Of all the white sauces, bechamel is most often cooked by both restaurant chefs and housewives. A simple recipe over time has become almost synonymous with gourmet cuisine, although in fact there is nothing special about it. This is a simple version of gravy that was popular in medieval Europe.
Bechamel at home can be prepared no worse than in a restaurant. And having mastered the basic recipe, it's time to start experimenting. It is unlikely to spoil the taste of a traditional sauce, but to enrich it with new notes is easy! Pasta is served with bechamel sauce, lasagna is made on it, it is added to various vegetable and meat casseroles.
Bechamel sauce at home - general principles of preparation
The main ingredients of the sauce are butter, flour and milk. Butter should not be replaced with a spread - the taste will be clearly worse. You can take milk of any fat content. Flour should be white, best of all quality. All additional ingredients, including nutmeg, pepper, bay leaf, herbs, are variations on a traditional sauce theme.
To prepare bechamel sauce at home, you will need metal utensils, such as a saucepan or stewpan. In principle, you can cook bechamel in a regular frying pan with high sides or in a bowl of a multicooker.
Bechamel sauce "Classic"
The main bechamel sauce at home is prepared in literally 20 minutes. A minimal amount of ingredients is required, which is why this sauce enjoys great sympathy of the culinary specialists.
Ingredients:
• one hundred grams of butter;
• half a liter of milk;
• two tablespoons of flour;
• salt to taste (half a teaspoon).
Cooking method:
Melt the butter in a dry skillet. It is very important not to let it fry, so put the oil on a slow fire.
When all the butter has fully dissolved, add the flour and fry until golden brown. Do not overcook.
Remove the frying pan from the stove, pour quickly but gently cold milk.
Mix vigorously, carefully breaking all the lumps of flour.
When the sauce becomes homogeneous, return it to the fire and salt.
Boil after boiling for a minute. This time is usually enough to thicken the sauce.
Nutmeg bechamel sauce
An equally popular recipe for bechamel sauce at home is prepared with the addition of ground nutmeg. The taste is delicate and very pleasant. Usually nutmeg bechamel is a part of lasagna.
Ingredients:
• fifty grams of butter;
• half a liter of milk;
• fifty grams of white flour;
• half a teaspoon of salt;
• a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg.
Cooking method:
Put a slice of butter in a stewpan with a thick bottom and heat until it is completely dissolved.
Pour in flour and fry, stirring constantly, for two minutes. You get a thick mass with a pleasant nutty aroma.
Pour in a thin stream of milk while stirring the sauce with a little fun. Try to immediately "punch" all the lumps, achieving a homogeneous mixture.
As soon as you get a thick base (about a third of the milk should remain), salt and immediately add ground nutmeg so that it gives off its flavor and disperses.
Pour in the remaining milk, again stirring the sauce with a jolly sauce.
Simmer until thickened for approximately four to five minutes.
Onion Bechamel Sauce
An interesting version of the sauce, which is prepared on milk and meat broth with the addition of onions. The sauce will look like a bechamel texture, but its taste will be completely new, piquant. The spices indicated in the recipe are optional.
Ingredients:
• one hundred grams of butter;
• one and a half glasses of milk;
• one and a half glasses of meat broth;
• half a small onion;
• a third glass of flour;
• half a teaspoon of salt;
• black or red pepper, bay leaf (to taste).
Cooking method:
In a saucepan, combine the meat broth and milk, put on medium heat.
Chop the onion very finely and drop it into the pan.
If you decide to cook the sauce with spices, add the bay leaf immediately.
Wait for the liquid base to boil, boil the onions for about three minutes, remove from the stove. Gravy should stand for fifteen minutes.
In a dry frying pan, dissolve the sweet butter chopped into pieces.
Throw a measured portion of flour into it, fry, constantly stirring with a spoon. Flour should acquire a pleasant golden hue.
Strain the milk with the broth to get rid of the onion cubes.
Pour the aromatic milk mixture into the pan, immediately begin to stir the sauce.
When the flour and milk boil, pepper and add salt to taste.
Cook the sauce for about twenty minutes, then strain it carefully so that there is not a single lump.
