Cauliflowers.

This is all about a vegetable that is in danger, in danger of not being used. And you know what happens if you do not use it you lose it.  Now you can ask what can you do with a cauliflower apart from cauliflower cheese.  Well what could be better than cauliflower cheese but when you add a little smoked bacon to it.  Or make it with stilton and put some breadcrumbs on top and bake it in the oven. Also you can make very tasty curries with it and batter it beep fry it and dip it in some chilli dipping sauce.  The humble cauliflower is only restricted by your imagination.

Cauliflower should be in season from February to May and from August to December so most of the year.  When choosing  a  cauliflower you want to look for the following  a firm, compact, creamy-white heads, stout fresh leaves, and clean white stalks. Do not pick on that is all limp or has  yellowing leaves. And avoid any slimy stalks or spotted brown curds, you want the best not the old stuff.  A good, undamaged cauliflower will keep for over a week in the fridge but you do not want to be keeping it much past that. Also you can cook and eat the leaves  the supermarkets tend to cut them off but you do not have to , they help protect the head inside.

Now I know that if you are going to cook cauliflower you are supposed to trim off the leaves, cut off individual florets. I do not . I take the whole cauliflower and trim the leaves back and then cut out some of the hard stalk , so all you have is the whole cauliflower head. Then cook it all at once in boiling water , straight in to cold iced water. This way all the florets cook at the same time . If you cut them up you get big ones and small ones ,  this way you just cook it as a whole and then cut of the florets.

Now you can steam them as well or stir-fry them it is up to you and how you are going to cook it. Or just have them raw with a curried mayonnaise dressing in a salad, or with celeriac as well very tasty.  Also you can roast it as well that gives it a very intense flavour.

Now if you grow your own, or for some reason you have more than you know what to do with it freezes very well.  Or try making your own piccalilli.

Cauliflower is a good versatile vegetable that you can do any number of things with and not just cauliflower cheese, so do some thing different next time you see a cauliflower.