The most comforting of the five French mother sauces — fittingly, just as a mother's comfortable aura.
For the béchamel:
100 gm unsalted butter
100 gm flour
500 ml full fat milk
2 bay leaves
Pepper to taste
A generous pinch of salt
1 tsp nutmeg, grated or powdered
100 gm grated parmesan cheese
You will also need a tiny whisk.
To make the béchamel:
1. In a pan on medium heat, melt butter.
2. Add flour. Incorporate the flour into the butter. You should end up with a gooey baby food like mixture.
3. Sauté until the mixture looks golden.
4. Begin pouring the milk in batches. A good breakdown would be to do it in three batches. Keep whisking through the process to avoid lumps. (If you do end up with lumps, don’t fret. You can add a little extra milk to water the lumps down.)
5. Keep whisking until lump free.
6. Once the béchamel is lump free, stop whisking and let simmer for 3-4 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat, add bay leaf, pepper, salt, nutmeg and parmesan cheese. Mix and let rest for 20 minutes. Take a whiff of the sauce, discard the bay leaf and then proceed to use it.
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