Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Tips for an Alternative White Sauce
1:32 PM | 
Posted by
STAR Fine Foods |
Making a good
white sauce is something that seems simple at first, but all too often things
can get complicated. The classic, and often inevitable, problem is a lumpy
sauce, but it also could get too milky, too floury, have too many or too few
spices or be too stodgy or too runny. The perfect white sauce exists—just never
for us. The main reason why many attempts at making it at home fail is
generally because the flour hasn’t cooked properly and doesn’t combine with the
other ingredients, leaving a taste of flour pervading our lasagnes,
croquettes
and cannelloni.
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| Alternative White Sauce |
The ideal white
sauce should contain about 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter for every 1 cup of milk (2:2:1)—you can scale the amounts up or down in the same
proportions depending on what you need it for. The secret is to always sift the
flour thoroughly and make a roux (thickness) with the butter.
Once both ingredients have mixed together and cooked sufficiently, slowly add
the milk and let the mixture cook slowly on a low heat, stirring the entire
time without ever stopping.
However, there are
numerous alternatives to this classic white sauce that work wonderfully in lots
of dishes. They are sure to liven up our recipes and let us experiment with
this lovely sauce to our heart’s content. We’ll also give you some tips for
making a healthy, tasty alternative white sauce.
- Replace the
full-fat milk with semi-skimmed or skimmed milk. This cuts down on the calories
and gives a lighter, healthier sauce.
- You can also
replace the traditional flour with another kind: spelt flour, corn flour or
even chickpea flour or rye flour, for example. You can also opt for wholegrain
flour, which helps with digestion.
- Replacing the
butter with extra-virgin olive oil is also an excellent idea, since an
overbearing flavour of butter can spoil some stews. The method is exactly the
same as with butter, but you mix the flour with olive oil and then slowly add
the warm milk.
- People on a diet
or keeping an eye on their figure don’t have to forego a lovely white sauce if
they follow this effective low-calorie solution: replace the milk with a light
vegetable stock, or even chicken stock. This wonderful trick is great for
croquettes, since we can compensate for the extra calories we’ll inevitably be
adding on when we fry them. With this version, we can experiment with different
ingredients at will: a mild fish stock will be perfect for fish croquettes,
whereas meat croquettes will need stock made from chicken bones or a hambone,
and a vegetable lasagne will be the perfect match for a white sauce made with
vegetable stock. What about the ideal white sauce for cured-ham croquettes?
Although we could opt for the classic recipe, it’s worth heating the milk on a
low heat with a hambone for half an hour before making it. This simple trick
makes all the difference.
- White sauce with
onion? Yes, please! If you poach a few onions in the oil or butter before
adding the milk, you’ll give the sauce a delicious edge that will be
particularly appreciated by those of us who aren’t exactly thrilled by the
traditional flavour of white sauce.
- You can also
replace cow’s milk with another vegetarian alternative, a highly recommendable
option for everyone, although particularly for those who are lactose
intolerant. Soy milk, with its strong flavor, is not the best option, but you
can certainly use a rice milk with a far more delicate flavor. It’s a bit runnier
than milk, so you may have to increase the amount of flour, but it will also
aid digestion. Another great healthy option is oat milk, which you can make
quickly and easily at home if you put your mind to it.
- Cheese fans can
add their favourite cheese to their white sauce: either grated cheese that will
gradually melt or pieces of low-fat cheese if you’re watching the calories.
- If you’re
feeling adventurous, you could always add some curry powder at the end, and hey
presto! This is the procedure you should follow in general with all spices: add
all seasoning at the end. If you add it before the milk, it’s easy to muddle up
the amounts. The range of spices you can use is limited only by your
imagination, but we recommend a pinch of nutmeg or some cloves or black pepper.
- Cream can also
work wonders in a white sauce, provided we use it wisely, bearing in mind the
recipe in question. Simply replace some of the milk with an equal amount of
cream to create a thicker, stronger white sauce that goes perfectly with dishes
like cauliflower cheese; it’s not recommendable in dishes with lots of
ingredients, such as lasagnes, which require a subtler, runnier sauce.
- What about
dispensing with white sauce entirely? We could try making certain dishes
without any white sauce at all—an increasingly common option in many modern
recipes for lasagne, cannelloni and even croquettes. This often works just
fine: there are other ways of binding ingredients together to make croquettes
that don’t use any white sauce.
- One final
option, which raises a few eyebrows and should certainly be used judiciously,
is making white sauce with pureed tomatoes. You need to be very careful,
because the tomatoes can easily swamp the flavour of the dish you’re cooking.
However, you can make a truly mouth-watering baked pasta dishes with meat,
vegetables and this kind of white sauce, with a gratin topping. Irresistible!
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1 comments:
Can you advise the amount of flour, second paragraph, please? It is missing.
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