Cauliflower cheese with smoky bacon recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Pork Ham Bacon Sausages | 14 comments
I love cauliflower cheese but for years battled unsuccessfully to create the best sauce. I thought that it should be a simple béchamel sauce with cheese.
Wrong.
My sauce was so thin that you could almost see the dish beneath due to the volume of liquid (water) produced by the cauli. So, after a few years, I gave up. My cauliflower cheese making enthusiasm was packed away.
When we miraculously brought Fred’s dying cauliflower back to life, I decided to have one final go. Miracles tend to spawn more miracles and I had a thought. If I made a very thick béchamel sauce, it might overcome the watery sauce problem. It worked.
We had an excellent Easter Day lunch at my sister’s. As we only wanted a snacky supper, we feasted on cauliflower cheese in a thick, cheesy, smoky bacon sauce. The left-overs heated up well a couple of days later (in an open dish in a moderate oven) and worked as a side dish to a tender, very young rack of lamb. Excellent.
Cauliflower cheese with smoky bacon recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 firm cauliflower
- 50g of butter
- 75g of plain white flour
- 500ml of milk
- 200g of mature cheddar cheese – grated
- 100g of smoked cooking bacon – chopped
- Breadcrumbs from two crusts of bread
Method:
- Start off with your smoked bacon. The texture of the bacon will balance the rest of the dish. The bacon needs to be crisp and, once done, will keep well in the vicinity of your stove as you prepare the other ingredients. Chop the bacon and fry over a gentle heat until it is golden brown.
- Meanwhile wash the cauliflower, divide into equal sized florets and add to a large saucepan of boiling water. Simmer for about eight minutes (testing after five) until cooked but with a bite. Drain through a colander and set the colander on the original saucepan, in a warm place to drain as you make your sauce.
- Heat the butter and, when it has melted, add the flour. Let this roux simmer for a minute or so to get a nuttiness. Add the milk gradually, stirring constantly so that the roux absorbs all the milk before you add the next splosh. In this way you should avoid lumps. When all the milk has been added let the sauce simmer for ten minutes to thicken. (My sauce was very thick at this stage).
- Meanwhile make your breadcrumbs. I used a small fork to scratch them off the crusty ends of a loaf.
- Add two thirds of the grated cheese to the thick béchamel sauce and stir until it is absorbed. Taste and season.
- Pour one third of the sauce into a warmed ovenproof dish. Add the cooked cauliflower and pour over the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs, the smoky bacon pieces and the remaining cheese over the surface of the dish and place under a medium grill for about five minutes to brown.
Leave a reply
Hi there, just stumbled on your site looking for some tips for a good cauli cheese recipe, and will be giving this a go tonite…I’ll probably add some cayenne & paprika with the breadcrumbs for a crunchy ‘bite’ on top…love your site, and will stay in touch… K xx
Hi Tony
The thought of the crunch of caraway seed almost has me reaching for the cauli that I bought today and it’s nearly midnight and well past suppertime!
Thanks for your input much appreciated!
Try Gruyere Cheese instead of Cheddar. To add a little more zing, try sprinkling a handful of Caraway seeds over the dish prior to putting under the grill! Garlic also gives more depth of flavour.
Hi Duncan
Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving a comment. The microwave method sounds good. The only problem for us is that we don’t have a microwave 🙂 This can be a real bore sometimes as so many cooking instructions are just for the microwave nowadays and I have to improvise in our Neanderthal stove!
Hi Ash,
A great recipe – but from a bone idle cook – instead of steaming the cauli just microwave it for 3-4 minutes – no added water, there’s plenty in it but it remains crunchy. You can do this to most veg with the same results for other things as well!
Hi Carol
Thanks for leaving a comment. Great twist the nutmeg and grainy mustard. Going to make cauliflower cheese tonight so will give that a go.
Just made this – it was divine! Thanks very much. I added a bit of nutmeg & grainy mustard to the cheese sauce to give it a kick. My boyfriend went back for thirds!
Thank you both. I, too, love cauliflower cheese but have also always suffered from watery sauce when I make it myself. I’m going to try it with steamed cauli and extra thick cheese sauce.
I’m almost glad that the weather is so cold so that I can make this wonderful warming dish today.
Hi Ash, good to see you back. The steaming is a great tip. Thanks.
That looks wonderful! I have basically the same recipe, except that I steam the cauliflower. I find any sogginess is completely avoided that way.
We eat this as a main course with a salad – the kids love it!