Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice and Orchidea from Viaggi e Sappori have created a special, one-off food event, dishes of comfort, to celebrate special dishes people loved as a child.

I loved Ivonne’s story of being brought up by her Grandma, and the Italian food they ate.
I’ve often regretted that I don’t come from a strong food culture. Fortunately my mum (a Taurean) is a great cook, with a love of food and an impeccable memory for dishes she’s eaten. She can still describe in detail dishes she ate years ago (I was going to write decades ago, which is actually true, but sounded impolite!). I’m lucky to have inherited the same fascination with food, and Proustian connection to my memories, although sadly my recall is not as reliable as mum’s!

However, despite my mum’s love of food, when I was growing up in the 1980s, “typical” Australian food was quite bland. It wasn’t easy to find the range of ingredients that are stock standard in supermarkets today, and the influence of food from non-European cultures hadn’t permeated Anglo Australian culture (particularly in country South Australia). So, our dinners consisted of tuna mornay, roasts on Saturday nights, boiled vegetables with sausage or steak, and cold salads in summer.

I think a lot of dishes at that time had nods to Asian and Italian food, but the dishes were heavily anglicised and had lost touch with the original spices, sauces, and techniques that made the food notable in the first place.

My grandmother (on my father’s side) also loved food and cooking. She lived in a different state to us, so we only saw her about once a year. However, almost all my memories of her involve her kitchen, her garden and food. Grandma constantly wore an apron, and loved to bustle around the kitchen, taking care of everyone and talking for hours (seriously) on end.

At lunchtime we would gather around a table laden with food. There were plates of salads, cold meats, sweets and fresh iced doughnuts that Grandma would sneak out to buy early in the morning when my brother and I came to visit (Grandma was not of the school of thought that worried about childhood obesity). Despite Grandma’s love of cooking, I didn’t spend enough time with her to learn her recipes.

My other strong childhood memory of food is eating fresh, summer fruits. Until I was eight years old, I lived in a fruit and grape growing region in South Australia called the Riverland. Our large backyard had apricot, nectarine, plum and almond trees, and I took full advantage of them every summer. Even when we moved away, fruit and vegetables remained amongst my favourite foods - one of the reasons why becoming vegetarian was a very easy decision.

Anyhow, this is a roundabout way of saying that it was hard initially to think of ‘tasty, comfort dishes’ from my childhood (especially dishes that were vegetarian), partly because my family don’t come from a wonderful tradition of food, like Italian, Japanese, French or Indian, and partly because my wandering childhood meant that I didn’t have a consistent experience of particular dishes.

However… there is one dish that holds an extremely special place in my memory: cauliflower cheese (that’s cauliflower au gratin for you francophiles).

We ate cauliflower cheese with formal, roast dinners and on special occasions like Christmas, so I associate the dish with wearing my best clothes, setting out the mint sauce on the table, using Grandma’s special crockery and running around waiting for guests to arrive.

I loved cauliflower cheese so much I would always save it until the end of my meal so I’d leave the table savouring the taste in my mouth.

Even better than eating cauliflower cheese at dinner was eating the leftovers the next morning. After a roast dinner I could carefully scrape together all of the leftover vegetables and gravy, and cook them up in a fry pan as bubble and squeak. Yum!

While our Christmas dinners are much more modern these days, as befits hot Australian summers, my poor mum still has to make cauliflower cheese for me, and I still leave it until last to eat.

So, here is my family recipe for cauliflower cheese. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon margerine or butter
1 tablespoon of plain flour
Grated cheese to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
Shake of nutmeg
Half teaspoon Dijon mustard
Milk – roughly 2 cups
1/2 cauliflower

Method

Melt butter. Mix in flour. Stir well – at least a minute (must all be incorporated). According to my Dad, this is the secrete to a white sauce, lots of stirring to remove all lumps.

Gradually add milk and stir very well after each addition (lift off the heat if getting too hot). Add salt & pepper, nutmeg and mustard. Add grated cheese.

Meanwhile, lightly steam the cauliflower then add to a quiche or baking dish. Cover the cauliflower in white sauce and bake for about 20 minutes in a 180 degree oven (or until the cauliflower has turned golden brown).

Enjoy!

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