how to make cheese sauce for cauliflower?

[nonlinear]

OK so this cold-ass weather has inspired me to spend tomorrow afternoon making a huge ass turkey feast LOL

I'm doing a roasted turkey with homemade herbed stuffing and giblet gravy. mashed potatoes on the side.

In the midwest USA, grandmas everywhere often make steamed cauliflower with a melted cheese sauce for holidays. (i'm sure you guys know what i'm talking about). anyhow, i want to make that also, but i'm not sure exactly how to get a really nice melty cheese sauce. I grabbed a can of Campbells cheese soup at Sobey's today, thinking I could use that, but can't seem to find any recipes on the net for that. i didn't spend much time searching, because i'm now kinda wondering if i'm suppossed to use velveeta or cheeze whiz or something.

i know it sounds ghetto, especially relative to the turkey and gravy and stuffing and potatoes that will take me like 5 hours to make (haha) but i love cauliflower and cheese sauce.

does anyone have a mom or aunt or grandma that they could ask? or, kritafo can you give me some advice LOL. my mother has passed and my aunt (her sister) is in over in Germany taking some university students on study trip.

thanks :thumbsup:

[nonlinear]

BTW, this is the kinda thing i'm looking for, except in the picture here it appears as though they used cheddar cheese (you can see parts congealed, and pools of oil). I want mine like a cheese sauce, not just melted cheese

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/57/193693052_53aac6edfb.jpg

[brownboi]

jus buy some cheesewhiz an warm it up lol
thas wat they do on Tv ahha:thumbsup:

[Isaiah]

Originally posted by brownboi
jus buy some cheesewhiz an warm it up lol
thas wat they do on Tv ahha:thumbsup:

That's what I always use too. Seems ghetto but actually works quite well, especially on broccoli and cauliflower.

[nonlinear]

thanks for the advice dude, so you just use straight up cheeze whiz??

haha, if i do that, i'm gonna have to figure out what to do with a can of campbell's cheese soup LOL, cause i've never had it before and not sure i'd want to eat it as a soup. maybe i'll have give it to the food bank :nut:

[brownboi]

far as i kno yes u just warm it up as is an then spread/pour it onto tha cauliflower

[Amysicle]

Here's a basic recipe, I haven't tried it myself but it like something Alton Brown would suggest.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1.5 cups milk
4 oz grated cheese

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour, mix well and about 1/3 cup of the milk. Stir over low heat, gradually adding in the remaining milk and stirring to work out any lumps. Add all but one tbsp of the cheese to the sauce and stir until smooth and thick. Use the remainder of the cheese to sprinkle on your dish.

The idea behind it is to make a roux with the flour and butter and then any liquid (could be chicken stock, pan drippings, etc.) and thicken it with heat. I suggest trying it out a few times before the big presentation to make sure it works.

[Isaiah]

Yup. Just put it in a container (don't heat the entire jar) and then drizzle it over the veggies. Serve the vegetables hot and then heat the whiz at the very last minute as you're getting ready to eat as it cools off pretty quickly and coagulates.

[nonlinear]

so far, i'm leaning towards cheese whiz since it's easy and seems like it will produce the desired result.

however, i'm really picky and opinionated and sometimes even snobby about food, so the more involved recipe suggested by amysicle seems appealing as well... amysicle, is that from your personal collection, or from the web somewhere? could you give me a link so i could investigate it a bit more?

thanks for all the advice, everyone :thumbsup:

[dj_rice]

The sauce your looking for is called a bechamel...


Its pretty much what Amysicle has given you, you start out with a roux aka butter or oil cooked with flour and then milk and then slowly after incorporating the milk and letting it cook it thickens a bit and then voila bechamel....

