Curried cauliflower

If there's one chapter in the Edmonds book that I'm really struggling to get through, it's the sauces and marinades. There are thirty-three recipes in this section, an intimidating total which encompasses no fewer than eight variations of the standard white sauce recipe. Since I'm not in the habit of using white sauces, I have only managed to complete one variation so far.

This afternoon, I sat at my desk perusing the sauces and trying to come up with an idea for dinner tonight that would tick another of the dreaded white sauces off my list. I knew I had some cauliflower in the fridge, and reluctantly concluded that cauliflower might work with a curry sauce (p188).


The rest of my dinner was almost ready before I remembered the sauce. Luckily, white sauces don't take long to make. I melted some butter in a saucepan and added flour and curry powder. It's supposed to go 'frothy' at this point, but actually it just clumped into little balls of curry-flavoured flour.

I could only hope the sauce would smooth out with the addition of milk (and a lot of stirring). I added the milk gradually, whisking vigorously in a partially successful attempt to work out the lumps. Before long, the sauce had thickened. I stirred through some salt and pepper and spooned my curry sauce over the cauliflower.


I'm not really into white sauces as such, but I had to admit that the curry sauce added a bit of flavour to the cauliflower - usually a fairly bland vegetable. It was still a bit lumpy, and the curry flavour was fairly overpowering if I took a large mouthful, but on the whole, it wasn't bad at all.