Cauliflower in Mornay Sauce

From All Colour Vegetarian Cookery, Ruth Kimber, Ward Lock, 1978.

I was after one vegetable dish to accompany some slices of pumpkin pie left over from the evening before. This was the dish I chose.

I took half a cauliflower and placed it in a bowl of salted water and left it for half an hour. A saucepan of salted water was now brought to the boil and the cauliflower, drained, placed in the boiling water for 15 minutes. It was then taken out and added to a greased casserole dish.

The sauce was now made. I took 25g gram cornflour and stirred in sufficient water to dissolve it. In a saucepan I heated 250ml milk with a little salt and nutmeg. As it heated I poured in the dissolved cornflour and stirred until the mixture had boiled and thickened. Now 100g grated Emmenthal cheese went in and was stirred until dissolved. The sauce was poured over the cauliflower and it was cooked in a 200ªC oven until the sauce had begun to brown.

This was a satisfactory vegetable accompaniment. It was pleasantly cheesy with occasional nutmeg highlights. The cauliflower had retained a little body and was not too soft.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

In One Word: Seventies

Avocado Soup

From All Colour Vegetarian Cookery, Ruth Kimber, The Warwick Press, 1978.

Food is so at the mercy of fads and fashionable trends that I find myself wanting to retreat from falling in with the trending mob and returning to my older cookbooks to see what they have to offer. And I am totally enjoying investigating past favourites.

Flipping through the pages of this well worn book revealed many treasures that would pass easily today, though they lack some of the currently favoured ingredients.

This soup was such a simple one to put together I am surprised that it is not more popular. 250ml of stock was placed on the stove to heat up and into it went 1½ avocados cut into pieces. I then added about ¼ cup of cream, ½ cup of yoghurt and ¼ cup of white wine. Salt and white pepper were added and a stick blender was used to puree it all.

The recipe did not state whether the soup was to be eaten cold or hot. I went part way and just warmed it up a little. The remaining avocado was sliced and added to the soup when it was served.

The soup was rich and thick. A little went a long way. I think it could easily have been thinned a little but I left it as it was. The real test for soup, of course, is to eat it the next day—which I did and had it with a sourdough bread. It passed the test perfectly.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