Sauce Blanche
My dear Kiki’s sauce: Sauce Blanche. My mom used to call it Bechamel, but the Bechamel is actually a very specific culinary “mother sauce”, that can’t be modified while keeping its name. We won’t argue,… French chefs win. We will make Sauce Blanche and use it in lieu of Bechamel. Ha!
This is the basic version of the sauce blanche I use very often; the recipe calls for equal amounts of milk to chicken stock. You can evaluate the proportions to your likings. Keep in mind the total is 4 cups.
You can use it for Gratins, Lasagnas, with roasted chicken and rice (Poulet Sauce Blanche), in a Croque Monsieur, as a base for your Mac and Cheese…
Bon appétit!
Sauce Blanche
recipe credits: Rafaella Sargi
yields approx. 4 cups of sauce.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour
4 cups of liquids (the version I make the most often is 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of chicken stock)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper
Directions
You need a medium size pot, a whisk, and some patience. You can’t move away from the sauce blanche. Now you know.
Heat the 4 cups of liquids when you are ready to start the recipe. You don’t want to use the milk cold! Same goes for the chicken stock. Heat the 4 cups of liquid; you are looking for a warm liquid, DITCH COLD liquids. This is important when you add the liquid later on, in the recipe, because it will help avoid the lumps. Nobody likes lumpy sauces… HEAT THE LIQUIDS!*
In a medium pot, over medium heat, melt the butter. Once the butter starts making cute little bubbles, add the flour and whisk super well. The flour will absorb the melted butter and look like a paste or wet sand. This is what you are looking for. Whisk, whisk, whisk and make sure everything is combined. AT ONCE pour ALL the warm liquids on top of the butter/flour mixture (yes, yes,… at once! En une fois!!!!!). Whisk like there is no tomorrow. 2020 style! Show us your skills. Do not spill out of the pot. Do it with style and control…
You need to whisk continuously to avoid lumps. This is one of the only recipes Mom actually trained me to make. We were in Beit-Mery (Lebanon); I still remember stressing about the whisking part. Hahaha she would move around the kitchen to prepare other things and tell me “Whisk. Do not stop!” I would complain of course… but she was adamant. At this point, I told her “c’est du n’importe quoi! (It is nonsense!) How do you know there is not any flour left undissolved?” She took a spoon and went through the inner contour of the pot multiple times. Some of the flour was left on the spoon. She put it back in the mixture and told me to whisk again… and said laughing ”Toi-meme n’importe quoi! Ba3ed na’iss” hahaha (a sarcastic mixed-answer in French and Lebanese to my original criticism) I encourage you to use the spoon as a control test. Stop whisking frenetically, breathe and observe. The sauce needs to thicken and start simmering. Whisk from time to time at this point. You can lower the heat to medium-low…
Add the nutmeg and season with salt and tiny bit of black pepper. Be careful for the salt, specially when using store bought chicken stock. Taste and correct. TASTE!
Whisk again one or two times. You have to stay next to the pot because boiling sauces with milk can spill REALLY fast and unexpectedly.
How to know once the sauce is thick enough and ready? Hmmmm You can check the consistency with a spoon,… just lift a little sample and see if it is runny like water or silkier like a crepe batter or pancake batter… milkshake? You will recognize it I think. THIS IS NOT A LEMONADE! Another trick chefs use is to dip a wooden spoon in the Bechamel and run your finger on the back of the spoon. If you can have a “groove” that does not disappear, meaning the sauce stays on each side (and not too liquid)… it is ready.
This is a mother sauce. It takes time to master. So practice and EAT!!!!!
*Be careful when heating milk in the microwave or on the stove, it can spill very easily. Proceed slowly and stay attentive ;)
