How-To Tuesday! Bechamel Sauce

There are generally believed to be five "Mother" sauces of French cooking.  These sauces serve as the base for all other sauces. So if you can learn to make these sauces, you can make any sauce!   

The five "Mother" sauces are:

1. Bechamel - a white cream sauce made from butter, flour and milk

2. Veloute - a white sauce made with butter, flour and chicken, veal or fish stock

3. Espagnole - a brown sauce made with butter, flour, tomato paste, veggies and meat stock

4. Hollandaise - a rich yellow sauce made of egg yolks, butter and lemon juice.  

5. Tomato- you guessed it, a red sauce made from tomatoes.

Hopefully I'll get to covering each of them on the blog sometime.  I happen to be in love with Eggs Benedict so Hollandaise is a must.  But for now there is Bechamel.

Bechamel Sauce, from Mario Batali

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups milk

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg**

**If you own a microplane buy whole nutmeg, it is so yummy and it is really easy to grate it fresh since it is stored in a glass spice container and keeps for a long time**

To begin, heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  You want the milk to get hot but you don't want it to boil!  Keep a close eye on it. When the milk is starting to feel warm to the touch melt your butter in a large saucepan on medium-low heat. 

Milk heating in the back, butter melting in the front.

Once the butter is melted, turn the heat up to medium and add the flour.  Stir constantly and cook for about 6 to 7 minutes.  The mixture will be a nice golden color.

Now add the hot milk to the butter/flour one cup at a time. Whisk constantly to incorporate it all before adding more milk.  Once all the milk has been added and the sauce is smooth, bring it to a boil...carefully!  Stir it constantly and adjust the heat down if needed so that it doesn't boil over.

Let it boil for about 10 minutes until the sauce is thickened, again stirring constantly.  Remove it from the heat and stir in the nutmeg and salt.  

May not look like much but it is delicious!  Bechamel Sauce is the perfect sauce to use in homemade macaroni and cheese.

Macaroni and Cheese, courtesy of 4 Pears

1 lb cooked elbows

1 lb grated cheese (get creative!  I made an "adult" mac and cheese on Sunday using half mild cheddar and half spicy buffalo wing cheddar)

bechamel sauce from above

20 crushed Ritz crackers, divided

2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 F. After draining your elbows put the pasta back into the large pot you cooked them in.  Pour over the bechamel sauce, stir in two thirds of the cheese and half of the cracker crumbs.  Pour the pasta into a greased casserole dish and top with the rest of the cheese and then the crackers crumbs.  Dot the top with butter.  Finish with a little salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top is golden and the cheese is melted.

Before it went into the oven

Sorry there is no "after" picture.  Alex and I literally dug into the dish as soon as it was out of the oven. :P

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

Ah finger food. An adventure in finding small bits of food to feed your (almost) toddler that are A. soft enough to mash between toothless gums, B. tasty enough to entice them to actually eat it, C. Healthy (cupcakes need not apply!), and D. Not too messy. Is "D" too much to ask?

Well this recipe fits the bill and it is delicious! I actually ate a portion of it for my own lunch.. sorry babies! I got this out of Tyler Florence's new cookbook for babies. This is just a great book, I really like the recipes and the concepts behind it. I need to do a post comparing this one to Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron as a lot of moms think of her book as a baby food Bible. A key difference between the two, in my opinion, is flavor. Tyler is all about the flavor, even for babies, and so am I. Why would baby want to eat bland flavorless food? This is anything but bland.

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese, adapted from Smart Food by Tyler Florence.

1 medium (1 to 1 1/2 pounds) butternut squash, halved lenghtwise, seeds removed
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
12 oz small pasta shells **I used rotini because it was in the pantry!**
1/2 c. whole milk
1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese **I used mild cheddar, again, already on hand**

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Place the squash, cut-side up, on a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over it and season with a bit of salt and pepper. Bake until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork, 30-40 minutes. Remove the squash from the oven and allow to cool. Leave the oven on and reduce the temperture to 350 F.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of a salted water to boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to the package instructions, or until al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer to a large bowl.

When the squash is cool enough to handle, use a spoon to scoop the flesh into a food processor. Add the milk and puree until smooth. Pour the squash puree over the pasta and fold together. Add about half the cheese and mix until combined.

Pour the pasta mixture into a greased 9 inch baking dish. Spread evenly and top with the remaining cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Let cool before serving.

This recipe doesn't have a ton of cheese, milk or butter but the squash puree really makes it taste slightly sweet and so nice and creamy. So good! My kids loved it, I hope yours do too! The book says this makes about 8 kid sized portions but I think it made closer to twelve, especially since I always serve more than one item at each meal. I kept some in the refrigerator for the next day and froze the rest in these.

Yum!