Back to basics time today 🙂
Here is a pictorial on the Béchamel or white sauce. It is simply flour roasted in butter and then milk added to it gradually till it thickens. It is then seasoned with salt and pepper to get the basic white sauce. Grated cheese may be added once it is off the heat to get cheese sauce. I use it for pastas and au gratins and for quick lunch box fixes like this Mixed Vegetable Macroni
Ingredients
APF/Maida- 1 Tbsp
Butter- 1 ½ Tbsp
Milk- One cup (May add more to get a thinner sauce)
Salt- ½ Tsp
Black pepper- ½ tsp
Grated cheddar cheese- ½ cup (optional)
Heat the butter in a saucepan.
Keeping the heat on medium, add the flour and roast till it changes colour slightly.
We are looking for a blonde/ dark cream colour. This is the roux. Keep stirring at all times. It burns very quickly.
Add the milk gradually, stirring non-stop, till all the milk is used up.
Stir well and cook another couple of minutes and your basic white sauce is ready.
Season it with salt and pepper.
To get a cheesy sauce, add half a cup of grated cheddar after talking the sauce off the heat.
Mixed Vegetable Macaroni
Here is a quick Mixed Vegetable Pasta just perfect for the lunch box.
For this, as soon as the sauce begins to thicken ,I throw in half a cup of mixed vegetables chopped very fine and half a cup of boiled macaroni.
Add some oregano or herb spice mix, stir and done!
I skip the cheese for the lunch box as in makes the sauce sticky on cooling down.
This pasta went to school with some stuffed focaccia. You can find the recipe for the basic Focaccia here. I just stuffed it with some stir fried vegetables and cheese. Then rolled it and baked in a loaf tin.
I am a happy Mommie when the Lunch box comes back all clean!
CafeGarima 