Clutternut Cheese.....

Bad day? If there is one thing that cheers me up on a gloomy November Thursday it's a steaming hot plate of cauliflower cheese. When the rain becomes too much and your fingers start to ache because of the cold there's only one dinner to serve up.

Apparently cauliflower production has gone down by 35 per cent in the last ten years because we like broccoli more now. But broccoli looks uncomfortable in a cheese sauce. Cauliflower looks as comfortable as me in my pjamas and slippers hugging a hot water bottle.


Clutternut Cheese (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower
1 small butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
2oz (55g) butter
2oz (55g) flour
1 pint milk (450ml)
5oz (140g) Davidstow cheddar
1 tbsp Cornish wholegrain mustard

Preheat the oven to 180'c. Peel and chop up the butternut squash into finger sized pieces. Put in a roasting dish and drizzle the olive oil over. Roast for 25 minutes.

Pull the chunks of cauliflower apart and drop into boiling water. Boil for 4 minutes.

In a saucepan melt the butter. Whisk in the flour. When it's thickened add the milk and keep whisking until it looks like custard. Whisk in most of the grated cheese and mustard.

Add the cauliflower to the roasted squash. Pour the cheese sauce over it and sprinkle the last of the cheese over the top.

Pop in the oven for 15 minutes......

We had them with the last sausages from the Cornwall Food Festival....