Bechamel sauce
Béchamel sauce
I must confess that Nigella’s recipe for béchamel threw me into somewhat of a quandary. Nigella states that “Béarnaise may be my favourite sauce (okay then Nigella…) but béchamel is unquestionably the most useful,” but then refrains from giving a recipe to use it in. This is understandable, as béchamel is of course, a mother sauce from which many, many other sauces can be made, and so, of course, it is useful to have this blueprint, but I want to make and use béchamel for its own sake – just to say that I can, and have, successfully made this for myself, without having to resort to a packet. Also, I honestly think that people of my generation either don’t cook at all, or have become so used to fancy and complicated cooking, that it is so nice to successfully master something so basic and yet so useful, as a béchamel sauce.
Anyway, I decided to do some hunting around, to see what I could use Nigella’s recipe for. I was watching Rick Stein on Saturday Morning Kitchen, who said that béchamel has been around since Louis 14th, and that he always serves béchamel with roasted leeks, and calls it, clearly enough, “leeks with plain white sauce.” Also, on a visit to my parents, I dug out mum’s Mrs. Beeton book to see what she had to say about béchamel. Apparently, according to M.B., it goes very well with veal and/or white vegetables. Accordingly, I was half resigned to making béchamel and to use it as a plain white sauce for plain white vegetables, when I came across James Martin’s recipe for Macaroni cheese, which uses béchamel, and just appeals to me so much more than any of the other suggestions. I love macaroni cheese, anyway, and when I was younger it used to be my favourite, favourite, meal in the world. Mum said I used to request it everyday, and eat it at least twice a week (does that mean you didn’t give in to my every request then, mum?!) Therefore, I have decided to make James Martin’s Macaroni cheese, simply substituting his recipe for white sauce, with Nigella’s recipe for béchamel.
In fact, this works on so many levels. Not only is it macaroni cheese, and therefore gorgeous, but also today marks the start of my OH’s week of working nights, and it’s nice to cook a big warming dinner for him before he starts. Also, horror or horror, my OH hasn’t actually eaten macaroni before. I was so shocked when he told me this (surely, that’s like never having seen Jaws – my favourite film) and want to rectify that as soon as possible. Therefore, our Monday night dinner will be James Martin’s macaroni cheese with Nigella’s béchamel sauce and two chicken fillets each. YUM!
James Martin’s recipe, by the way, is in his book; “Great British Dinners” on p66-67, but for anyone that doesn’t have the book and fancies making this, too, here is the recipe. JM’s original quantities are for 4, so I am halving it for my OH and myself.
Serves 4
350g macaroni
Salt and pepper, to taste
100g Red Leicester
2 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs
A little butter
White sauce, with 25g butter.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4.
Cook the macaroni in a large pan of boiling salted water for about 15 minutes. Drain well.
Meanwhile, to make the white sauce, melt the butter and then stir in the flour. Add the cream or milk gradually, stirring all the time, until you have a thick sauce. Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
Add most of the cheese to the sauce, saving some for the top.
Put the cooked macaroni into a 1 litre (1 ¾ pint) serving dish. Pour over the sauce. Top with the remaining cheese and the breadcrumbs. Dot with butter and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Serve with crusty bread.
Ingredients: Really, there are only 4 ingredients for this sauce; Butter, flour, full-fat milk and nutmeg. These are easily purchased from any supermarket. Nigella does mention that Italian 00 flour works well, here. I have managed to find this in my local Tescos, now, as mentioned on another post. If you cannot find this, though, plain flour is the obvious alternative. I must also mention that the nutmeg I brought, came with a mini nutmeg grater; WOW!
Price: The butter, milk and nutmeg totalled £3.16. I had no need to purchase 00 flour, as I mentioned, as I previously purchased this for another recipe.
Method: I will mention methodological points about the béchamel here, and not about the macaroni cheese itself. Making béchamel is quite easy, really, and simply involves melting butter and then stirring flour into it, until it forms a ball of paste. Then heating milk and whisking it into the mixture, avoiding lumps. I found this quite easy to do, actually. The lumps seemed to disappear naturally themselves. Although, it wouldn’t even matter if they didn’t, as Nigella also suggests giving it a quick whiz in the blender if lumps remain. Then, one must return it to the heat, just to thicken and make sure the sauce looses any taste of flouriness. I have to say that I think I had the hob heated to highly, as mine went thick very, very quickly. In fact, quite a bit thicker than I would have wanted it. As I say, I saw Rick Stein making his version of béchamel on Saturday, and it seemed a lot thinner and pour-able than mine. The problem was all mine, though, as I didn’t expect it to thicken quite so quickly and therefore took my eye of it. A mistake I am sure not to repeat. This wasn’t the end of the world at all, as the sauce was still very nice, as tasted from a wooden spoon, only a bit thicker than I would have liked. Interestingly, reading James Martin, he doesn’t actually include this final thickening phase, and so next time, I would be tempted to leave this step out entirely. EDIT: I have since made this béchamel again, just for plain roast chicken and leeks and I did not encounter the same problem. It thickened slowly to a lovely thick texture, without being too stiff. I think the key difference was the lower heat of the hob and constant vigilance!
Nigella doesn’t say exactly how much nutmeg to use, so just let your taste guide you. I like quite a bit, as I do like nutmeg; maybe ¼ of one.
Result: It is difficult to separate an evaluation of the béchamel from an evaluation of JM’s macaroni cheese, as the two really melded together. But the macaroni cheese was absolutely gorgeous. The béchamel itself was also superb, and I should know, as I tasted it on the back of my wooden spoon before it went in the oven! The texture was both thick and creamy, and it had truly lost all flavour of flouriness. There was also the subtle, but distinct taste of nutmeg, which lifted and added all important flavour to the béchamel. As I mentioned, I absolutely adored the macaroni cheese. It was very different from the macaroni cheese that my mum used to make (she made hers completely on the hob, in a saucepan). It was both warming and filling, and probably my ultimate, curled up on the sofa comfort food. It was jam packed full of carbohydrates and just that right balance between comforting nursery food and acceptable adult dinner! In fact, I could have eaten so much more, although after I might have fallen into a carbohydrate-induced stupor. I have never cooked anything from James Martin, before, but kudos to him on his great recipe. In fact, this recipe pays testament to the great versatility of béchamel sauce. It is certainly successful in any number of recipes.
Other person’s perspective: My OH thought that this meal was really nice, and both warming and filling. He also said that is was the perfect start to a hectic week of work, and maybe not a weekend show-stopper (Why? I disagree!), but certainly good for a Monday.
Future Changes: My OH said that he would have added parmesan to the recipe. Myself, I liked it as it was, and would leave it as such. However, I certainly would play around with different recipes including, and variants of, béchamel. For example, I am quite keen to try it with lasagne. In fact, I have found a recipe for seafood lasagne in a pasta book that I purchased a while ago.
Rating: My OH rated this 4/5, and me 5/5 for its pure deliciousness and versatility. Usually we can come to some compromise, but not, it seems over this. So take whichever rating you will!