After that is where the bechamel turns into whatever flavoring you want, for your case you want a cheese sauce, so you add cheddar cheese into the bechamel and there u go, a cheddar bechamel



I was gonna use a recipe from my Culinary book from when I went to Culinary school but the yield was 4L worth of sauce and a little too complex with the ingredients for what you can do

Basic Bechamel

* 1 cup milk
* A piece of onion or garlic
* 1 x bay leaf
* 1 to 2 Tbsp butter
* 1 to 2 Tbsp flour
* salt and pepper

1. Steep the milk with a piece of onion or garlic and a bay leaf for 15 minutes. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Season.
2. For thick béchamel, use ratio of 2 tablespoons butter + 2 tablespoons flour for 1 cup/250 ml milk
3. For very thick béchamel for soufflé base: 3 tablespoons butter, 5 tablespoons flour, 1 cup/250 ml milk. It makes the soufflé more stable.

[nonlinear]

dj_rice thanks a lot. will the recipe amysicle gave work? is it difficult to make a roux? that's funny, cause the gravy i'm making starts with a roux too, and it's the first time i've heard of that term.

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by nonlinear
dj_rice thanks a lot. will the recipe amysicle gave work? is it difficult to make a roux? that's funny, cause the gravy i'm making starts with a roux too, and it's the first time i've heard of that term.


It can work but it will be very bland, because a bechamel has an onion studded with cloves/bay leaves and even some nutmeg to add flavoring



Making a roux is the easiest thing either, you don't even need measurements really......lets say add 2-3 tablespoons of butter, and melt that into a pot, for the flour part, you just add enough flour til it comes together meaning its not a liquid but its almost a paste, not super dry but enough to stir around still...


And yeah, all sauces start pretty much with a roux unless we're talking about reduction sauces then thats a whole nother ball game

And the purpose of the roux is pretty much a thickening agent for a sauce and for your gravy, theres different ways to add flavor and depth with which roux you give it

[dannie]

Even easier. Get a block of velveeta cheese, cut the amount you want into small cubes, throw it in the microwave or saucepan with a bit of cream. It makes a super smooth cheese sauce.

[nonlinear]

hey dj_rice, thanks a ton for your help.

if i use your roux recipe above, how much shredded cheddar would you suggest I add? do i want it room temp when i add it?

[Amysicle]

Thanks dj_rice! I never knew what it was called, I just did it.

I haven't made a cheese sauce, but I know the roux is a great base for gravy. The recipe I posted, I found it on a Jamie Oliver forum as part of another recipe (mac & cheese). But the one dj_rice posted is from the Food Network Canada website (I think).

The roux isn't too hard to make. I always think I've screwed it up because as soon as I mix the flour in, it seizes into a ball and I just keep stirring it until it starts relaxing spreading out a bit. I generally cook it until I start smelling shortbread cookies (about 10 minutes over medium).

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by nonlinear
hey dj_rice, thanks a ton for your help.

if i use your roux recipe above, how much shredded cheddar would you suggest I add? do i want it room temp when i add it?


Doesnt matter if the cheese is cold or room temp, its better if you actually throw the cheese your gonna be shredding in the freezer for a few hours so its easier to shred and won't just crumble and fall apart while ur shredding

As for amount, hmmmmm 75-125g of cheese?I'm just guessing as the recipe is only making a small amount of sauce but even then, you can't really go wrong if you over-add too much cheese, so start with 75g, and then taste it and add more to your liking, dont forget to season it after with a lil salt and pepper

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by Amysicle
Thanks dj_rice! I never knew what it was called, I just did it.

I haven't made a cheese sauce, but I know the roux is a great base for gravy. The recipe I posted, I found it on a Jamie Oliver forum as part of another recipe (mac & cheese). But the one dj_rice posted is from the Food Network Canada website (I think).

The roux isn't too hard to make. I always think I've screwed it up because as soon as I mix the flour in, it seizes into a ball and I just keep stirring it until it starts relaxing spreading out a bit. I generally cook it until I start smelling shortbread cookies (about 10 minutes over medium).


