Cauliflower cheese souffle

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I was invited to a local Supper Club and the theme is to cook a side dish inspired by a favorite or recently read book. I happen to have a lot of cauliflower from both the Farmer’s market and the CSA box this week so I figured I better go from there. So I am again ingredient inspired vs. book inspired. However, the recipe I found does come from a recently purchased cookbook which I haven’t used yet so that should count for something!

The cookbook is called ‘In Season: Cooking with Vegetables and Fruits’ by Sarah Raven and has great recipes and even better pictures of all of the food. There were three listings under cauliflower – Vegetable Korma, Cauliflower soup and Cauliflower cheese with Lord Dairymple’s top. I thought the cheese one sounded perfect and simple so I chose that one.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, plus a little more to grease the dish

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (yes this has flour but sometimes a little isn’t too bad and white flour in small amounts doesn’t seem to bother me)

6 tablespoons cream

8 ounces strong Cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I used dijon)

6 eggs, separated

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut up the cauliflower into chunks and steam for 3-4 minutes. Put into the bottom of a buttered souffle dish. {At this point I realized I was making a souffle and got very nervous as I have never made a souffle before…but I had the ingredients ready and was already committed so I kept going.}

Melt the butter, add the flour and stir over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the cream and cheese. When I did this the butter separated from the flour and I hoped this didn’t ruin it. Season with the salt (I did about a teaspoon) and pepper (half teaspoon) and add the mustard and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of heavy cream.

Take off the heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Whisk the egg whites (I beat them in a stand mixer until peaks formed) and fold in (in stages). Pour the souffle mixture over the cauliflower and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the top is risen and turned brown. It took about 20 min for me.

Photo credit: Nick Saltmarsh on Flickr

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