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Friday, July 19, 2013

SAUCE BASICS White Sauce or Béchamel

Here is a simple sauce that most chefs learn to make, however my style of cooking style rarely allows me to make this..this French thang. So it's a great thing to go over the things I learned to do and may need to utilize again.

To the left is a finished béchamel sauce, or white sauce. photo from www.masterclass.com

Here's what you can use this sauce for, it is a base for creamy wine sauces, and creamy cheese sauces used for dishes like the popular mac and cheese. You can use this sauce and make it Japanese by infusing mirin and soy sauce, make it Korean by infusing Go Ju Jang, or Chinese with oyster sauce and sesame oil.


Here's a basic white sauces:

2 tbsp. of unsalted butter
2 tbsp. of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of milk or half and half
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Directions.

1. In a sauce pan, slowly melt the butter and flour together known as making a roux (roo) which becomes a thickening agent.

2. In another saucepan, slowly heat up the milk or half and half. Once it begins to bubble remove from heat.

3. Slowly add this heated milk to the roux and whisk it until it becomes thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Add more milk or half and half to make it more runny.

Tips: After slowly adding in the milk or half and half, you can infuse it by adding white wine for flavor, possible 2 tbsp. worth. Or any flavorings you want to achieve a unique flavored white sauce.

Other ideas? Saute some shrimp in garlic butter, half way through the sautéing process, add in some white sauce with wine.

Cheese sauce? Half way through the finishing process add in some fresh grated parmesan cheese and melt it in the white sauce.

You can dress grilled chicken breast with this also, the sky's the limit with this sauce.

Variants:

When making seafood pasta, you can make a cream sauce by adding a little wine to the pan, and cook off the alcohol for a couple minutes, then add in the milk or half and half and cook until bubbling and continue to reduce or add in some flour and butter mixed together and add it into the pan to thicken the  sauce, and then pouring the entire pan over some cooked penne pasta.

Good Luck you saucier!

Coypright 2013 TM ®

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