Béchamel Sauce
Béchamel sauce is probably the simplest of the mother sauces because it doesn’t require making stock. If you have milk, flour, and butter you can make a very basic béchamel.
Béchamel is made by thickening hot milk with a simple white roux. The sauce is then flavoured with onion, cloves, and nutmeg and simmered until it is creamy and velvety smooth.
Béchamel can be used as an ingredient in baked pasta recipes like lasagna, and also in casseroles. But it’s also the base for some of the most common white sauces, cream sauces and cheese-based sauces. Here are some of the small sauces made from béchamel:
Béchamel Cream Sauce
Ingredients
200gms butter
200gms all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground white pepper, to taste
500 mls milk
250 mls culinary cream
½ medium onion, studded with 2 cloves
½ tsp nutmeg
Method:
Melt the butter in a small, heavy based saucepan over low heat. Add the flour in increments of 50gms & whisk to fully incorporate. The flour will absorb the butter; however, & initially, the butter will dominant & the roux will be very liquid. Continue to add the flour & eventually you will create a thick dry paste once all the flour is incorporated, season with salt and ground white pepper.
Cook over low heat, stirring, for a full 2 minutes to cook out the starch in the flour. Remove from heat & let cool.
Heat the milk & cream mixture to poaching temperature, approximately 84ºC with the studded onion & slowly add to the cooled roux, approximately 100mls at a time. Let the roux take up & absorb the liquid prior to adding additional while stirring constantly. Repeat the process until all liquid has been incorporated & you have a sauce that is both smooth & silky & naps the back of a spoon. Remove & discard the studded onion once the flavours have been infused.
Mornay Sauce
Ingredient
200gms all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
500 mls milk
250 mls culinary cream
½ medium onion, studded with 2 cloves
2 to 3 whole cloves
1/4 medium onion, peeled
1 bay leaf
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Repeat the method as for the “Béchamel Cream Sauce” but with the addition of the bay leaf & cheeses.
