NOVEL METHODS OF COOKING CAULIFLOWERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 31 October 1891, Page 542

NOVEL METHODS OF COOKING CAULIFLOWERS.

As these useful vegetables are now coming in I am very glad to be able to give my readers two excellent methods of cooking cauliflowers, taken from a well-known English authority :—‘ Trim the cauliflower and leave a piece of the stem about two inches long on the flower, but cut off the outer hard skin, put it into a saucepan of cold water seasoned with salt and bring the water quickly to boiling point, then strain it from the cauliflower and rinse it well with plenty of cold water and put it into a saucepan of boiling water and let it cook gently until it is quite tender, lift the cauliflower out of the water on to a sieve and let it drain, then divide it into about six pieces, but, of course, judgment is needed when cutting the cauliflower up ; a large cauliflower might be divided into much smaller pieces, at the same time I never think it advisable to use large cauliflowers if you can procure nice close medium-sized ones. Make a sauce in the following way :—Fry an ounce and ahalf of butter and the same quantity of flour together without letting them become discoloured ; boil half a pint of milk with a blade of mace and half an eschalot in it, and let it simmer for about ten minutes, then pour it on to the butter and flour and stir it into a smooth sauce, season it with a little pepper and salt and nutmeg, and stir it over the fire until it boils, then add half a gill of cream, and pour the sauce over the cauliflower after having wrung it through the tammy cloth and the cauliflower has been arranged neatly on a dish, and garnish the dish with carrots and turnips which have been cut in fine shreds about an inch long and the eighth of an inch in thickness, and have been cooked until they are tender, and have had a little warm butter poured over them. Over the whole sprinkle some parsley which has been picked into small pieces and then blanched by being put into a saucepan and covered with cold water and a little salt and soda added to it, and the water should then be brought ■quickly to boiling point and then the parsley should be strained and mixed well, and it would be ready to use. Cauliflower with curry sauce you would find a very nice dish. After havingcooked the cauliflower as described in the previous dish, cut it up into long pieces, make a curry sauce in the following way : —Put into a stewpan two ounces of well-clarified dripping and four onions cut up into small nice shapes, also two sour apples, a little chopped thyme, two bay leaves, also a good dessert spoonful of curry powder, and a teaspoonful of chutney and a dessertspoonful of tamarinds ; fry altogether with the cover on the pan for a quarter of an hour ; then add half a grated cocoanut, the juice of a lemon, ami an ounce of creme de riz, mix altogether, and then add about a quart of any ordinary stock and let the sauce cook gently for about half an hour, then rub it through a fine hair sieve or tammy cloth, season it with a little salt, and place the pieces of cooked cauliflower into a sautd or stewpan and pour enough sauce over them to cover them, and bring the sauce to the boil; then draw the pan to the side of the stove and let it simmer for ten or twelve minutes. Arrange the cauliflower and the sauce nicely on a dish, serve hot.’ The French eat a vegetable so cooked by itself without either meat or potatoes to mar the flavour.