Superfluous cornflour.

Roasted cauliflower chowder.

This was originally going to be cauliflower and sweetcorn chowder but the flavour of the cauliflower came out so well I skipped the sweetcorn. Made it for the first time last night and it seemed to go down very well.

You will need

One large cauliflower, leaves removed and broken into small florets
A generous amount of ground cumin. If you can freshly grind the seeds it's definitely worth it as it adds a lot of extra texture and flavour.
Olive oil.
One large carrot, two sticks of celery and two banana shallots all scrubbed and coarsely diced.
About 400g of waxy potatoes (Charlotte or similar), scrubbed and diced into about 1cm cubes
Half a litre of vegetable stock
About 250ml of milk
Salt and black pepper.
Some cornflour, just in case.

Put the cauliflower into a roasting tin, generously cover with the cumin and olive oil. It's worth drizzling, seasoning, turning in the dish and then adding some more oil and cumin. Grind some black pepper over the top and then roast in a moderate (160° fan) oven for about 30 minutes. Keep checking and turning - you want plenty of brown bits but no black bits.

While the cauliflower is roasting put the carrot, celery and shallot into a large heavy saucepan with some more olive oil and gently fry. You're looking for the veg to get sticky and translucent but not brown and crunchy.

Once the cauliflower is nicely browned add it to the saucepan together with the stock. Bring to a simmer and cover. After about ten minutes the cauliflower should be completely cooked through and you can mash it into the soup. How mushy you go is up to you, I prefer the texture you can achieve with a potato masher (or fork if you're a bit of an obsessive). I wouldn't blend or liquidise this as that's starting to get to baby-food consistency but if that doesn't bother you then knock yourself out.

Once mushing (or blending if you must) is done, add the milk and potato and bring to a gentle simmer. Once the potato is tender (probably about another thirty minutes) season generously with salt and black pepper. This will probably take more salt than you'd expect to bring out all the flavours so don't be shy.

At this point I expected to have to add some cornflour to thicken the soup but it wasn't necessary. If you think yours could use it then throughly mix some cornflour with milk and add a little at a time, stirring continuously. Allow it to cook through completely before checking the consistency to see if any more is needed. No-one sane likes soup with uncooked flour in it.