Cauliflower cheese

THERE'S NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

I was going to write an article about cauliflower cheese and its variants - because this is what we had for dinner, and t's one of those classic dishes, but during my preliminary, superficial research, I found an article by Felicity Cloake in the Guardian online which gives a summary of the usual variations. She said it all really and much better than I, so I don't really have anything more to add on that basis.

This is also not a photograph of my finished dish - mine was actually a variation - I included mushrooms, onions and bacon and I didn't put breadcrumbs on top. I also added a bit of paprika, sour cream and parsley to the sauce. It ended up looking a bit murky and not really very appetising, but it tasted quite good. I forgot to take a photo.

So what can I say here? I thought of cauliflower cheese because I had some cauliflower. It's the bargain of the moment - from the supermarket too - not the market. And my first gut instinct of what to do with it is cauliflower cheese. So English and yet apparently not. Call it cauliflower gratin and suddenly it's French. All the big 'old' names have a version - Robert Carrier even includes it in his Great Dishes of the World although admittedly he does call it cauliflower gratin. However,

"You never find dishes such as this in the books of the smart young chefs of London and Los Angeles, or in most restaurants, but everyone loves a soft, creamy cauliflower gratin. One day like bread and butter pudding, mashed potato or rice, it will probably become famous as some of the new breed discover how great it can be alongside some roasted chicken,with a thick piece of beef or just on its own in a little gratin dish." Beverley Sutherland Smith

Elizabeth David also speculated how it might one day become fashionable.

"What I'm waiting for is the day, when it's going to be clever to serve some relaxed English dish like cauliflower cheese. It'll be fun to watch it going up in the world and getting into the glossies ... and the sub-Mitford novels, ... thence into the women's weeklies ... and eventually through all the inevitable transformations and degradations until, dehydrated, double-quick deep-frozen, reboiled and debagged, it finally reaches the tables of our residential hotels and the trays of forty-guinea-a-week nursing homes."

I don't think it quite has, though I did find an article touting cauliflower as the next super food with more vitamins than broccoli. So you never know.

I didn't like it as a child. I think I was vaguely lactose intolerant - I certainly didn't like anything with cooked cheese in it - it made me sick. But I do like it now, although it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. And I also need to be in the mood. There are so many negative things you could say about it I guess - bland, smelly, mushy nursery food - and all of these things are true, but it does taste good.

According to Jane Grigson cauliflower was brought to Europe by the Arabs in the middle ages, although initially it was only used as decoration - even decorating young Spanish maidens cleavage. She implies that it is not a 'natural' plant but has been developed by man. You can find yellow and purple versions.

Nothing more to say really. I just liked this photo - it's from Egypt.