CAULIFLOWER AND THREE CHEESE GRATIN

I have always been into the accompaniments to a roast rather than the meat itself. When I was growing up I loved the Yorkshire puddings when we had roast beef, the bacon wrapped sausages that came with roast chicken, the crackling from the roast pork and then we always had cauliflower cheese when we had roast lamb. 

I found this cauliflower cheese recipe in my latest olive magazine and thought I should test drive it as a potential Christmas dish. It took about an hour however you can make it a day or two before and then just cook it for 25/30 minutes before serving to heat through.

Ingredients for 8 people:

8 small individual cauliflower heads

Olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

3 bay leaves

20g butter

20g plain flour

1 tsp English mustard powder

350l semi skimmed milk

200ml double cream

100g Gruyere cheese, grated

100g emmental, grated (I actually used cheddar)

100g Parmesan, grated

A good grating of nutmeg

White pepper

Heat the oven to 200 C / 180 C fan / gas mark 6.

Boil the cauliflower heads in a large pan of salted boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain well and leave to steam dry for a few minutes.

Arrange the heads in a baking dish, brush with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and roast for 30 minutes.

Whilst these are cooking, put the onions, bay leaves and butter in a saucepan with a little salt and fry gently until soft and golden.

Stir in the flour and mustard powder until no dusty bits remain.

Gradually stir in the milk to make a smooth sauce and then slowly stir in the cream until heated through.

Take off the heat and add 2/3 of the cheeses and stir until they have melted. Season with some nutmeg, white pepper and salt. If necessary, put the saucepan back on a low heat for the cheese to melt completely.

Pour over the cauliflower heads and chill for up to two days, if you like. Sprinkle the gratin with the remaining cheese.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until bubbling and golden on top.

We served ours with some roast pork belly and it was heavenly!

I do not like to blow my own trumpet but this was incredible - the best cauliflower cheese I have ever had - probably due to the copious amounts of cheese! I enjoyed it so much I could have eaten it as a main dish although it obviously worked brilliantly as a side. I will definitely be making this again at Christmas.

LA BRASSERIE, FULHAM ROAD, SOUTH KENSINGTON

As I walked into La Brasserie on Friday night, I felt like I was being transported to Paris. The French staff, the red banquettes, the busy atmosphere and the slight hint of garlic make the restaurant typically French. La Brasserie opened in South Ken in 1972 and claims to be the first brasserie to be open all day in London. It is in prime location for the museums such as the V&A, shopping on the Brompton road or Walton Street and is in perfect position to people watch….especially if it is sunny and you have a table outside….not at this time of year though!

We navigated our way through the busy bar and restaurant to our table and immediately ordered some drinks, olives, bread and butter whilst we perused the menu. The bread was warm, the butter was salty and the olives delicious.

The menu is characteristically French - for starter I was torn between the scallops with pea puree and crispy pancetta and the mussels cooked in cider and cream but we ended up ordering the salmon rillettes with pickled cucumber for me, half a dozen snails in garlic butter to share and Pascal had the coarse duck pate with onion marmalade.

All were delicious and I can easily say the garlic butter which accompanied the snails was one of the best I have ever had - we went through two bread baskets mopping it up! I adored the salmon rillettes and they went perfectly with the pickled cucumber and Pascal was a huge fan of his tasty duck pate.

There was plenty to choose from for mains such as different types of steaks, sole meuniere and beef bourguignon however we both ordered the confit de canard with gratin dauphinois and spinach. This was amazing, the duck was perfectly cooked as the meat just fell off the bone and I loved the crispy skin. The gratin dauphinois was more cheesy than creamy with very thin slivers of potato, the whole thing was extremely moreish.

Obviously there was room for pudding…

I went for the creme brûlée with rosemary and orange - I was a bit put off as I prefer a vanilla creme brûlée but in the end I was not disappointed, the pudding just had a hint of rosemary and orange and it was luscious. If only it had been double in size…..

