Serves: 5 – 6
Baking tin : 8″x 8″
Ingredients:
- Vegetables:
- Carrots – 1½ cups, cut into ½” cubes
- Green Beans – 1½ cups, cut into ½” lengths
- Sweet corn kernels or green peas – 1¼ cup
- Salt to taste
- White button Mushrooms – 600 grams cut into thick slices
- Cheese sauce:
- Plain flour – 4 tablespoons
- Butter – 4 tablespoons
- Oil – 1 teaspoon
- Onion – ½, chopped fine
- Milk – 2 cups
- Bay leaf – 1
- Pepper powder -½ teaspoon
- Thyme -¼ teaspoon
- Celery – 1″ stalk
- Garlic flakes – 3, squished
- Birdseye chilli/ Goan tarvotti mirchi (or any other equivalent) – 1, chopped (optional for additional spice)
- Grated Cheese – 1½ cup
- Salt to taste
- Olives – ¼ cup, sliced
- Jalapeno – 1 tablespoon, chopped
- Bread crumbs – ½ cup
- Melted butter – ¼ cup
- Mixed herbs – ½ teaspoon (oregano, parsley, basil etc)
Method for the vegetables:
- In a large saucepan bring 4 cups of mildly salted water to a rolling boil.
- Beginning with the beans parboil all the vegetables one at a time, remove into a baking dish, cover and set aside. Save the resultant vegetable stock for the sauce.
- Stir fry the thickly sliced mushrooms with a teaspoon of pepper. Add them to the parboiled vegetables in the baking tin along with the sliced olives and chopped jalapenos.
Method for the Cheese Sauce and putting the bake together:
- In a bowl mix the melted butter, bread crumbs, mixed herbs and set aside for later.
- To a large saucepan on medium heat, add milk, bay leaf, onion, pepper powder, thyme, celery, garlic flakes, birdseye chilli.
- Increase heat to medium and bring the milk mix to a rolling boil.
- Take the saucepan off the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 40 minutes to an hour.
- After the milk has infused strain it and set aside for the cheese sauce.
- To a separate saucepan on medium heat add butter and oil followed by onion, fry until the onions turn translucent.
- Add in the flour, fry stirring all along until the raw smell of flour goes.
- Lower the heat to minimum and gently stir in the strained milk and 1 cup of reserved vegetable stock, whisking all the while to avoid lumps from forming.
- Take the saucepan off the heat when the sauce comes to a boil and thickens to your liking. Now whisk in half the grated cheese into the hot sauce.
- Add the cheese sauce to the prepared vegetables in the baking tray and mix well ensuring that all the vegetables are well coated in sauce.
- Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the saucy vegetables, followed by the breadcrumb mix.
- Bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 180°C until the breadcrumbs turn a golden brown and crisp.
- Serve with Bruschetta or plain toast.
For the Bruschetta:
- Ripe Tomatoes – 5 – 6, deseeded and chopped small
- Garlic cloves – 4, crushed
- Pepper powder – ½ teaspoon
- Extra virgin Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
- Balsamic vinegar – 1 teaspoon
- Fresh basil leaves – 6- 8, chopped as you like
- A couple of cheese bits
- Salt to taste
- Baguette – 1, sliced and toasted (I use Goan Pão, sliced not too thin and toasted)
Method for bruschetta:
- To a large mixing bowl add chopped tomatoes, garlic, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, basil, cheese bits and salt. Check for seasoning. Pile on to toasted bread slices and serve.
Notes:
- Use chopped fresh herbs.
- 1teaspoon of dried herbs = 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh herbs
- For a slight twist in flavour, dot the top of the cheese sauce coated vegetables with a couple of tablespoons of Salsa followed by the bread crumb mix.
- Brocolli, cauliflower and baby corn are also nice additions.