Heston Blumenthal's perfect cauliflower cheese

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Heston Blumenthal's perfect cauliflower cheese
Electus
Servings:Serves 4
Ready in:1 hour
Prep. time:40 minutes
Cook time:20 minutes
Difficulty:Difficult
Heston Blumenthal's perfect cauliflower cheese, the ingredients

This is Heston's perfect cauliflower cheese recipe as seen on Channel 4's "How to cook like Heston"

It is quite elaborate but definitely worth the effort. Cooking the cauliflower in three separate ways, vinaigrette, deep fried and boiled, gives an extra contrast to this dish.

The cheese sauce is sublime, but the cleverest idea is soaking some of the cauliflower in a vinaigrette. It adds a fantastic random taste

Ingredients

for the cauliflower

Ingredients

Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩‍🍳 method for this recipe

for the cheese sauce

Mise en place

Method

  1. Using a small pan, stir the sugar into the vinegar and bring to the boil
  2. Put a third of the cauliflower florets into a bowl, pour the vinegar mix over the florets and refrigerate for at least half an hour
  3. Fill another small pan ¾ full with groundnut oil and heat over a medium high heat. When the oil reaches 180° C (350° F) add the second third of the florets and fry for about 3 minutes until golden.
  4. Blanch the remaining third of the florets in boiling salted water until soft, about 4 minutes. These could also be steamed
  5. Add the reduced stock and wine to a pan over a medium heat
  6. Mix in the grated Gruyère and cornflower and mix well until the cheese is incorporated into the stock
  7. Remove the pan from the heat and add a few drops or truffle oil
  8. Place in an oven-proof serving dish, sprinkle with the extra grated cheddar and brown under the grill

Chef's notes

Anne does not like raw cauliflower so I steamed it prior to adding it to the vinaigrette.

Variations

A grating of nutmeg prior to grilling does not go amiss.

See also