Cauliflower cheese as a main course

Cauliflower cheese is a great accompaniment to all kinds of meals, but is it able to stand out as a main course all by itself? Let’s find out.

Aubergine wholewheat pasta bake

This was something of an experiment, because I’d not eaten wholewheat pasta in decades and

Gougères – choux pastry cheese puffs

Gougères

Choux pastry is one of those things that tends to scare people a bit but it is actually dead easy. I blame the Great British Bake Off for making it seem more difficult than it really is.

Macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese, a photo by La belle dame sans souci on Flickr.

The reason I decided to cook this was because I read Felicity Cloake’s food blog about macaroni cheese in The Guardian.

I didn’t try and cook her recipe though, because I like my own version.

I used;

A white sauce fortified with Dijon mustard, grated English mature cheddar and Swiss Emmenthal, shredded cooked ham hock meat and penne (I didn’t have any macaroni and any pasta shapes will work), more grated cheese and sliced tomatoes for the topping.

I seasoned it with black pepper but didn’t add any salt, the ham and cheese are salty enough, and baked it in a Gas Mark 6 oven until the top was golden and bubbling away nicely.

The dish is so simple that it really doesn’t need any detailed explanation, but it is delicious comfort food.

You can leave out the ham, you can add sautéed leeks, I think they work better than onions, and you can have a breadcrumb topping, but really it is best left nice and simple.

Too much elaboration spoils it.

Jerk chicken salad

This was because I wanted something that was light but also spicy.

The salad was made from two ripe avocados, some halved cherry tomatoes, shredded Romaine lettuce, a few chopped spring onions, two chopped green chillies, a handful of chopped green coriander and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.

The chicken was a couple of breasts, with skin, that had been marinated in jerk seasoning and olive oil and them griddled and finished off in the oven.

These were then thinly sliced and served on top of the salad.

Some grated cheese and a drizzle of bottled chipotle sauce finished it off.

Cheese-topped pork loin steak

This is something I hadn’t cooked in ages but is really nice, if somewhat rich and filling.

You need;

Boneless and trimmed pork loin steaks
Grated cheese (Cheddar is good)
White wine – about two tablespoonfuls
Diced smoked ham (I used Black Forest this time)
Mustard (I used Dijon with tarragon but any mustard works)
Breadcrumbs
Lea and Perrin’s sauce

Pre-heat the grill.

You mix all the topping ingredients together and set aside while you sauté the pork steaks in a cast iron pan.

When they are still very slightly under-done, top them with the cheese and ham mix and finish them off under the grill.

I did them with mash and sautéed courgettes last night but you can serve them with a green salad, maybe some buttered egg pasta or sautéed potato cubes and some petit pois too.

The one thing they really don’t need is any sauce because they are very rich tasting.

We drank a 2008 Chinon rouge with them, Couly-Dutheil Les Gravières.