Béchamel or white sauce is one of the five main sauces in French cuisine. It is a versatile sauce because it is served with fish, vegetables and meat dishes. It perfectly complements and at the same time unobtrusively enhances the taste of almost any dish, adding a delicate and velvety texture.In addition, béchamel is the basis for other sauces, and over three thousand varieties of other sauces are made on it!To make béchamel, you only need three ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen. They are flour, butter and milk.But I'll also show you how you can diversify the flavor of the sauce by adding another classic French flavor additive to it: onion clouté.
In a saucepan with milk, put the spiced onion and add the bay leaf. Bring almost to a boil and after turning off the heat, leave for 15 minutes to saturate.
Roux
In a frying pan over medium heat, toast 75 g of flour until the unpleasant floury flavor is gone. Stir constantly to keep it from burning.
When the unpleasant flavor of the raw flour changes to a nice nutty flavor, the flour is toasted enough. Add 75 g of butter. Stir until smooth and set aside.
Béchamel
Remove film from the surface of the milk, if formed. Remove the bay leaf and onion.
Add 1 tbsp. roux to the milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, turn off the heat and continue to stir. Assess the thickness of the sauce.If you are satisfied with the thickness, add 3/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. Stir everything and taste, adding more salt if needed.
Take a fine sieve and strain the sauce through it, rubbing it with a spatula to make the sauce more velvety and uniform. (optional)