Getting Saucy

mtgnnr

Sorry to disappoint but this isn't about cost effective savings to spice up your love life, its about cooking your own food in order to save a fortune. I thought I would choose sauces first because they are very expensive ready made in jars or tins and are usually pretty unhealthy and if you lovely people like it I could pass on many more recipes.

There are five main sauces, these are :

White or Béchamel
Velouté or stock based white sauces (chicken & Fish)
Espagnole or brown sauce (no not Daddies beef, pork stock etc)
Tomato
Butter Sauces (like Hollandaise)

For today i wil do the 1st one White/Béchamel

Ingredients :

425ml Milk (plain or infused( this means simmered with a thick slice of onion, bay leaf, peppercornsand parsley stalks oh!!! and make sure it is cold before you start the sauce))
20g Plain Flour
40g Butter
Salt and Pepper

This is very easy to make just put everything in a pan and bring to the simmer whisking it none stop. Once it is smooth and glossy turn the heat down to its lowest setting and cook out the flour taste for 5 mins stirring it every now and then. Taste and add seasoning

If you are a little weight conscious you can buy sauce flour from most supermarkets and with this you dont need to use butter, just use 275 ml of milk and follow the same cooking instructions.

You have now got the classic Béchamel for Italian recipes like Lasagne

Stir in any cheese you like for Cauliflower Cheese or add Broccolli to this as well, top with grated cheese and bacon and theres a tasty cheap meal.

Add parsley to the white sauce for fish and fish pies

add wholegrain mustard for a great sauce to pour over chicken or sausages

even those cheap 60p packets of dried mushrooms once soaked added to the white sauce will make a lovely sauce again for chicken add cracked peppercorns to that and it would go well with beef or steaks.

Well thats it for now, i would be interested in your feed back if you would like anymore recipes or if I should just belt up ( I know I can go on ;D...... ask the wife)

cathy_3

hiya
thanks for that keep them coming, I can make the sauces but a lot of people just buy them and theyre much cheaper and more nutritious to make

my auntie recently cooked us lasagne and it must have cost a fortune cos she used 4 jars of bechemel sauce (of course labelled lasagne sauce)

vanoonoo

yum!

like the idea of the sauce flour - not seen that but then i haven't been looking so shall investigate

mmmmmmmm. sauce. yum

debtworrier

Onion(s), sliced
Oil (for frying)
Tomato puree
Lea & Perrins
Marmite
Cornflour

Slice an onion or two and fry gently in about a dessert spoonful of oil, letting it brown. The longer you cook the onion, the darker and sweeter your gravy will be.

Boil about half a pint of water, and pour into a plastic jug. Stir in half a teaspoonful of marmite, a good few shakes of Lea and Perrins and a squeeze of tomato puree*.

To thicken with cornflour:
In a cup, mix 1 heaped teaspoon of cornflour with a little COLD water (about a dessertspoon or two). Stirring all the time, pour some of the hot tomato and marmite water into the cornflour mix until the cup is full, and then (while now stirring the marmite water) pour all of this back into the tomato and marmite water.

Add the fried onions and juices from the pan and mix thoroughly. Once the frying pan has cooled a little, pour everything back into the frying pan and heat, stirring constantly and scraping the pan with your (wooden) spatula to get any nice fried-on bits off the bottom. Once it's thickened and bubbled for a minute or so, it's done. Season to taste.

Delish over sausages & mash.


*Rumour has it that you can also use tomato ketchup, but I've always had puree to hand, so far.

taplady

Thanks for this debtworrier, I've added it to my recipes!:T next time we have sausage and mash I'll give it a go!:T

organic_wanabe

What a useful thread. I wonder why mtgnnr never followed up with the other recipes.

newlywed

Is there anything I can use instead of marmite? Oh hates it and won't let me buy it, even though I've tried to assure him you can't taste it in cooking (mum used to add a teaspoon to spag bol).

taplady

organic_wanabe wrote:

What a useful thread. I wonder why mtgnnr never followed up with the other recipes.

hadn't noticed that it was an old thread.Was a good idea.

Pandora123_2

Here is my contribution:

Homemade marinara sauce

:A

organic_wanabe

That's a great one Pandora123, especially after last night's "Truth About Food" which was saying how lycopene in tomatoey things increases our natural defence against the sun, on average by 30%. The control group ate 50g daily of tomato paste on crackers but I don't think I'll be doing that, I'll just eat even more tomato-based sauces and add more concentrate to my stews, etc. I was thinking of starting a couple of new threads: one for easy tomato-based recipes such as salsa and brochetta, etc. and another for spinach-based ones because it is great for protecting against macular degeneration in the eyes and I thought it would help bring it to the attention of people who didn't see the programme. What do you think - off topic, I know and I'm sorry.

BTW I sent a PM to the person who started this thread to try to draw her attention to the fact that it's been added too and ask if she would contribute again, but maybe she no longer comes on to MSE.

Pandora123_2

organic_wanabe wrote:

That's a great one Pandora123, especially after last night's "Truth About Food" which was saying how lycopene in tomatoey things increases our natural defence against the sun, on average by 30%. The control group ate 50g daily of tomato paste on crackers but I don't think I'll be doing that, I'll just eat even more tomato-based sauces and add more concentrate to my stews, etc. I was thinking of starting a couple of new threads: one for easy tomato-based recipes such as salsa and brochetta, etc. and another for spinach-based ones because it is great for protecting against macular degeneration in the eyes and I thought it would help bring it to the attention of people who didn't see the programme. What do you think - off topic, I know and I'm sorry.

I think that's a great idea... I saw the program last night as well. I knew tomatoes were especially good for a man's prostate gland, but I didn't know that they also protect the skin against sun damage. I can think of a couple recipes in each category I could contribute right away.

I couldn't believe that 70-something-year-old woman had never had spinach in her entire life! :eek:
:A