FOOD:EVEN THOUGH cauliflower can be quite revered in fine-dining restaurants – a purée of it with seared scallops and raisin jus is a bit of a classic – more often than not I watch it rot in our fridge and eventually I reluctantly steam it and serve it with a little butter or grilled cheese on top as a kind of "diet cauliflower cheese". I love proper cauliflower cheese, complete with mustardy, cheesy béchamel and some buttery breadcrumbs on top. But I would never be bothered to make it midweek. No way. Far too much bother, washing-up and calories, which relegates it to Sunday lunch territory.
But this recipe is a dandy way to use it up, and one head of cauliflower makes a lot of soup. It goes great with blue cheese, and if you’re vegetarian just leave the bacon out of the garnish. It’s one of those hearty, wintery, tasty soups, and will solve my cauliflower conundrum throughout winter.
The other recipe is for gingerbread, taken from a Marcus Wareing recipe. I think gingerbread, along with banana bread, was one of the first things I mastered as a nipper. That my baking career probably began and ended with those two loaves speaks volumes about my incompetence as a baker. I also worry that said weakness could prejudice you against any baking recipe I might endorse. But have faith. This gingerbread recipe is very plain and simple. I made it in less than two minutes, as I was being yelled at for being late and had to leg it. It was the Usain Bolt school of baking.
If the skewer you use to see if it’s done is slightly gooey after an hour, you could take it out of the oven anyway, and let it sit, covered in the foil, to ensure a little more moistness than I got with mine. It kept really well for four days (okay, six) and was lovely when spread with a little butter and served with a cup of tea – naughty breakfast for the week. The crunchy Demerara topping was a bonus. I’ll give you his methodology and then mine (which is fine if you’ve got to make a cake in two minutes). But when making it, make sure you use two tablespoons (not teaspoons) of ground ginger. Wareing’s recipe called for a 19cm by 12cm loaf tin, but I used a 30cm by 12cm tin, and it rose up quite a bit, so I reckon go for the bigger tin.
And don’t forget, it’s National Organic Week, so do what you can to buy organic, and support this important farming sector.
Cauliflower and blue cheese soup (serves 4-6)
Crozier or Cashel blue cheeses go really well with this soup.
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 onions, peeled and sliced
Thyme leaves
Good knob of butter
1 cauliflower
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
1.5 litres vegetable or chicken stock
250g blue cheese
100ml crème fraiche
Pear and bacon garnish
Knob of butter
1 tsp of brown sugar
2 pears, peeled and finely chopped
4 streaky rashers, finely diced
1 tbs raisins
Splash of red wine vinegar
To make the soup: sweat the onions, garlic and thyme in the butter, in a saucepan with a lid, until they are soft. Break the cauliflower into florets. Add to the saucepan, along with the bay leaves and stock. Cook, covered, for 20 minutes or so, until the cauliflower is soft. Remove from the heat, add the blue cheese and crème fraiche. Whizz with a soup gun or in a food processor, and then put back in the saucepan and check the seasoning. Either cool down fully and then refrigerate, and reheat the next day, or else get the garnish ready and serve the soup in big bowls with chunky bread, the pear and bacon in the centre, along with a good sprinkling of parsley.
To make the garnish, simply heat the butter and sugar in a non-stick frying pan, and fry the pears and bacon until golden-brown and caramelised. Add the raisins and deglaze the pan with some red wine vinegar. Keep cooking so that it goes quite sticky, and season with lots of black pepper.
Gingerbread
200g golden syrup
150g soft butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg
250g cream flour
2 tbs ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
100ml milk
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Good sprinkling of Demerara sugar
Pre-heat an oven to 160 degrees/gas mark three. Grease a loaf tin, and line the bottom with non-stick baking paper. Heat the golden syrup until just runny. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl, then beat in the warm syrup and egg. Sift the flour with the spices, and fold into the butter and sugar mixture. Warm the milk, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in it, and then fold it into the mixture. Pour into the loaf tin, and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Bake for an hour until the skewer comes out clean.
Lazy method: Heat up the golden syrup until warm and runny. Add the butter and sugar, and melt. Take off the heat. Add the egg, milk and spices. Whisk. Pour into the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and beat until fully mixed. Pour into tin and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Either way: After 20 minutes, cover with tin foil that has been greased with butter. Bake for an hour until a skewer comes out almost clean. Rest the cake in the tin for a couple of hours and then remove and slice. Keeps well in an airtight container for a few days. dkemp@irishtimes.com
See also www.itsa.ie