Yeah I just used the Food Network recipe cause the one I have in my culinary book yield 4L worth of sauce and it asks for lots of ingredients you don't really use much in daily cooking like clarified butter/nugmeg, oignon pique which is studded/pricked onion which I explained above but you can pretty much use whatever bechamel recipe on Google

If your roux is seizing up into a ball, either you have too much flour or not enough fat aka butter but its very easy to rectify so no worries and as for roux, if your making gravy and lets say your serving it on chicken, then you would only cook your roux for a short time essentially keeping it a blonde color still so your gravy turns out a light blonde gravy...if your say using gravy on beef/turkey and want a dark gravy, then you would cook ur roux a lil longer til it starts turning brown (NOT BURNT) giving you a dark brown gravy with a nutty flavour

[Amysicle]

Originally posted by dj_rice
If your roux is seizing up into a ball, either you have too much flour or not enough fat aka butter but its very easy to rectify so no worries and as for roux, if your making gravy and lets say your serving it on chicken, then you would only cook your roux for a short time essentially keeping it a blonde color still so your gravy turns out a light blonde gravy... Thanks. You're a guru!

There's also another thing, I cook it for what sounds like a long time (about 10 minutes), but it doesn't actually turn brown. It's still a golden/straw colour by the time I take it off the heat. What else am I doing wrong?

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by Amysicle
Thanks. You're a guru!

There's also another thing, I cook it for what sounds like a long time (about 10 minutes), but it doesn't actually turn brown. It's still a golden/straw colour by the time I take it off the heat. What else am I doing wrong?


Your not cooking it at my house is what your doing it wrong? And with this comment, I hope your a girl named Amy :facepalm: :rofl: :rofl: :poosie: :poosie:


After 10 mins of cooking and it still hasn't turned brown or got a lil browning coloration, it would be either...way too much flour not enough fat, or too low heat

[Amysicle]

:rofl: You lucked out this time (with the gender guessing).

[BigDannyCool]

in this instance you don't want your roux to turn brown. A bechamel sauce is a white sauce

[nonlinear]

dj_rice, we're making this in a couple of hours. at what point do we want to add the shredded cheese? after or during when we add the milk?

thanks a lot, things are going great! our condo smells awesome

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by nonlinear
dj_rice, we're making this in a couple of hours. at what point do we want to add the shredded cheese? after or during when we add the milk?

thanks a lot, things are going great! our condo smells awesome


You make the bechamel first, and once your finished making that then add the cheese

[BigDannyCool]

also this method of cheese sauce can be used for mac and cheese.

[S13_Ryan]

supposedly its like cheezewhiz, a bit of lemon juice, pepper, and if you want it a bit spicey throw in some of those red pepper flakes.

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by BigDannyCool
also this method of cheese sauce can be used for mac and cheese.


Mac n Cheese, Lasagna

[nonlinear]

can you also use it as fondue sauce?

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by nonlinear
can you also use it as fondue sauce?



No, cheese fondue is made with wine as the liquid and is heated throughout the entire meal, if you used the bechamel as ur fondue sauce....my guess would be, either the emulsion would break leaving you with butter liquid and milk or it'll get thick as a mofo and prolly end up burning eventually so no

[nonlinear]

thanks again dj_rice

finished dinner about an hour ago. the cheese bechemel was awesome, and exactly what we were looking for. thanks again :thumbsup:

[szw]

All that and no pics? boo.

next time add bacon.

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by nonlinear
thanks again dj_rice

finished dinner about an hour ago. the cheese bechemel was awesome, and exactly what we were looking for. thanks again :thumbsup:


Sounds good, what would of made it even more awesome is pouring the sauce over the cauliflower, than adding some breadcrumbs and more cheese on top and throwing it in the oven to develop a nice crunchy crust to give it a texture contrast :thumbsup:

[nonlinear]

Originally posted by szw
All that and no pics? boo.

next time add bacon.

oh, we've got pics LOL i'll try and get them off the sam this evening and post them up here

[GTI CANADIAN]

Add plenty of SMEGMA

[ekguy]

My dad makes a cheese sauce for broccoli and cauliflower. You take a can of cream of mushroom soup and a bunch of cheddar and melt them together. If it's too liquidy you add a tiny bit of flour since you won't taste the flour but it'll thicken it up. Delicious and simple. But you have to stir it constantly or it'll burn on the bottom of the pot.