Cauliflower and smoked cheese gratin
METHOD
Season your bird with salt and refrigerate for 30 minutes, then place your chicken in a bowl that will hold it snugly. If the bowl is too large, the liquid won’t cover the chicken. Alternatively, you can use a sealable plastic bag. Pour the buttermilk and milk over the bird and leave it to marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
The next day, remove the bird from the liquid and set it directly in a roasting tin, skin side up, and allow it to come to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Set a grill pan over a medium-high heat or get an outdoor grill quite hot. Drizzle the chicken skin with a little oil and place the whole flattened bird on the grill to get it nicely coloured. Sear for about 5-7 minutes.
Once you have good grill marks, flip the bird over and place it directly on a roasting rack, skin side up. Roast the chicken in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 70C on a cooking thermometer.
Approximately 10 minutes before your chicken is finished, drizzle it with some extra olive oil and sprinkle the za’atar over the top.
When the bird is cooked, remove it from the oven and set it on a chopping board to rest for 20 minutes.
Next, check the roasting tray. If the fat and dripping look quite burned, rinse it off before adding your grapes to the tin, but if the dripping is just deeply caramelised, place your grapes on top of that spot on the tray.
Pour the verjus onto the grapes and sprinkle them with salt and olive oil. Return the tray to the oven and roast at 220C for 10-15 minutes, or until the grapes swell and look like they will burst. Remove from the oven and set the grapes aside.
To make a little sauce, place the roasting tin over a medium-low heat on the stove and add the chicken stock and any juices the chicken has released while resting.
Add the butter and let it simmer, reduce and thicken. Add the vinegar to the sauce once reduced. It may need a bit more salt or butter depending on the sourness of the grapes, so have a taste. Set aside for pouring over the chicken.
I like to fry some brined grape leaves in olive oil until they are crispy, but this is not essential, just beautiful and tasty.
Carve your chicken and serve with the roasted grapes and all the juice poured over it, and the grape leaves, if you’ve done them.
OK, you got me, this is cauliflower and cheese, but really elevated! The inspiration for this tasty cheesy gratin came from my sister, who once, at a dinner at her home, served the family a cauliflower and cheese gratin using smoked gouda because that is what she had in the fridge, and it turned out better than she or any of us could have imagined. The smokiness from the cheese really makes this a much better take on regular cauliflower and cheese and it will leave people asking if there is bacon in it.
METHOD
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Cut your cauliflower into large but even-sized florets. Boil for three minutes, then scoop out of the water and lay them in the gratin dish you will use.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Melt 30g of the butter in a small saucepan and add the breadcrumbs. Mix and then set aside.
Next, make the béchamel sauce. Melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan set over a medium heat. Add the flour and cook for about two minutes while mixing with a wooden spoon. Gradually add the milk, then the bay leaf. Whisk the mixture together so you don’t have many lumps, then go back to a wooden spoon and continuously stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan so it doesn’t burn.
Once the mixture simmers, it’s done. Remove and discard the bay leaf and add the salt, parmesan, chives, nutmeg and a few cracks of black pepper. Mix well and taste. It should be well seasoned.
Pour it over the cauliflower and try to spread it out evenly, then sprinkle the smoked cheese over the top. Season with salt and pepper and bake for 15 minutes for a fan-forced oven or 20 minutes for a conventional oven.
At this stage, remove it from the oven and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.
Bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown. If it needs more browning beyond this point, put it under the grill for a minute or two, but don’t walk away from it; it can burn easily! Serve immediately.
■ Extracted from Always Add Lemon by Danielle Alvarez (Hardie Grant,
£26).