Hot-smoked cauliflower with a cheese and dill sauce

Hot-smoked cauliflower with a cheese and dill sauce

Spring

Here’s a fun twist on cauliflower cheese. You’ll need a large flowerpot, saucepan, or fire cloche to cover the cauliflower as it gently roasts above the smoky fire. Alternatively, if your barbecue has a lid, you can close that down as the cauliflower cooks. It’s worth noting, while a whole cauliflower cooks surprisingly quickly when you boil it, that’s not the case over an open fire. It’s a rather leisurely process, so it’s important the fire’s not too hot, otherwise the cauliflower may blacken on the outside before it’s tender in the middle. I like to add plenty of chopped dill to my cheese sauce. It’s such a great herb to use with cheese, but if dill isn’t your favourite, chives or parsley would be good instead.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

  • 1 medium–small cauliflower
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 50g (1¾oz) butter
  • 25g (1oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 300ml (10½fl oz) whole milk
  • 125g (4½ oz) mature cheddar, grated
  • 1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • a small handful of dill, chopped, plus extra to serve
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Trim the leaves away from the cauliflower and cut the thick stalk back as much as possible without any of the florets separating. Trickle the trimmed cauliflower with the extra-virgin olive oil and season all over with salt and pepper.

Using half the butter, drop small pieces of it down around the stalk so it falls between the florets. Spoon in 3–4 tablespoons of water, too.

Make sure you have a medium-hot fire going. Add a few small hardwood logs so it’s nice and smoky.

Set the cauliflower down, stalk uppermost, on a grill over the fire, to one side of the direct heat. Place a large terracotta flowerpot, a saucepan or a fire cloche over the cauli. Cook for 25–30 minutes, then uncover the cauli and turn it over. Cover again and leave to cook for about the same time again.

Meanwhile, set a small pan down over the fire and add the remaining butter. When it’s bubbling away, add the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon until smooth. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer, stirring all the time. Add the cheese and mustard and season with some salt and plenty of black pepper. Simmer the sauce until the cheese has melted and it’s lovely and thick. Add the chopped dill and set to one side.

Make sure the cauliflower is tender before you take it off the fire. You can check this by inserting the tip of a knife into the stem. There shouldn’t be much resistance.

Scatter the cauliflower with a little extra dill and serve in thick wedges with lots of cheese sauce.

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