Pascal had a selection of cheeses - a Roquefort, Corbier and a Camembert - a great assortment.

The bill came to £130 and that also included two glasses on wine and an aperitif. Service was efficient, quick and friendly. We left the restaurant stuffed and satisfied…..we will definitely be back, maybe for afternoon tea next time or for supper so I can order exactly the same all over again!

La Brasserie is open from 8am-11.30pm everyday. 

La Brasserie

272 Brompton Road,

London

SW3 2AW

Tel: 020 7768 1686

Email: enquiries@labrasserielondon.com

CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

Arabella has been nagging me for ages to bake a banana bread - it is not something I would normally ever eat but I figured I should give it a go as it's basically fruit, right? This is a recipe from Fay Ripley's second cook book and it took about 20 minutes to prepare and an hour to cook.

Ingredients for 8 slices:

130g butter, softened
150g light brown soft sugar
3 ripe bananas (about 300g), peeled and mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large free-range eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g dark or milk chocolate, broken into chunks (I used milk)
3 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C fan / gas mark 4. Butter or line the loaf tin with baking parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. I used my whisk for this as my butter wasn't really soft enough.

Add the mashed bananas, vanilla and eggs and whisk together. I obviously wasn't reading the recipe properly as I didn't mash the bananas before I put them in the bowl which made things more difficult….but not impossible!

Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix in well.

Fold in the chocolate chunks and milk until combined.

Pour the lot into the lined tine and bake for 50-60 minutes, until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean.

Cool slightly in the tin and then serve warm if possible (although it tastes absolutely delicious cold as well).

As I said I have never been a fan of banana bread however I am now fully converted - this was amazing, so moist and tasty and I adored the soft chunks of chocolate. Arabella decided it was too "banana-ey" and so I polished the whole lot off with glee. A real success and perfect for breakfast, afternoon tea and all the time in between!

BRAISED PORK WITH TOMATOES, CHORIZO, THYME & BLACK OLIVES

I love to cook a proper lunch on a Sunday although unlike most English, I don't like to do a traditional roast and instead like to mix it up a bit! Here is a Spanish pork recipe I found in a Waitrose magazine and it is from the London based chef Jose Pizarro who has a tapas bar and two restaurants around the city. It took around 2 hours to make.

Ingredients for 6 people:

1kg diced pork shoulder (I couldn't buy diced pork so ended up buying pork loins which I diced myself). 
4 tbsp olive oil
150ml red wine
2 onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200g chorizo, skinned and chopped
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
2 tbsp tomato puree
400g can of chopped tomatoes
300ml fresh chicken stock
3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
2 tbsp chopped oregano
4 bay leaves
3 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tsp caster sugar
100g pitted black olives

Season the pork. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish and sear the pork in batches, until browned, then set aside in a bowl.

Add the wine to the pan and as it bubbles up, scrape down the base of the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the caramelised juices. Pour over the pork and set aside.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan with the onions, cover and fry gently for 15 minutes, stirring now and then until they are very soft.

Add the garlic and chorizo and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Stir in the paprika and cook for one minute.

Add the tomato puree, tomatoes, stock, herbs, pork and juices. Season and simmer for 1 hour with a cover on for half the time. I made the mistake of not checking or stirring mine and managed to burn it a little so I advise you to keep an eye on it! Although I expect mine burnt because I just cooked half the recipe.

Boil the vinegar and sugar in a small pan until it reduces to about 1 teaspoon.

Stir into the casserole with the olives and simmer uncovered for another 20 minutes until the pork is tender.

Season and serve with some fried potatoes (if you like).

This was way better than I was expecting and we all really enjoyed it - the chorizo in it made it much more appealing to Arabella than she thought and I adored all the flavours. It was very warming and so tasty…..I have now added Jose Pizarro's restaurants to my list of places I want to eat! This worked really well as a family lunch with fried potatoes and I think it would be dinner party worthy as well.