A real short and sweet one today on doing a 360 on veg and loving to learn new ways to cook, and a very small round up of nice things.
I don’t know how to cook meat anymore. I used to be able to take any piece of animal and know exactly how to coax the deliciousness out of it. What combo of herbs would take it from nice to superb, whether to drizzle in oil before or massage salt into the skin, even the boring bits like what temperature to cook it at and for how long. I’d been doing it for so long I assumed it was instinct, and not years of trawling recipe books and cooking with the iPad propped up and some mild to moderate disappointments in between (don’t put belly pork plus the fat into a slow cooker with a tonne of liquid unless you want some kind of hideous pig jelly!) A few weeks ago I stood looking at a shoulder of pork and couldn’t remember if it needed to be cooked hot and quick or low and slow, with a generous glug of cider and a foil tent or bone dry and a bucket of salt. It’s been just over a year of not eating meat and yet the knowledge is leaving me. The way to get crispy, cracked skin whilst keeping the meat juicy and tender, once done without thinking, is now achieved through oodles of google and second guessing.
It’s reminded me though, that I can learn new things. Like I once learnt to cook meat, I can do stupendous things with vegetables. Back last year I was having a Sunday roast at a local pub, when they put a cauldron of bubbling cauliflower cheese down on the table. I can still taste it now, crispy cauli, perfectly smooth sauce with enough nutmeg to slay a whole pack of Elves. Honestly, in any other dish it would have been an unhinged amount of nutmeg, but here it just made the whole dish sing. I’ve spent all year fussing with cauli to try and replicate it. This boring, greige veg, has also been roasted whole and slathered in a herby goo (broadly fine, needs more tinkering and crucially, more goo) blitzed into a crumb and whacked over salmon (do not recommend) and more that once a month chopped into bitesize pieces, slathered in oregano salt and olive oil and roasted until just on the cusp of being charred and snacked on whilst dinner was being sorted (don’t tell my housemates this, thanks in advance!) All this from a vegetable I didn’t even eat two years ago.
I’ve already decided that next year I will potter with beans and chickpeas, as it turns out I don’t dislike them either provided they’re soothed with enough herbs. A few dollops of Dishoom tomato and onion masala with some mushrooms and a can of white beans in a pan makes for a lovely home for a handful of cracked eggs, and a really decent breakfast. Maybe I can learn to do nice things with kale?! Might be pushing it? Either way after a lifetime of being borderline embarrassingly vegetable avoidant, I’m thrilled to find new things to slather in fat and roast until the smoke alarm goes off.
Roast Cauliflower Cheese
Ingredients
1 whole cauli
olive oil
500ml whole milk
50g unsalted butter
4 tbsp plain flour
nutmeg (absolutely loads)
100g cheese (cheddar)
handful of breadcrumbs (of course you can make your own, but I’ve been loving these garlic and herb fellas from Sainsburys)
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 220 (fan)
Chop the cauli into bitesize chunks and toss in plenty of olive oil. Spread onto a baking tray, don’t crowd the tray or they’ll steam instead of roast. Use two trays if necessary and swap them around half way through. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until crispy and cooked through.
Put the milk, butter and flour into a large saucepan and grate your nutmeg in. Loads and loads and loads. When you think you’ve got enough, add more. It will be fighting to cut through the cheddar, so don’t scrimp on it, it brings such a lightness in what can be a really claggy dish. Put the pan over a high heat on the hob and don’t stop whisking until you’ve got a smooth, thick sauce. Allow it to bubble for 2 minutes, but keep an eye on it so it doesn’t catch. Take off the heat.
Place the cauli in a pyrex dish and turn the oven down to 200. whisk the cheddar through the sauce, once it’s all melted and blended in check the sauce for nutmeg, if you can’t taste it add more! Stir the sauce into the dish with the cauli and then sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top.
Put back into the oven for 30 mins, until the sauce is bubbling and the breadcrumbs are crispy but not burnt.
A Small Round Up Of Nice Things
Cricket very clearly has a long way to go in ensuring it’s welcoming and inclusive to everyone, but these initiatives to make the sport more accessible to autistic people seem like a fantastic step.
“Not something to hurry, but a pleasurable way to spend a quiet afternoon in the kitchen and worth every minute of your time.” Indeed! Nigel knew what he was doing, and I’m here for it. The comments!
Can’t stop thinking about this massive tin of crisps.
10 tiny Parisian kitchens. So small! So chic!
This ski chalet for sale. Due to my fear of even mild to moderate peril, there’s simply no way I would ever ski, but I’d like to put forward that I’d be the dream ski buddy. I have a lifetime practise of holding the bags, look great wrapped up in furs and am equally happy being left at home with a book and cooking up some cheese and carbs for everyone’s return as I am saving a nice table at a bar whilst drinking wine and people watching. Please buy me this chalet.
I’m keeping my round up of recommendations short as I plan on absolutely hammering your inboxes with everything I’ve loved this year during the Christmas lull. In the meantime please cook the cauli cheese, drink copious amounts of Aldi champagne, and crucially, have a bloody good rest.
If you have any God tier vegetable or bean main dish recipes - please do leave them below!!
Merry Christmas!
N xo