CAULIFLOWER WITH WHITE SAUCE AND EGGS

VEGETAMERE

september 23 - october 23 2020

online exhbition

Cauliflower with. white. sauce and boiled eggs:

A humbling Luxembourgish specialty that deserves to be better known.

Mrs. Thoma, Sylvie by her first name, is the mother of Fabienne, my dear childhood friend. Sylvie is a famous cook in our village. She also grows her own vegetables and fruits.

Sylvie knows very well how to prepare Luxembourgish culinary specialties. To me, these were often dishes that I didn’t properly appreciate as a kid until I became an adult with a more versatile palate.

I called Sylvie the other day and asked her:

- Sylvie, wann ech gelift, could you teach me how to prepare Choufleur mat waisser zoos an gekachten Eer? 

- Jo, of course, she answered.

A couple of days later, I meet Sylvie in her vegetable garden. She shows me cauliflower at different stages of growth: over there the young shoots in the nursery, there the ones she transplanted, and here the ones where the head begins to grow. She removes the few leaves she has previously folded over the flower so that it always remains a bit in the shadow.

- If you do not protect the flower, it won’t retain its whiteness. Growing cauliflower is very delicate, it should always have its butt in the water and its head in the sun!

Sylvie chooses a cauliflower and we go to her kitchen. She removes the outer leaves by hand and with a small knife, she turns around the head’s core to remove it. She cuts the cauliflower into large bunches of 5 to 6 centimeters. After a quick wash she puts them in a saucepan with cold water and a pinch of salt. 

-  I’m going to let them simmer for 15 minutes.

Sylvie counts 2 eggs per person and some potatoes as side dish. She cooks the eggs for 10 minutes sharp, so that the yolks remain bright orange. 

- You see, it's easy, we're almost done. 

When I ask Sylvie if she knows anything about the history of this recipe, she explains that her own mother was already fixing this dish as well as her grand-mother. 

- At the time, at least in the northern and more rural part of Luxembourg, almost everyone had backyard chickens that provided the family with eggs and a vegetable patch. You didn’t even need to buy milk at the farm for this recipe, because you make the béchamel sauce with the cauliflower’s cooking water. The touch of fresh cream at the end is optional, really. 

Sylvie takes the cauliflower off the heat. In a saucepan, she melts margarine over medium heat and whisks in 3 tablespoons of flour until the paste cooks. She adds the cauliflower’s cooking water step-by-step and whisks until the mixture is thick and creamy. 

She adds a drizzle of crème fraîche, salt, pepper and nutmeg. She puts the cauliflower bunches delicately in the béchamel as well as the shelled eggs and some chopped parsley.

We go to sit in the dining room. Sylvie hands me a large white plate on which everything is white. There’s a rustic minimalism to this dish that brings to mind another time: eggs are used as a substitute, less for the sake of a vegetarian food option than a shortage of meat. And yet, the alchemy that operates in the making of the queen of sauces, béchamel, provides the necessary consolation and even a silky touch of luxury in the way it coats with the highest simplicity some tender florets and a boiled egg. 

- Is something wrong? asks Sylvie while I’m lost in the downhearted pallor of my plate. I grab my knife and fork, cut the egg in two and see two small suns appear. It truly is a very special and delicious dish.