Broccoli and cheese

I love a roast dinner as much as any carnivore. One of my favourite accompaniments and one I always like to have with christmas dinner is broccoli and cheese. It is the cousin of the more likely cauliflower cheese, however I think broccoli has more flavour. You can of course, and I sometime do, use both broccoli and cauliflour.

What you will need
A head of brocoli
One chopped onion
50g butter
300ml milk
2 heaped table spoons of white flour
1 tea spoon of mustard
75g cheese
Chives (optional)

Steam the florets of broccoli until cooked for 5-10 minutes. Once this has been done, place the broccoli florets in an oven dish.

Chop the onion finely and stir through the broccoli.

Now to make a roux. Melt the butter in the pan and add the flour slowly, mixing into the butter and cooking through for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and slowly begin to add the milk, whisking as you go to ensure there are no lumps. Put the pan back on to the heat, continuing to add the milk and stirring until the roux has thickened. This should take 2-5 minutes on a medium heat. If it becomes too thick, simply stir through a bit more milk.

Add some salt and pepper and the mustard to the roux.

Pour the roux over the broccoli (and chives) and then top with the grated cheese.

Bake this in the oven at 200 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and cheese has browned.

 

Now, a roux is something that you can end up making by eye once you get the hang of it. Whilst you are practicing though, you could keep a tub of creme fraiche in the fridge as a fail safe. If your roux didn't work on this occassion, toss the broccoli and some of it's cooking water through the creme fraiche. Season as above and top with the cheese then bake.

I had these for my Sunday roast with roasted garlic and sage new potatoes (http://gipsytoast.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/broccoli-and-cheese.html) and creamed cabbage. Gipsy Spread has all this, plus a steak.