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Ingredients
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Milk 500ml
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garlic clove 1
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nutmeg 1
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bay leaves 2
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butter 50g
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flour 50g (3tbsp)
Method
- Put the milk nutmeg, garlic and bay leaves in a saucepan and bring to the boil, leave to infuse for a few minutes then strain.
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Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour over a low heat to make a smooth paste or roux.
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Add the milk a little at a time until you have a sauce without any lumps. When you make a sauce based on a roux you should add a hot liquid to a cold paste or a cold liquid to a hot paste, but it doesn’t really matter, here I put a hot liquid into a hot paste and it works perfectly well.
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Simmer over a very low heat, stirring every now and then for 8-10 minutes to cook out the flavour of the flour.
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Ben’s cauliflower cheese
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Baby cauliflowers, 2
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Extra strong cheddar cheese, xxg
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To make my cauliflower cheese, cook the cauliflowers in the milk that you are going to use to make the béchamel to add extra flavour – just simmer it in the milk with all the flavourings until tender. Lift the cauliflower out and put them in an ovenproof dish. Strain the milk.
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Make the béchamel as above then stir in a handful of grated strong cheddar cheese and pour the sauce over the cauliflower. Put more cheese on top if you want to and either grill for about xx minutes or bake in 180C oven for about xx minutes until the sauce starts to bubble.
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A great dressing for oysters
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Ingredients
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250g/9oz very ripe cherry, vine tomatoes
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½ bunch fresh thyme
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1 clove garlic
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1 tsp salt
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black pepper
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2 tbsp brown sauce
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good dash Tabasco sauce
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1 tbsp sherry vinegar
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1 lime, juice only
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50ml/2fl oz extra virgin olive oil
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fresh horseradish, for grating over the oysters
Method
- Slice the tomatoes in half and marinate with the thyme, sliced clove of garlic and salt and pepper. Leave to marinate for 1 hour.
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Purée the marinated tomatoes and pass through a fine sieve, retaining the juice.
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Add the remaining seasoning and finally whisk in the oil.
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Chill over ice until very cold.
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Shuck the oysters (open with a small, thick-bladed knife), or get the fishmonger to shuck them and loosen the meat from the shell.
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Serve over crushed ice and salt, dressed with the cold dressing and finely grated fresh horseradish.
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© Copyright Ben O’Donoghue 2009 | {c55}
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