Comfort food for a grey day

It's been wet, cold and windy today. And very grey too. So I felt in need of something to lift my spirits.

I love cauliflower, eaten raw, steamed, roasted with cumin or in one of my favourites, cauliflower cheese. However I do like to make mine a main meal, with a little salad or bread on the side. This is my favourite way of doing it, I hope that you like it.

For four people (or in my husband's case two greedy ones)

1 medium cauliflower (pull the leaves apart when buying, what might look like a generous cauli can turn out to be disappointing in my experience)
1 medium head of broccoli
1 pint of whole milk
2 bay leaves
5 whole black peppercorns
2 cloves
50 grams of butter
50 grams of plain flour
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
125 grams of grated hard strong cheese of your choice, It can be cheddar, red leicester, cave aged Gouda or anything else of your choice
2 slices of bread, preferably stale, toasted
25 grams of parmesan

Start by bringing the milk almost to the boil with the bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves. Leave to 30 minutes and then strain to remove the aromatics.

Next cook the cauliflower and broccoli under just tender. You can either boil or steam. Place in a colander to get rid of the excess moisture.

Next make the sauce. Put the butter, flour and milk in a saucepan. Heat slowly until starting to thicken, whisking all the time, then add the mustard. When starting to bubble on the surface, add the cheese and allow to melt. Let simmer gently for 10 minutes to let the flavours mingle.

In the meantime, blitz the bread and parmesan to make coarse crumbs and set aside.

When the sauce is ready, pour one third into the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Arrange the cauliflower and broccoli so that everyone gets

a bit of both when served. Pour over the remaining sauce and top with the breadcrumb mixture. Put on a baking tray and place in an over at 180c for 30 minutes, until golden and bubbling. Leave to cool slightly and then serve.

The cheat's way to perfect white sauce

I know so many people who do not even attempt to make their own white sauce. The reason for this; well they see chefs on the TV making a roux, adding warm milk a little at a time and coming up with a perfect lump-free sauce. They try it themselves only to not quite get it right, their confidence plummets and they convince themselves that a basic white sauce is the preserve of the professionals.

Now for me, making a roux based sauce is as natural as breathing, but for friends who have not had my culinary training, it seems daunting. Well there is another way of achieving the same result. All it involves is a saucepan, whisk and a gentle heat. And of course the patience to stand over it while it thickens.

When I'm short of time, normally after a hectic day at work when I need to whip up a variation on the white sauce I put everything in the pan, heat gently and keep whisking. After about 10 minutes of gentle heating you will have a sauce that can then be customised; with cheese for cauliflower, parsley for fish, egg yolks for a moussaka topping, nutmeg to create a bechamel to top lasagna, the list goes on.

The default recipe that I use is therefore:

1 pint/568ml of full fat milk
50grams of unsalted butter
50 grams of plain flour
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
half an onion, skin on

Start by combining the milk with the peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves and onion. Push the cloves into the onion to make removing easier. Heat until just reaching boiling point and then leave for 30 minutes, to let the flavours infuse. You could do this the day before, strain and chill in the fridge ready for use when you need it.

When you are ready to make your sauce, strain though a sieve into a pan, then add the butter and flour. Heat gently, whisking all the time, over a low heat until the mixture thickens. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes to cook out the flour, after which time add your flavourings and either serve as it is, or use in your chosen recipe.

Harissa, with a twist

I'm not a fan of overly spicy food. I'll say this now, and am ready for the brickbats, I'm not overly keen on Indian food or anything spicy at all. Well I say that, but since I asked for a Cuisinart spice grinder last Christmas, life has changed. I can now make curries and spicy food as hot or as mild as I want. I have even converted my husband to thai style curries, even though he said he was a coconut hater.

Well I was looking for something different to do with some sea bass that was lurking in the freezer and found inspiration from Yotam Ottollenghi. I have the books "Plenty" and Jerusalem" and found a wonderful recipe for fish in harissa. Except that I was not keen on all the ingredients. So I decided to modify the original Yotam recipe as follows:

1 red pepper roasted until the skin is black
1/2teaspoom of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds
1 small red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of runny honey
1/2 teaspoon of dried rose petals

Now this is where the customisation comes into play, add as many birds eye chillies as you can dare. Remember however that this gets hotter over time so you might want to moderate accordingly.

You need to pan roast the coriander, cumin and caraway until they start to give off their aroma. Then either tip into a spice grinder, or a pestle and mortar and grind to a fine powder.

Roast the pepper over an open flame until blackened.If you do not have a gas flame then grill turning regularly until the pepper is black. Put in a bowl and leave to cool. Whilst cooling, cook the onion, chillies and garlic until softened.

Add the cooled red pepper and onion mix to a grinder or food processor, together with the spice mix, honey and rose petals. Blitz to a paste and use if your own favourite recipe.