Cauliflower au Gratin

Last Saturday my mom bought a whole case (12 heads!) of cauliflower, so we had to start eating them. The next day, I've decided to make Cauliflower au Gratin. Searching for recipes online returned several versions, some of which called for sour cream. I've never cooked with sour cream before...not even in cheesecake, or in mashed potatoes, so I developed a habit of staying away from it as an ingredient in a recipe. Maybe one of these days I'll gather enough courage to cook with it...who knows.

We had this dish at Pierre's before. Too bad we never got to go back there for a meal before they closed down permanently. The first time I went to Pierre's was way back in Sophomore year of high school for a French field trip. The food was delicious, but we didn't know where it was or how to go back there. It wasn't until about SEVEN years later did Charlene tell me the address, and we finally went back there for brunch. The place was nice and cozy, their weekend brunch featured either roast beef brisket, lamb, or turkey...depending on what they had that day. We usually had the beef, since turkey is too dry, and I don't eat lamb. Aside from the meat, they always had a variety of salads both cold and warm, salmon, mashed pototoes, and the theme of this blog: cauliflower au gratin!

My version didn't turn out quite as nicely as Pierre's, mainly because there were a lot liquid in the baking dish even after the cheese and sauce turned brown in the oven. Next time, I'll need to boil the cauliflower way ahead of time, to give it enough time to dry. The flavor was good (not too salty!), I used salt, pepper, butter, flour, milk and nutmeg.