Bechamel sauce "Meat"
An unusual sauce with slices of veal, which can be replaced with other meat, not only very tasty, but also very satisfying. Such a bechamel sauce at home can go well with any meat dish or baked cauliflower.
Ingredients:
• sixty grams of butter;
• liter of milk;
• seventy grams of flour;
• half a small onion;
• seventy grams of boiled meat;
• salt to taste (about one teaspoon);
• a pinch of thyme;
• a third of a teaspoon of nutmeg;
• a pinch of red pepper.
Cooking method:
Chop the onion very finely.
Just finely chop the meat.
Dissolve the butter in a deep skillet.
Throw the flour and begin to fry, not forgetting to stir the mass.
Pour the milk into the sauce, immediately breaking the brewing flour.
Add onions, spices, salt and cook the gravy, stirring constantly and waiting for it to thicken.
At this point, add the pieces of meat to the sauce, boil for another five minutes and turn off the heat.
Cheese bechamel sauce
This variation of bechamel sauce has no competitors at home. Cheese in gravy is already delicious. And when butter, nutmeg and white pepper are attached to it, something very incredible to taste comes out. Real pleasure. Be sure to try it.
Ingredients:
• seventy grams of butter;
• two hundred grams of semi-hard cheese;
• three tablespoons of flour;
• half a liter of milk;
• half a teaspoon of salt;
• a third of a teaspoon of white pepper;
• half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
Cooking method:
Grate the cheese on a fine grater.
Cut the butter into cubes and dissolve in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
Make sure that the oil does not fry, that is, does not acquire an unpleasant pungent odor and does not become dark.
Pour the whole amount of flour into the oil, add the nutmeg.
Blend flour in butter for two minutes with grinding movements. When frying, make sure that the mass does not burn.
Pour milk into the stewpan without removing from the heat. It is necessary to ensure that the flour disperses in the milk, not gathering in lumps. Rub and break them to add the next portion of milk to a homogeneous base.
When the last milk goes into the sauce, cook until thickened.
As soon as the gravy begins to thicken, sprinkle the cheese crumbs and stir. Cheese should be completely melted.
Salt, season with white pepper.
Fine bechamel cheese sauce at home is ready.
Mushroom Bechamel Sauce
Another unusual version of bechamel is with the addition of mushrooms. It turns out a delightfully aromatic thick gravy with a wonderful rich taste and unusual consistency. This sauce can be served literally with everything: meat, pasta, boiled or baked vegetables and even fish.
Ingredients:
• three hundred grams of forest mushrooms or fresh champignons;
• one hundred grams of butter;
• medium onion;
• a third glass of flour;
• three glasses of milk;
• two teaspoons of chopped fresh dill (optional);
• salt and pepper to taste.
Cooking method:
Wash the mushrooms, dry on a paper towel and cut into small cubes.
Chop the onion.
Dissolve the oil in a deep pan and toss the mushrooms with onions.
Fry the mushroom cubes until flushed, cover and simmer until cooked.
After five minutes, salt, season with pepper.
Pour the flour into the mushroom frying, stirring, warm for all three minutes.
Pour milk in glasses of the resulting aromatic mass, breaking all the lumps. Do not pour the next batch of milk until the flour has spread.
Cover the sauce and simmer over low heat for fifteen minutes.
Add dill five minutes before being cooked.
Serve the sauce with fish, pasta, meat or potatoes.
Bechamel sauce at home - tricks and tips
The most important thing in bechamel sauce is the absence of unpleasant flour lumps. You can, of course, just strain the mass. But it’s much easier to whip it with a blender or mixer.
If the sauce is too thin, do not add flour to it. It will ruin the taste. just cover the sauce and simmer at a slow boil until the mass thickens. This will happen, and the taste will not be oversaturated with flour.
To make bechamel sauce at home more flavorful, give it a spicy note, you can put a clove bud in milk or an onion cut into quarters. After half an hour, when the milk absorbs the aroma, you can start cooking gravy.
If there is too much sauce, you need to send it to the refrigerator. But flour can give an unpleasant crust on the surface, which will have to be removed and discarded. To avoid this, pour bechamel with a little melted butter. Subsequently, simply mix this oil layer with the main sauce when you heat it.
