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Roux sauce and Cauliflower gratin

By September 12, 2016 , , , , , , ,

This is another of my "request recipes from friends". I think a roux or white sauce is one recipe that is good to have in your repertoire as it forms the basis of many other sauces.



If you've mastered the basic recipe then you can only add more or less whatever flavouring you like. The trick with roux sauce is you always have equal amounts of flour to butter and these vary on how thick you want your sauce. I've given you the recipe for a "standard sauce" which has a creamy consistency but is not too runny. If you want a thicker sauce just increase the amounts of flour and butter, for example 30g/40g/50g of each but keep the amount of milk (150ml) the same. You can also make veloutes which are stock based sauces instead of using milk you will use beef/chicken/fish or veg stock. 

For a standard roux sauce
20g flour
20g butter
150ml milk
Salt and pepper to season

To make the roux sauce 
Melt the butter, add the flour and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes to cook out the flour




Take the pan off the heat and add the milk slowly whisking all the time to ensure it does not get lumpy


Place back on the heat and continue to whisk until it thickens
Season to taste

Now you've got your basic sauce recipe here's where you can have fun with the basics.

50 - 100g grated strong cheese (of your choice, my personal favourite is Quickes mature cheddar as it makes a wonderfully rich sauce)
Add the cheese once you've thickened the sauce slightly and stir so it melts through. 
If I'm using cheddar cheese I like to add a dessert spoon of Dijon mustard as it accentuates the flavour of the cheese
You can also enrich the sauce with an egg yolk (when adding make sure the heat is not on high otherwise you'll scramble the egg) or substitute some of the milk with cream (do not use single or low fat cream, it can split the sauce)

Here's a recipe for good side dish (for 4) or a main (for 2) if you fancy a meat free evening.

Cauliflower gratin

 1 head of cauliflower broken into florets and  par boiled in salted water for 5-7 minutes
Cheese sauce (as outlined above, I also like to enrich mine with 20g of sour cream)
1 baking dish
20g breadcrumbs and 20g parmesan mixed together

 Place the par boiled florets in the baking dish
Pour over the cheese sauce
Bake in a moderate oven at 180c for 20 minutes or on the BBQ set up for indirect cooking at 180c
Remove from the oven or BBQ and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and parmesan mix
Place back in the oven or BBQ at 200c for 10 mins or until nicely crisp on top

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2 comments

  1. Around Asia29 January 2017 at 21:08

    Delicious! Doubled the amounts and was enough for 8 as side. Thanks Therese 😘
    Medina

    ReplyDelete
  2. Franz12 November 2021 at 14:35

    I'm going to make this tonight, luckily my Kaasboer in Voorschoten had mature Cheddar....

    Thanks in advance for the delicious recipe.

    ReplyDelete