Cauliflower, Potatoes and Saint Nectaire Gratin

Not that I'm paranoid, but trying to be more aware of what I eat, I now read carefully the labels of the product I buy. Which makes my errands a bit more time consuming, but also made me realise how much stuff they put in everything!

So, beside the "do it yourself" approach to food, I also believe knowing where the food comes from is really important. A simple product, like an apple bought at the supermarket, has to be labelled from where it comes from. When you see that one traveled half the world, and the one next to it comes from your own country, it doesn't make much sense.

Imagine the carbon footprint that this apple is leaving, just with the transportation to bring it to your supermarket. Now, I buy exotic fruits too everynow and than, but again, local and seasonal seems wiser. This cauliflower and the potatoes grew in the ground of my own town, I guess it doesn't get any more local.

For the first time today, I went to a "crèmerie", a store specialized mostly with cheese. After trying some of their products at an evening, I knew that for today's recipe, I had to go there to pick up my Saint-Nectaire. It's a "fermier" version, so not mass produced one, but coming directly from a farmer, sliced and paper wrapped in front of me. It feels good to know what you're eating!

Cauliflower, Potatoes and Saint-Nectaire Gratin

Serves 2

1 Small Cauliflower
3 Potatoes
100gr of Saint-Nectaire
1 Onion
20gr of Corn Starch
200ml of Soy Milk
100ml of Soy Cream
Nutmeg
Salt, pepper

Cut the cauliflower into florets and clean them. In a pan, heat up some water and cook your cauliflower there for about 15 minutes.

Wash and peel the potatoes. Cook them in water for about 20 minutes, but it depends on the size of your potatoes, check with a knife it they are cooked.

Preheat the oven to 240°C

Slice the onion finely, and in a non-sticky pan, give them in with a bit of salt, and let them cook slowly.

Mix the corn starch with the milk, and pour it into the cooked onions. Add the soy cream and stir to make it to a "béchamel" consistency. Season with nutmeg and pepper.

In a bowl, mix the cauliflower florets, the patotoes that you have sliced roughly and the onion sauce. Cut in some dice of saint-nectaire, but keep most of it to put on top of the gratin.

When everything is carefully combined, transfert it to the oven dish and top the gratin with the remaining saint-nectaire.

Put it in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the top is a golden color, you can use the oven grill in the end to help.