Cheesy cauliflower bake

I found a nice cauliflower at the grocery store and decided to  turn it into a baked cauliflower, like my mum always used to make. Haven't had it for a while. We are going to enjoy it with some bratkartoffeln and vegetarian schnitzel.

Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes; serves 4 - 6 

Ingredients:

1 medium	Cauliflower
80 g	Peeled onion
1 tsp.	Minced garlic
50 g	Butter
30 g or 1/4 cup	Flour
500 ml	Milk
1/8 tsp.	Ground nutmeg
50 g or 1/2 cup	Grated cheese
3 tbsp.	Parmesan
	Salt & Pepper

Method:

Remove the green parts from the cauliflower and wash well. If you suspect that there are caterpillars, or other creepy crawlies, in it, place the cauliflower submerged in a bowl of salted water for about 15 minutes. They should all float to the top. I didn't know this the first time I made this on my mothers request. It was a very protein rich cauliflower!

Place the cauliflower in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes. You don't want your cauliflower to be completely cooked and definitely you don't want it overcooked. So keep an eye on it while doing the next step.

In the meantime you can put together the white sauce. First slice the onions and mince the garlic. Once this is done melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy bottom saucepan. Don't let the butter burn else the sauce will be ruined. If it gets a bit brown this is okay. While the butter is melting you can measure out the flour. Add the onions and garlic to the melted butter and allow to cook for about 2 minutes stirring all the time. Next add the flour and continue to stir. Allow the flour to cook for about 1 minute. Then add all the milk at once and keep stirring. If you stop stirring at any other point in time it's not so critical, but if you stop here you will end up with a lumpy sauce. If you didn't have the onions and the garlic even this could be saved, but with them it's neither possible to see the lumps nor to toss the whole thing into a blender. So keep stirring. To ensure that nothing gets stuck to the bottom I like to use a wooden spatula. If you buy one made out of a hard wood it can last for ever. Mine is almost 20 years old and still works well.

Stir until the mixture boils and then reduce the heat so that it is just simmering. Stir all the time. Now keep stirring until the sauce has thickened. Now you can remove it from the heat and stop stirring!

At which point my cauliflower was done. Perfect timing! Remove it from the steamer and run under cold water to stop the vegetable from cooking. If you are in the middle of making your white sauce and cannot stop what you are doing just dump the whole saucepan with the cauliflower in the sink and let cold water run over it until you have time to deal with it.

Add salt and pepper to taste, 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and the grated cheese (I used emmental but you could use anything that is at hand) and stir until it is well combined. Now place the cauliflower in an oven proof dish and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan and bake at 180 C in a fan over for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. Garnish with some green herbs to make it look pretty. I used chives since they are growing wild in my garden!

And if you are wondering why there are so few photos with the instructions it is because white sauce and white cauliflower looks really bad on an overcast fall afternoon.

And finally since I have some extra time here is a printable version i.e. a version without all the noise ;)