and add the milk to the roux and whisk until smooth and sauce begins to thicken.  Add the reserved cooking liquid and blend.  Cook sauce until it is reduced to by one quarter.  Pull pan off heat and whisk in the 2 ounces each of Gruyère and Parmesan.  Return to low heat and stir until the cheese is melted.  Add the nutmeg.  Pull pan off heat and finish off with the remaining two Tbsp. butter.

Cover the bottom of the gratin pan with some of the sauce.  Fold the cooked cauliflower into the sauce and stir to coat.  Pour into the gratin dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown.

Asparagus Mornay

Nothing cries out 'Spring is here!' more than a big bundle of fresh asparagus.  Lovey and I were recipients recently of a huge bundle of freshly picked asparagus from our neighbor's garden.  I guess I should clarify that we did not nick the asparagus from our neighbor's garden.
It was enough to enjoy for two nights.  With half of our bounty I made Garlic Asparagus, which is our go-to twice a month way to eat our favorite green vegetable.

I treat fresh asparagus the same way I would a bouquet of flowers.  I cut a thin slice, on the bias, off the bottom of each stalk and place them in a size-appropriate container that has about an inch of water in it.  You can use a pretty vase or a jar, and if you're really classy like me you can put them in this plastic margarita mug that was purchased at a 2005 Summer Mummer's performance; it's the perfect size.  Store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use.

To use the rest of the asparagus I looked through my daunting box of recipe clippings and found a recipe from the May 1997 issue of Southern Living.  The recipe was submitted by Ellie Wells from Lakeland, Florida.

When you are ready to prepare the asparagus hold the tip in one hand and the base in the other.  With the hand that is holding the base, gently push the spear away from you and it will snap naturally where the spear begins to get tough.  Spears that are nice and thin really don't need this treatment.  You can also, at your discretion, peel the fat spears 3/4  of the way up the spear.

Get the ingredients for the mornay sauce ready to go.  You have butter, flour, half-and-half, ground nutmeg, salt, bouillon, and Swiss cheese

Now for the asparagus.  Ellie prefers to boil her asparagus covered in water for about 8 to 10 minutes.  I prefer to steam mine and it doesn't take that much time for it to reach the crisp-tender that you will want for this recipe.

When the asparagus is crisp-tender, place it in a lightly greased 11" x 7" pan.

Begin your sauce, as so many sauces are, by melting the butter and adding the flour to make a roux.

Whisk until smooth and continue whisking as the roux cooks for about a minute.  This will alleviate a floury taste.

Slowly add the bouillon, half-and-half, nutmeg and salt.  Continue cooking this over medium heat whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbly.

Remove your saucepan from the heat and stir in the cheese until melted.

Pour the mornay sauce over the asparagus and top with the cracker crumbs.

Place under the broiler until lightly browned. 

Okay, here's the deal.  I have been wrestling whether to show you the finished product or not.  My first inclination was, "No way".  I'm so embarrassed to show you how stupid I was.  On the other hand I'm only human and we all screw up in the kitchen don't we?  It wasn't like I was making this for company.

While the asparagus was under the broiler I made the mistake of going over to the sink to work on cleaning up this mess.

Before I knew it, this is what my beautiful dish looked like.

Heaven knows this is why I would never want to be a contestant on 'The Next Food Network Star'.  I would be brow beaten and brought to my knees in tears.

Believe it or not, the over-browning did not hurt the flavor of this dish whatsoever.  I'm still in denial - it's b-u-r-n-t, okay?  A little advice... stand in front of your oven and keep an eye on food that is being broiled.

I was really pleased with this recipe and it will grace our table again.

Asparagus Mornay
Yield:  4 servings

Ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds fresh asparagus
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon granules
2 Tbsp hot water
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup half-and-half
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese
2 round buttery crackers

Mise en Place

• Snap off touch ends of asparagus and rinse the asparagus in cold water.
• dissolve chicken bouillon granules in the hot water
• measure out butter, flour, half-and-half, nutmeg and salt
• shred cheese
• crumble up crackers in small baggie

Method:
Lightly grease and 11" x 7" casserole and set aside.  Steam asparagus until crisp-tender (about 5 - 8 minutes).  Drain and pat dry with paper towels.  Arrange the asparagus in the bottom of the prepared casserole.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  Whisk in flour until smooth.  cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute.  Gradually whisk in the bouillon, half-and-half, nutmeg, and salt; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted.  Pour mixture over asparagus; sprinkle with cracker crumbs.

Broil 6 inches from heat for 3 - 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

Source:  Southern Living ~ May 1997