Cauliflower a la Playboy

[rkimedes]

This is something that I think my mom trimmed out of a newspaper 25 years ago, but I've never been able to find it online. I finally found the spiral notebook where I scrawled my transcription when I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner, so I'm putting it down here for posterity. BTW, I have no idea why it's called "a la Playboy".

2 lbs FRESH cauliflower. (this, as I found out today, means a 2 lb head of cauliflower, not 2 lb of florets. I doubled the recipe, and it was fine. Also, I tried this once with frozen cauliflower, and the florets were bitter and awful. Buyer beware.)
1 c hot milk
1 chicken boullion cube, crushed
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs butter
1/4 - 1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 - 1/2 c shredded swiss cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Bring 1c of water to a boil in a large saucepan
3. Add cauliflower. Cook covered tightly until tender, about 10 min. Drain.
4. Heat milk
5. In medium heavy saucepan, melt butter.
6. Add flour, stirring constantly
7. Cook over med heat until mixture is thick and smooth and begins to bubble (about 2 min)
8. Remove saucepan from heat and add hot milk all at once
9. Return to heat and stir vigorously with whisk.
10. Sauce will be thickened and smooth in about a minute
11. Add crushed boullion cube, garlic, salt, and pepper to sauce.
12. bring sauce to a boil
13. Add drained cauliflower and half of parmesan cheese
14. Spoon into baking dish and top with remaining parmesan and Swiss cheese
15. Bake for 15 min.

This really only lends itself to being reheated once. You've been warned. It's even tasty to people who don't like cauliflower, so that usually doesn't turn out to be a huge deal.