Crème Fraîche is an amazing ingredient, if you haven’t come across it it’s a thick cultured cream with about 30% fat that’s naturally thick so there are no added thickeners unlike there might be in sour cream. It has a softer taste and more fat than sour cream (typically 20% fat). It’s stable at medium to high heat and doesn’t curdle like regular cream can, and you can use it without having to make a flour based roux for sauces.
2 minute Blue Cheese Sauce - serves 2
- First cook your steak and make the sauce in the same pan while the steak is resting
- Deglaze the pan over high hear with half a cup of stock and scrape off all the nice bottom of the pan flavours
- Add 2 desert spoons of craime fraiche and lower the heat a bit
- Stir in. It might go globby and not mix in evenly… don’t panic, it’ll smooth out after a bit of stirring
- Add some blue cheese, I mix in about a desert spoon worth of rocquefort so it goes smooth in the sauce, and then add a second desert spoon but crumble it in and leave it in lumps
- Add black pepper, it probably doesn’t need salt as the cheese is salty
- Pour over steak and enjoy!
Easy Cauliflower Cheese
- Turn on the grill to warm up or pre-heat the oven to about 220C
- Blanche some cauliflower florets - about 1/2 a small cauliflower for 2 people.
- Meanwhile melt a cup of grated cheese (cheddar, emmental, gruyere etc… a mix is good!) in a cup of crème fraîche over a low heat, add salt and pepper.
- Drain the cauliflower, it’s important to drain it as much as possible
- Arrange the cauliflower in an oven proof dish. Pour the sauce over (might need to melt it a bit again if you haven’t got the timing right and it’s come off the heat waiting for the cauliflower)
- Grate some more cheese, either the same or something like parmesan/grana padana, and sprinkle it over the top
- Put under the grill or in the hot oven until the cheese browns.
Easy and no need to start with a béchamel like you normally would!