Cauliflower Casserole with Vegetables and Cheese Crust

Name: Cauliflower Casserole with Vegetables and Cheese Crust
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Cauliflower 1 head; Tomatoes 2; Red bell pepper 1 head; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Leek 1 head; Dill 2-3 sprigs; Butter 2 tbsp; Hard cheese (Radamer, Swiss) 150 g; Salt, black pepper, dried herbs, white wine to taste

At some point, I don't even know why, I almost stopped boiling vegetables. For soups, of course, you have to. But for salads and side dishes we hardly ever boil them. Even for vinegret salad, we roast the vegetables. And dishes like cauliflower casserole call for a special approach.

When boiled, vegetables soak up water and turn watery. That said, braised cauliflower with vegetables is tasty precisely when it has soaked up the vegetable juices. Besides, even if roasting vegetables in the oven isn't very convenient, you can cook them perfectly well in the microwave. It takes a little skill and getting used to your microwave.

Under the dry heat of the oven, vegetables roast quickly, and all their moisture stays inside. You could say the vegetables are cooked in their own juices. Many people value that.

Casseroles are a category of their own. I'm not talking about nalyvka, the berry and fruit liqueur so popular in Ukrainian cooking. I mean a way of making main courses or appetizers where vegetables, meat, fish and so on are cooked in a wood-fired or regular oven with dry heat. There's an interesting culinary technique called gratinating. You'll often see the term “gratin.” Mostly these are French dishes. The word gratin means a crust. Usually a finished or nearly finished dish is covered with a layer of cheese, topped with egg or simply brushed with sauce. Further cooking forms a crust that is very tasty and greatly improves the look of the finished dish.

By and large, in my opinion, calling such dishes “gratin of…” isn't quite right. It isn't a way of cooking the dish, only a way of improving it.

The term gratin usually refers to the nice golden crust on top of baked dishes. I read somewhere that this crust is even removed from the dish and served separately.

It's very tasty to cook cauliflower and roasted vegetables, then sprinkle them with grated cheese. A few more minutes in the oven and you get a great dish with a crust: cauliflower casserole.

Ingredients

2 servings

Cauliflower 1 head
Tomatoes 2
Red bell pepper 1 head
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Leek 1 head
Dill 2-3 sprigs
Butter 2 tbsp
Hard cheese (Radamer, Swiss) 150 g
Salt, black pepper, dried herbs, white wine to taste

Step-by-step recipe

The casserole is made only from very fresh, firm cauliflower. Cauliflower is a common vegetable. Its name comes from “cole flower,” because what we eat is the flower head. And it's white, not multicolored. It's an excellent ingredient for vegetable soups. Lightly boiled florets are delicious fried in breadcrumbs. Choosing a cauliflower is very easy: take a firm, solid, heavy head. The leaves at the bottom are an indicator of freshness. If they're rotting or wilted, don't buy it. The color of the cauliflower itself, from white to almost cream, has practically no effect on taste or quality. It depends on growing conditions.
The casserole is made only from cauliflower florets. Separate the cauliflower into florets with a knife. It's best to cut out the tough stalks and keep only the very tops, the flowers. Boil the florets in a mix of water and white wine for 2-3 minutes. The ratio of wine to water is up to you; half and half is best. Drain the boiled cauliflower in a colander.
Slice the leek, white part only, into thin rings. Melt the butter in a skillet and quickly fry the leek.
Add the red bell pepper, seeded, stemmed and cut into thin strips, and the grated garlic. Braise covered over low heat for 10 minutes.
Grease a baking dish (ceramic or glass) with a little butter. Arrange the boiled cauliflower in a single layer so the casserole isn't too thick. Season with salt and pepper and, if you like, add a pinch of dried herbs: the dish should be fragrant.
Cut the tomatoes (preferably small ones) into large wedges and remove the seeds. Lay the tomato wedges on the cauliflower. By the way, if you can use cherry tomatoes, you don't need to cut them.
Spread the braised leek and red pepper evenly over the cauliflower and tomatoes. Level it with a fork so the leek and pepper cover the cauliflower completely.
Put the dish into an oven preheated to 220-230°C for 20 minutes.
After that time, sprinkle the dish with coarsely chopped dill, or simply tear the fronds off the sprigs by hand. Add a little salt to taste if you like.
Coarsely grate the hard cheese. The type of cheese for the crust is up to you. I prefer slightly sweet cheeses with very large holes, like Radamer or Swiss; then the cauliflower casserole gets a thick, proper crust.
Sprinkle the dish with grated cheese thoroughly, without any gaps. This matters because you want one solid, unbroken crust in the end.
A digression: baked cheese will be straw-yellow. If you want the dish to be bright golden, brush the cheese with a little mayonnaise. I'm not a big fan of mayonnaise unless I make it myself, so I leave the cheese as it is. Then again, making 3-4 tbsp of mayonnaise takes just a few minutes: an egg yolk, olive oil, vinegar and a mixer.
Put the dish back in the oven until the cheese has completely melted and a slightly crispy crust has formed. This usually takes 20-30 minutes. You can only tell by looking.
Take the finished casserole out of the oven and cut it into portions with a sharp knife. Try not to damage the crust. Literally cut through the crust with the tip of the knife. Then use a spatula to separate the portions along the cut lines and put them on plates.
Serve right away, while hot. You can add a sauce if you like, but preferably not a tomato one. I think a cream-based sauce or tartar sauce would work. Cauliflower casserole is delicious with fresh white bread.