Cauliflower Bacon Gratin – An Ounce on the Lips Forever on the Hips

Cauliflower Bacon Gratin

New Year’s Eve is an organized bacchanalia, complete with fireworks. It is the punctuation mark to the end of the old year and an exclamation point to the start of the new year. So I was expecting the final French Friday with Dorie challenge for 2011 to be a big, bold, colorful and exciting challenge. Instead we got a delightful, simple to prepare dish that serves well as an accompaniment to a variety of more flamboyant dishes.

Preparing Bacon – I like to use a little olive oil when browning my bacon

Cauliflower taking a little bath

Cauliflower placed in a buttered dish for baking and topped with the browned bacon

Cauliflower Bacon Gratin is a variation of the classic potato gratin, only the inclusion of egg results in a custardy quiche texture and taste. Substituting cauliflower for potatoes makes it seem like this dish should be part of the Weight Watchers program. In fact, I felt like the Paula Dean of Palm Springs since it is actually rich in all things that go straight to the hips: cream, cheese and bacon. The result is a flavorful, creamy starch substitute in which the cauliflower taste is nicely moderated by the baking process and other ingredients. This is a dish I would make again, although I will try my sous chef’s suggestion of mixing cauliflower and broccoli to give more color and flavor to the dish.

Pouring the cream and egg mixture over cauliflower and bacon

This is the exact moment I felt like the Paula Dean of Palm Springs – just look at all that cream and cheese

Voila! Oh, and isn’t the casserole beautiful – it’s from my favorite bakery Clementines in Palm Desert

And speaking of dishes, I used a round casserole dish whereas Dorie used a 9 x 13 baking dish. Since my casserole dish was deeper, it took almost 45 minutes to complete the cooking process. So just remember to adjust the cooking time if you are using a baking dish that is deeper than the one Dorie uses.