Luxurious Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon and Leeks

It always surprises me how many kids love cauliflower cheese because, face it, this is not the most attractive of vegetables. I make a big dish of this perennial family favourite once a fortnight or so, and although there are sometimes moans from the teens, there is never a morsel left in the dish.

If your kids turn up their noses at this humble dish, try my souped-up version, which is packed with flavour and many calories, containing as it does butter, bacon, wine, Parmesan and cream.

Do you notice how unapologetic I sound about this? I am, because life would be very miserable indeed, in my opinion, if it weren't for butter, bacon and cream. Do cut the strips of fat off the bacon rashers, though, as the fat will make the sauce oily.

The decadent topping of butter-fried breadcrumbs was suggested to me by someone on Twitter, who told me that this is a traditional Polish topping. If this is just too rich for you, sprinkle the top of the dish with equal quantities of dried breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan.

Luxurious Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon and Leeks

2 small cauliflowers, broken into florets
4 Tbsp (60 ml) butter
8 rashers back bacon, fat removed, diced
4 medium leeks, white parts only, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
a bay leaf
a large sprig of fresh thyme
½ cup (125 ml) white wine
100 ml flour
700 ml milk
2 tsp (10 ml) Dijon mustard
juice of half a lemon
1½ cups (about 150 g) grated Cheddar
3 Tbsp (45 ml) grated Parmesan
½ cup (125 ml) cream
salt and white pepper

To top:
1 cup (250 ml) fresh breadcrumbs
100 g butter
a little paprika or cayenne pepper

Heat the oven to 180 ºC.

Cook the cauliflower in rapidly boiling salted water for about 7-8 minutes, or until just tender. Drain well and set aside.

Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add the bacon bits. Fry for 2 minutes, then tip in the sliced leeks, garlic, bay leaf and thyme sprig. Turn down the heat and cook gently for about 7 minutes, or until the leeks are soft. Add the wine, turn up the heat, and bubble briskly until almost all the liquid has evaporated.

Now sprinkle the flour over the leeks and stir well. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring continuously as the sauce thickens. Allow to bubble gently for a few minutes to cook away any floury taste.

Stir in the mustard and lemon juice, and remove from the heat. Fish out the thyme and the bayleaf and discard. Now add the grated cheddar and Parmesan, and continue stirring until the cheese has completely melted. Finally, stir in the cream.

Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Pile the cooked cauliflower into a greased ovenproof dish and pour the sauce evenly over the top, nudging the florets so that the sauce seeps between them.

To make the topping, heat some butter in a frying pan and add the breadcrumbs. Fry until golden. Pour the butter/breadcrumb mix all over the top of the cauliflower cheese.

Dust very lightly with paprika or cayenne pepper and bake at 180º C for 20 minutes, or until golden and bubbling

Serve with a crisp green salad.

Serves 6 - 8

If you like this, try my Cauliflower with Butter, Lemon, Parsley and Crispy Breadcrumbs

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Quick, thick chicken soup for kids, using the remains of the roast

My goodness, but it's a palaver making a proper chicken soup. The concocting of the stock, the cooling of the bird, the plucking of the meat, the chopping and frying of the onions and other veg, the liquidising-in-batches of scalding liquid, and the dozens of dirty bowls, pots and sieves involved ... it just doesn't seem worth the bother, no matter how heavenly and heartwarming the result.

But I feel I have an obligation to make chicken soup for my family, the same creamy, thick, luscious, nutmeggy essence of chicken made by my own mom and her mom before her. Besides, it took me eight years to convince my daughter to eat soup, and Mom's Chicken Soup is the only soup she'll eat. Every time I put a picked-out chicken carcass on the stove to make a stock (which is generally once a week) she races into the kitchen, shouting 'Oh, goody! Chicken soup!'.

Here is a quicker version that omits the tiresome chopping and sautéing of veggies, and involves only a large saucepan, a colander, a big bowl and a liquidiser. It doesn't have the complex flavours of a properly made chicken soup, and it's thickened, I blush to admit, with flour, but I promise this is a passable version of the real thing.

Quick, thick chicken soup for kids

the leftovers of a roast chicken, excess skin and fat removed
1 large onion, peeled and cut in half
3 large carrots, peeled
a few sticks of celery, or a handful of fresh parsley, or both
2 bay leaves
5 black peppercorns
water
4 Tbsp (60ml) flour
4 Tbsp (60 ml) butter
1½ cups (375 ml) milk
juice of half a lemon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) freshly grated nutmeg
salt and milled black pepper
a dash of fresh cream (optional)

Put the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in a large saucepan, add just enough water to cover the ingredients, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over a gentle heat for an hour and a half, or until the stock has reduced slightly. Place a colander in a large bowl and tip the stock, bones and vegetables into the colander. Allow to drain for five minutes.

In the meantime, make a white sauce. Heat the flour and butter in the same saucepan in which you made the stock. Allow to bubble for a minute or so. Using a balloon whisk, whisk in the milk and continue stirring briskly until the mixture begins to thicken alarmingly. Immediately remove from the heat.

Now tip half the drained stock into a liquidiser and add the cooked onion, celery, parsley and carrots. Give it a good whizz to process everything finely, then pour the mixture into the milk/flour mixture. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, whisking constantly to disperse any lumps. Once the mixture is thickened and boiling, use the left-over stock to thin the soup to the desired consistency. Pick all the remaining bits and pieces off the boiled chicken, shred with your fingers and add to the soup. Add the lemon juice and a shower of nutmeg, and season well with salt and pepper. Add a splash of cream, if you like (but this isn't really necessary - the soup is quite silken enough without cream). Simmer for another 5 minutes, and serve hot.

Note: The final thickness of any white sauce depends on the strength of the flour. If you find your soup isn't quite thick enough, add a little flour or cornflour slaked with water.

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