Cream of Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Fritters – The Best Soup I've Ever Made?

I arrived back to San Francisco late last night, weary from traveling, and my very busy week in NYC, and despite planning to sleep in, I woke up very early, excited to finish this amazing cream of cauliflower with blue cheese fritters video recipe.

Either that, or I'm still on east coast time. Soup is not usually a subject associated with thrilling culinary experiences. Soup is comforting, soothing, soul-warming – not something that chefs normally day-dream about. This soup was a different story. It may be the single greatest soup I have every made.

Sometimes an idea for a recipe pops into my head and even before I make it, I have a pretty good idea on what the results will be like. But, when I went over this combination in my head, I really had no idea how successful it would be. To say I was happy with the results would be a serious understatement.

I was pretty sure blue cheese would be a nice addition to cauliflower soup, but the challenge was what would be the best delivery system for the sharp, funky cheese. I looked at many fritter recipes, but nothing was inspiring me. Then, for whatever reason, I thought about Pâte à choux.

Pâte à choux is an old-school, eggy pastry dough used to make things like éclairs and cream puffs. I though this would make a much lighter fritter than the traditional flour and baking powder versions, and that certainly turned out to be the case.

The dough fried up perfectly – beautifully golden brown outside, yet tender and moist inside – the perfect enclosure for the molten blue cheese. The combination of these light puffs and the earthy soup was magnificent. I can't remember ever being so happy eating a soup.

I really hope you give this a try, and even if you can't summon the courage to make the fritters (what's wrong with you?), I still think the soup alone is well worth making. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
For the fritters (a small batch - about 12 fritters):
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
2 oz crumbled, very firm blue cheese

For the soup:
1 onion
2 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic
salt to taste
1 head cauliflower
1 quart water or stock
nutmeg to taste
cayenne to taste
1/2 cup cream