If you want to do this for vegans you can use soya milk for the sauce and substitute something else for the cheese - have a look at the white sauce recipe for ideas. If you don't use the cooking water from the cauliflower in your sauce, keep it for stock or drink it straight with a little salt and pepper. It's delicious.
I kg cauliflower florets
1 litre of white sauce
100g of cheddar or other strong cheese
A few crushed black peppercorns
A little grated nutmeg
1 tomato or green pepper for garnish
Salt
Steam the cauliflower in a large pot with a tight fitting lid, containing about 4 cm of water. This should take about 10 minutes. You're going to put it in the oven after this so don't overdo it.
Grate the cheese and add two thirds of it to hot white sauce and stir it in until it's melted. Add some salt at this stage if you want. Put the cauliflower in an oven dish of some sort (even a cake tin will do) and pour the sauce on top. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese and the spices over the surface and decorate with some thin slices of tomato and/or pepper. Put the lot in a pre-heated oven (start of on full power then turn down to sort-of-just-above-medium temperature after 15 minutes of cooking). Take it out after half an hour - it should be ready.
You can do this recipe without an oven, but it won't be quite as good. Sprinkle the spices and some salt over the cauliflower before you put the lid on the pan and steam it for a little longer. Make sure you drain it really well. Put all the cheese into the sauce and just bung it over the cauliflower, omitting the garnish.
This recipe will work just as well with broccoli or calibrese (Anyone know what the difference is?)