Cauliflower and walnut gratin

Gratin, gratinée, au gratin

Au gratin is a culinary term that comes from the French verb ‘gratter’ which means ‘to scrape’. It is a cooking method that involves grilling or baking dishes covered with a coating or crust. So if, like many, you thought gratin is a saucy baked dish, you were rather considerably wrong. It’s not the sauce – it’s the crispy topping that makes a gratin gratin.

That topping is often made with cheese and/or breadcrumbs that bake crispy-crunchy. Thus for instance potatoes dauphinoise, especially the recipes that have you bake sliced potatoes covered with cream, are not a classical gratin. Unless of course there is cheese on top baking into a crust, which makes the dish not only a proper gratin but also delicious.

This is nor cauliflower cheese but a cauliflower gratin: there is only a little cheese added to the bechamel for the flavour, and the breadcrumb mix over the bechamel bakes to a lovely crust.

Blanching the cauliflower

This is certainly optional and depends entirely on personal preferences: how firm (and I call it tough, so you immediately see what my preference is, and why blanching is included in this recipe) you like your cauliflower? Those who enjoy it with a considerable bite might want to skip the blanching. Personally, as I already rubbed it in, I like it soft. Even mushy. Judge me if you like.

But joking aside, if you don’t blanch it, there’s a risk that the bechamel on top of the dish might scorch too much before the cauli cooks. So just to be on the safe side, plunge the florets into boiling water for three to five minutes (preferences!).

Drain it, and if you want to be shockingly rigorous, shock it with ice cold water. I don’t bother, it will keep on cooking in the oven anyway so what’s the point of trying to preserve it fresh and crunchy? Drain and pack it straight into a buttered gratin dish.

And the pan it was blanched in needs only wiping, and it can be used for cooking the bechamel.

How to make the perfect bechamel?

It is much, much easier than chefs profess it to be, and much more tolerant of errors.

The amounts of flour and butter used to make the roux, the initial stage of the sauce, should be equal in volume. But it’s perfectly fine to eyeball about a tablespoon of each, as long as it looks like there’s slightly more butter than flour – otherwise the bechamel might split when it bakes.

All you need is a whisk and the ingredients prepared en place. When the butter melts and starts foaming, add the flour and start whisking but there’s no need to bust a gut – it’s not a risotto. After about a minute the roux will be foaming again: that’s when to start adding the milk, gradually but within reason. Even if you slosh it all in, just whisk-whisk-whisk until it starts to simmer and it will be fine.

Bechamel needs to cook for a few minutes even after it’s reached the right thickness, and that’s when to season it. Nutmeg might seem pointless but unless added, your bechamel will taste like floury milk and we don’t want that.

All the other additions, like cheese (technically, it turns bechamel into Mornay) or herbs should ideally be added off the heat, especially when the sauce is going to be used in a gratin.

Gratin = crunch

And the final touch on our cauli-grat is the eponymous crunchy element. In this instance, mix some breadcrumbs with Parmesan and herbs, sprinkle over the bechamel and that’s it.

Bake it until it’s crunchy, golden or browned to your liking. When a dish looks good, it usually is good, at least in home cooking and off Instagram.

More vegetable gratin recipes

Leek gratin the easy way: no bechamel! Parboiled leeks are baked au gratin, which means with a topping of creamy, cheesy mix. Au gratin or gratinée means a dish of baked vegetables with a cheesy or breadcrumb crust.

Beetroot gratin, thinly sliced beets baked in garlic and dill infused cream, a gorgeous side to a fish course. No need to pre-cook the beetroot.

Celeriac gratin recipe with cream, garlic and grated cheese. Celeriac tastes a bit earthy and is suitable for a mash or puree, celeriac fondant or celeriac soup.

More cauliflower recipes

Roasted cauliflower parmigiana, cauliflower slices, parmesan and mozzarella layered with simple tomato sauce. A good veggie dish which actually tastes much better than you’d think.

Spiced roasted cauliflower with togarashi seasoning and cinnamon. Melted butter, a grating of Parmesan and it's a very tasty side or lunch dish.

Whole roasted cauliflower with Parmesan and herbs; this recipe for whole roasted head of cauliflower, which takes 2 hours to bake without pre-boiling. Cauliflower with butter and Parmesan, roasted whole.