Lets get saucy!
A lot of common 'white' sauces derive from a technique of combining liquid fats, with flour to form a Roux - then gradually stirring in liquid, to form a thick sauce.
Lets start with the Béchamel sauce, the jumping off point for a host of classic (read: French) sauces
Bechamel sauce, from a roux
An absolute MUST HAVE in your back pocket, a white sauce... this becomes a cheese sauce, a fish sauce, a bechamel sauce, a bread sauce, a garlic sauce...
The concept seems daunting, because you’re told the sauce will split (fats separate from other liquids), or it will go lumpy, or it will taste like flour. I
thought all of these things meant you shouldn’t even try it... till I did, and realised it’s not so scary:
Ingredients:
42.5g (about 3 tbsp) butter/margarine/dairy-free spread, (meat juices can also work here, but that really depends on the meat you have in the pan)
Warm/steeped Milk/Oat-milk - to be added by-eye, so have plenty too hand (do not use sugary soya drinks, the sugar will spoil)
15g (about 2 tbsp) all purpose flour
Aromatics for steeping: (such as garlic, onion, bay leaves, whole peppercorns, cloves* etc)
* go easy on cloves, they are strong, and make sure to remove before serving!
Equipment:
2 x Medium to large, deep non-stick sauce pan
non-metalic spoon/spatula (protect your non-stick!)
small plastic balloon whisk (optional - for lumps)
Method:
If using aromatics to flavour the sauce (known as steeping), add them to the milk and bring to a gentle heat, but don’t boil. Putting them in a sieve partially submerged in the liquid often helps keep a clear, flavoursome milk. You'll want to remove all these additives before using the flavoured milk
Add whatever spread you are using to the other non-stick pan (non-stick is going to really help here!)
slowly raise the heat until the fat is a liquid, but not browning. Sprinkle in the flour from a tablespoon across the whole of the liquid spread, and then use a rubber spatula to combine
You should see a pale yellow dough forming. If it’s too dry - add a little more spread, a half teaspoon at a time. If it’s too wet, sprinkle a little more flour,
This stage is a by-eye measure, you want a soft but consistent doughy texture.
Turn the heat down, but don’t turn it off. A little below half way will work for most hobs.
While stirring gently, but constantly; splash in a little milk/steeped milk (with additives removed).
Repeat this every few seconds, as you mix, the dough-like mix will start to dissolve into the milk and thicken it. This is unfortunately something you can’t always do with fixed amounts... it needs a judgement call as to how thick you want your white sauce and what you want to do with it (see below).
Switch too balloon whisk if you're finding the sauce is lumpy - and you might need to really work a thick sauce to bet it smooth.
Fish Sauce Version
- Take your milk/dairy alternative, and steep/heat it gently with fish bones/heads - or just use a fish stock cube! + garlic / onions chopped in quarters / bay (3 leaves) / peppercorns for at least 30 minutes so that the flavour infuses the liquor.
- (I like to put the solid ingredients into a fine food sieve and sit this in the liquid in the pan, as it gets all the flavour with none of the ‘ick how do I get this stuff out’ part.)
- After infusing, and after you've removed all the solid additives, sprinkle 1-2tsp of finely chopped fresh, or dried, dill - and a little salt (to your taste)
- Use the resulting milk as you would with the above white (bechamel) recipe and use for fish pies etc
Cheese Sauce Version
- Making the white (bechamel) sauce above, once you have the sauce to a slightly more thin than usual consistency, add grated Cheddar, Red Leicester, Parmigiano, or other hard cheeses to the sauce, a little at a time, stirring gently until the cheese is part of the mixture. The cheese will thicken the sauce (sometimes a lot) so go in carefully, and judge as you add. You can use other cheeses, these should be too taste.
- Although Lasagna uses a white sauce (we will have a recipe to have in your back pocket on that later, to be sure!) - you often don’t need to make it a cheese sauce, since we’ll be adding that separately.
- Fish often does not pair well with cheese. There are totally exceptions to this (Tuna and Cheese for example), but you probably would be better going with the fish sauce above
Garlic Sauce Version
- A garlic white (bechamel) sauce is different to a garlic aioli (or garlic mayonnaise), and is essentially the above sauce with the milk steeped/simmered in a LOT more whole garlic cloves to impart far more garlic flavour. You can also add lazy-garlic (garlic puree) paste into the melted fat when making the roux, but you get a more subtle and rich flavour steeping the milk in whole cloves.
Bread Sauce Version
- Begin the above process in the same way but replace the flour with white bread crumbs. The best results will be from stale white bread blitzed up in a food processor, shop-bought maybe too small and dry, but this is another sauce where you need to measure and judge by eye for the thickness and consistency you want.
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