Let the Cauliflower bake begin …

… by roasting the cauliflower and everything else!

Pre-heat oven to 180fan/200c/Gas 6

Place your cauliflower florets, onions and garlic into the baking tray. Sprinkle over the paprika, coriander and celery salt – drizzle over with rapeseed oil and then “glove-up” and toss until everything is coated.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes – turn after 15 minutes. At the end of the baking time test a floret with a paring knife – it should pass through, but firmly – bear in mind that the veggies will be “twice-baked”, adding the cooked jacket potatoes, cream and cheese later to complete the dish so there should be “give” in the cauliflower florets.

Add the potatoes and combine, add the double cream, then the grated cheese and sprinkle generously with freshly ground black pepper.

Pre-heat your oven 200fan/220c/Gas 7

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve in warm bowls.

Roasting onions produces a sweet delicious result and is perfect in this recipe.

There is no downside here – if you're a veggie then your meal is ready – go rustic French and eat it scooping the bake onto chunks of freshly baked bread with a side of roasted beetroot if the mood takes.

If you're not a veggie you have the perfect “roast side” to serve with your meat, chicken or fish.

You could roast any veggies that you have stashed in your fridge – a stray carrot an odd parsnip, that quarter of butternut squash you didn't know what to do with – all you have to remember is to keep your veggies of a similar size and that root veggies roasted from raw take longer to roast than cauliflower does.

Photo-guide up next!

Another forage …

… reminded me I'd bought a cauliflower, which is well within its date! I am fed up with the usual cauliflower suspects – inspiration may come when I check out what stash and staples I have available!

I have baked jacket potato stash, odd and ends of different cheeses, a small pot of roasted garlic – this is looking good – lets not forget the humble onion and finally I have a small pot of double cream that needs using too.

You'll need a foil tray or baking tray that has sides, measuring 32x23x4cms (13x9x1½”) approximately.

Here's the plan :

The star of the show

a medium cauliflower – 300g

broken down into similar sized florets

The stash and staples

2x250g (medium) cooked, baked potatoes

from my stash in the fridge, peeled and cut

into cubes of a similar size to the cauliflower

florets

2 medium onions, peeled and each cut into

four quarters

3 roasted cloves of garlic

back to the fridge stash – odds and ends of

cheeses – the raid revealed Parmesan, Gruyere

and the ever faithful Mature Cheddar – 200g in

total, grated – no set proportions – as your odds

and ends permit

a small pot of double cream – 300ml

The seasonings

1 tsp of sweet paprika

1 tsp of ground coriander

celery salt and black pepper

a generous drizzle of rapeseed oil

Let the bake begin!

It's a cold day – perfect for soup!

My absolute favourite soup is cream of mushroom but the mushrooms have to be good - since my freezer stash of prepared mushrooms are Portobello – big fat tick!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 medium onion, finely diced

250g/8oz mushrooms, preferably portabello, finely sliced

(the frozen stash - defrosted)

50g/2oz unsalted butter

1 tbsp of plain flour

850mls/1½ pints of semi-skimmed milk or vegetable stock

285mls/½ pint of double cream

Grated nutmeg – optional

chopped parsley

celery salt and black pepper

Sauté the onion in the butter, gently, for 10 minutes. Using the same gentle heat, stir in the flour, keep it moving to allow the flour to cook for 1-2 minutes and then gradually add the milk or stock, whisking continuously. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the mushrooms.

Season with celery salt, black pepper and nutmeg, then add the cream.

Blitz the soup to a smooth consistency. Set aside until you're ready to serve, re-heat on a low heat until piping hot.

Serve in warmed bowls, garnish with the chopped parsley and freshly baked rolls or baguettes on the side.

Here it is :

this soup falls into the “keep it simple” category –

in other words let the ingredients speak for

themselves – I'm sorry you can't experience

the delicious aroma of intense mushrooms

and cream!

My forage in the fridge, continued ...

Fast forward – my mushroom ideas

 

Pancakes

If you are a lover of pancakes, in particular a savoury version, serving them with mushrooms in a sauce supreme is a fab starter or a lunch or supper – depending of course on the size of the pancake. You could use wraps if you don't want to make pancakes – either way, place your filling in the middle of the pancake or wrap then fold and roll.

Steaks

If you are a lover of steaks, or a Quorn fillet alternative, serve with a mushroom sauce, again using the sauce supreme.

On toast

My personal favourite – mushrooms in the sauce supreme, served on toast what I call “posh mushrooms on toast”. You can serve a small version as a starter or scale up for a lunch or supper. Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley.

For the sake of convenience I'm including the Sauce Supreme recipe. If you want to be organised you can make ahead and freeze in small pots to suit – you can always take out more if required or halve the recipe if preferred.

Sauce Supreme

500ml stock – vegetable or chicken

ideally cold

30g unsalted butter

30g plain flour

1 tsp Dijon mustard

400ml double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously making a roux sauce – do not walk away.

Tip your cold stock straight into the roux and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the mustard and the cream and simmer for 5 minutes then cool, cover and fridge.

You can make ahead and freeze the sauce if it's more convenient – it's every bit as good from the freezer.

Your mushrooms are already cooked and frozen – defrost and then add to your sauce for any of the three ideas above!

My final idea is appropriate for the weather at the moment – Cream of Mushroom Soup … read on

The rescue mission!

You'll need a large non-stick frying pan.

Peel and slice the mushrooms. Add a generous knob of unsalted butter and a glug of rapeseed oil to the frying pan and heat until the butter foams.

Add the sliced mushrooms, a sprinkle of celery salt and tarragon and sauté gently until the liquid released from the mushrooms is absorbed. Turn up the heat and add a glug of sherry, wine or brandy, turn down the heat and reduce again until the alcohol is absorbed into the mushrooms. 

Done!

Now what? Cool, box and freeze.

Fast forward – here are my ideas

Have you checked your fridge lately …

… it's a good job I did!

Last week I treated myself to a box of portobello mushrooms – they were cheaper than normal and so a good deal.

Fast forward to this week … guess what I found in the fridge – untouched – yep the mushrooms.

Only recently I mentioned a tip about old mushrooms and minimising food waste. Have you got old mushrooms that are past their best? Using a little alchemy you can “turn something ordinary into something extraordinary” - transform your sad mushrooms and enhance their flavour by adding a glug of red wine or very dry sherry when sautéing. A glug is 1-2 tablespoons and should be added when sautéing the mushrooms, cook out gently until all the liquid is absorbed.

Tarragon is an excellent partner with mushroom – cream is another!

If you want to be really decadent, add a splash of brandy instead of sherry or wine when the mushroom juices have evaporated.

Here are my mushrooms – you'll see that accordingly to the date on the top they are out of date – I'm cooking them on the 24^th March. Take a look at them out of the box – there doesn't seem much wrong to me!

Here's the rescue mission …

The Upside Down Nests – a photo guide

the Petit Fours cases I found are perfect

just the right size for a mini egg!

the short handled measuring spoon

and the cocktail stick makes life easy

my homage – done and ready for

delivery!

Next … have you checked the fridge lately?