Sauces

The finishing touch to a meal. They can be very simple or very fancy. A good sauce can make a good dish extraordinary.

Here I hope to show you that making a good sauce is neither hard nor expensive. Once you master a few simple sauce bases and techniques, the rest is a wonderful journey of flavors. We will start with the basics, and move along through intermediate and advanced sauce techniques. Remember some of the greatest sauces are made from the simplest of ingredients.

Basic Sauces

Let’s start off with a very simple white sauce (fancy name Béchamel) this is the base for many sauces, which can be used for vegetables, poultry, light meats, and seafood.

Basic white Sauce

1 cup milk

1 ½ tablespoons butter

1 ½ tablespoons flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

Nutmeg

Using a small saucepan bring milk to a boil, remove from heat. In another pan melt butter over a low heat, whisk in flour. Whisking constantly, continue to cook until well blended and bubbly.Approximately 2 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Slowly add milk into the flour mixture.
Whisking constantly bring back to a boil; add a pinch of Salt, pepper and nutmeg. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Adjust seasons to taste.
Hint: a dab of butter on top will a skin from forming.
The basic sauce will keep in the fridge for 2 days and can be frozen.
This is a base for many sauces but is also a delicious all by itself
Some Variations

Cheese Sauce

Bring white sauce to a simmer whisking as you add ¼ cup of your favorite cheese.

Some cheeses that work well are cheddar, Swiss, or parmesan.

Remove from heat and whisk until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth and creamy. If sauce is to be used in a baked dish, quickly whisk in one egg yoke, if it is t be used as an accompaniment add 2 tablespoons butter.

Cream sauce

Bring white sauce to simmer, whisking frequently. Add ¼ cup heavy cream, continue to whisk until sauce thickens (approximately 2 minutes) to this you can add chopped chives, parsley, tarragon or basil.