Cauliflower adn Goat Cheese Gratin
By: Giangi Townsend
Published: Friday, January 24, 2014 - 10:52am

Ingredients




tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for the baking dish
2 -3 cups whole milk
2 tablespoon flour
1 ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated
6 oz. herbed goat cheese, cut in small pieces
½ cup Parmesan Cheese
Salt and pepper
1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets, and each florets cut in half

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 350° and butter a 10 inch gratin baking dish. 2 Steam the cut cauliflower until slightly tender. Remove from heat and place in a dish to cool off. 3 Meanwhile in a heavy sauce pan over medium heat melt butter and whisk in the flour. Stir to blend and cook for I minute. Gradually add the milk while whisking constantly until the mixture has thickened. 4 Remove from heat and add the Monterey cheese, ¾ of the goat cheese and ½ of the Parmesan cheese. Taste and season with salt and pepper. 5 Transfer the sauce over the cauliflower and stir well. 6 Place the cheese and cauliflower mixture into the buttered gratin dish and top with remaining goat cheese and Parmesan cheese. 7 Place the gratin dish over a cookie sheet (for spillage) and bake until the cauliflower is tender and the top bobbly and golden brown. 8 Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

About

Coming home late and wanting to prepare a new recipe , can be a recipe for disaster. I have been wanting to prepare this great cauliflower gratin from Bobby Flays’s “Bar Americain Cookbook” for a while now, but every time I read the recipe I got discourage because it was  too late to start  and I did not have the time necessary to donate to it. Re reading the recipe  I decided it to modify it and make it more school night friendly.
Steaming the cauliflowers was a quick short cut that eliminate a good 20 minutes from the oven cooking and could be done alongside preparing the béchamel sauce. And voila, what was supposed to be an over one hour meal preparation it was done in less than 45 minutes.
We served along side a nice bone in pork chop.
TIP: * Life lesson from my grandmother: when cooking cauliflower,  squeeze a teaspoon of lemon in the water, or place some slices of lemon in the water. The lemon will absorb the smell that we are not too fond of.
* Make sure the cauliflower is not too cook but still has a bite or the whole plate will become mush.
* Using regular goat cheese is fine, actually that is what was required on the original recipe. I did not have any on hand.
* Use a good Monterey Jack cheese that is not too high on fat content.
Bon Appetit!!!
Giangi