Cauliflower Gruyere Souffle: Labor Intensive, But Tasty

I've made this dish once before, and it's relatively easy and flavorful. However, it requires a lot of dishes, so be prepared with an empty sink and dishwasher before taking on this particular recipe.

First, bring a quart of salted water to a boil. Add a cauliflower head that has been broken into florets; cover and cook for 25 minutes.

Drain the cauliflower and return them to the same pan to dry off any excess water on high heat. If you don't use high heat, the water won't evaporate off, and trust me when I say that cauliflower retains a lot of water, so it may take a while.

Once your cauliflower is nice and dry, add it to a food processor and puree it to a nice, almost mousse like consistency. Set it aside.

Next, combine a quarter cup each of butter and flour to form a roux; do not let this get too brown. Add one and a quarter cup of milk (I used almond milk, so it works out just fine), salt and pepper to taste, and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. This should take about five minutes. Add four ounces of grated gruyere cheese and whisk it until it's smooth. Add two cups of the cauliflower to the mix and stir.

Now is where things get a bit tricky because you are tempering eggs. This demonstrates one of the proofs that cooking is applied organic chemistry. In order to temper eggs, you have to add about a quarter cup of your hot mixture to four egg yolks, because if you just add the yolks to the hot mixture without tempering them, you'll end up with scrambled solids, and nobody wants that. Once you've whisked the hot mixture into the yolks, add this well-blended mixture to the cauliflower mixture and set this aside.

Take your four egg whites that came from separating the four egg yolks and whip these into soft peaks using a hand mixer. You can do it by hand, but unless you have a strong pair of arms and like to whisk things for ten minutes straight, I recommend using the mixer. Fold the whites into the cauliflower mixture in such a way as to not break down the whites.

Pour this mixture into an ungreased souffle dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour or until brown. Serve this immediately because it will collapse almost as soon as you take it out of the oven.

Will and I liked this dish, but I need to work on getting the cauliflower as dry as I can. I need to remember not to worry about burning the food.