Just try this very simple recipe and prove yourself wrong. You can prepare all this in advance except for the final 10/15 minutes of finishing off in the oven. All you need is one large whole cauliflower, some grated cheese (Gruyère if you can get it) a little olive oil and some salt/ pepper to season.
Remove green leaves from around the base of the cauliflower. Then, using a long knife, place the cauliflower base down and carefully cut it in half, pressing down gently from the top. Now make a second cut, about 1/2 inch from the edge of one of the halves to create a cauliflower steak, as in the picture above. If you're lucky and you use a big cauliflower, you might be able to cut two complete steaks from each half of cauliflower. Place each steak on a metal tray lined with greaseproof paper and brush with a little olive oil. Add salt and pepper, cover loosely with a layer of tin foil and cook in a hot oven (200 C) for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and, using a fish slice, carefully turn each steak over. Add a little more freshly ground pepper and salt to each steak. Finally, sprinkle liberally with grated Gruyère cheese. You can use Cheddar but from experience, I think Gruyère is nicest. Cover with foil and leave to rest until you are ready to eat. When you are, whack the tray back in the oven without the foil for about 10 to 15 minutes, essentially until the cheese is nicely brown and bubbly.
That's it! Time to eat! You'll be amazed how sweet, succulent and delicious the cauliflower steaks are. You can experiment adding a few variants to spice things up. Ideas we've tried included adding bacon or parma ham sprinkles just before you sprinkle on the cheese (mmmm!) or even chilli flakes and/ or other herbs and spices. However, on balance, we prefer this nice and simple - it's a great accompaniment to fish or sausages.
Comments