A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

Bobbykins

GreyQueen wrote: »

I can make spag bol. I'm sure I could make a white sauce if someone told me how. I think it's quite amazing that I'm heading towards 50 and have never made a sauce, but there you go.:o:p I can stir things, I've been told..................:rotfl:

GQ - had just edited my post above to include the lasagne recipe before I read this. So, to make white sauce:-
Melt 2 ounces of butter in a pan.
Remove from heat, add 1 tablespoon cornflour and stir in to make a paste. (technically called a roux)
Take 1 pint milk and add to the roux a little at a time at first, stirring in thoroughly to make a smooth, thinner paste. Once you've mixed about a quarter of it in, the rest can be added a bit quicker.
Season well then return to the heat,
this is the important bit KEEP STIRRING whilst you gently heat up to boiling point. It will thicken as it heats up. The second it looks like boiling, remove it from the heat.
There you go - white sauce.:)

GreyQueen

TY Bobbykins, I shall make some this evening and report back on how it went. I love eating lasagne, just never got around to learning to cook it.

Mrs_Chip

GQ white sauce is dead easy. For those of us who were inducted to it's mysteries at out mother's knee, recipes are unnecessary so I have had to look it up to check the quantities, and the recipe I found had odd ones (to suit the recipe I guess), but essentially pro-rata amounts up and down for a much as you need:

85 g butter
85 g plain flour
750 ml milk

melt butter and flour together in a pan, stirring. Add a touch of milk, stir again, the milk will be incorporated into the mix. Keep doing this until all the milk is in and you have a nice sauce. Cook for 5 mins at a very gently simmer, making sure it does not catch on the bottom of the pan. Reason for the palaver is to make sure the flour is cooked through. Season with s&p. Depending what you are going to use it for you can add flavours: cheese for cheese sauce, a bit of mustard is nice in this too, or grated nutmeg.

If you simmer the milk with a clove studded onion and bay leaves before you use it this give the sauce a nice flavour too. Make it thicker (less milk) so that it is stiff and you can stir in lots of cheese and/or chopped ham. Mum used to keep this in the fridge for spreading and toasting like welsh rarebit.

An alternative method is to bung all the base ingredients, cold, into a pan and bring gently to the boil, stirring constantly. This is supposed to avoid a lumpy sauce, but tbh, I have never found it going lumpy the normal way.

Once mastered white sauce is your friend as it has so many uses .

ETA - Stirring best done with a whisk not a spoon!

Possession

Mmm I love lasagne. Got some Jamie lasagne sheets from Approved Foods and can't remember making lasagne for years so maybe we'll have that for dinner tonight. I love making the sauces really thick so you can cut it with a knife and it doesn't slop about. Oh except I haven't got much milk. And I don't want to go shopping. Maybe not!
Please excuse this stream of consciousness post while I get my brain back in gear!

[Deleted User]

I cheat when it comes to white sauce - I put 1 pint of skimmed milk , (I use dried made up), 1 or 2 rounded tablespoons of cornflour and some salt and pepper if it's savoury into a BIG microwaveable jug whisk it up well and cook on full power, stirring it every minute for about 5 or 6 minutes until it is thickened. If I want to make cheese sauce I add 1oz of butter, some cayenne, some dry mustard and some celery salt along with however much grated cheese I want and give it a really good whisk. If I want sweet, I add 1oz butter 2 good tablespoons of granulated sugar or the equivalent in sweetener and flavouring of choice. You can as little or as much cornflour as you need to get the thickness of sauce you like. Only a jug to wash and no chance of it catching. Works for me Cheers Lyn x.

fuddle

Back of the net! GQ I'm making lasagne tonight too so threader's you've saved me from the crashing of the Good Food website at about 5pm Thank you.

Mar I always feel alrighty when you're about. You pull me up by my socks, give me a dust down and make me fighting fit. Come on toughies, we can get through another day of a bit of adversity - although, with a smile on wor faces here as it's sunny

Ok, I'm a tad excitable today - all about my slow cooker arriving sometime today, a freebie via nectar and amazon. I made a sponge pudding in the microwave last night. DH, normally very very appreciative of what I make chirps up "I cannat eat that, it's as hard as the hobs of h*ll" and then DD who is 7 says "poor mam, she tries but never seems to get quite there, does she dad"

I had to laugh. I'm learning but I have still a long way to go. I think I am quite frugal and have been for years but when you begin to try to emulate meals of the yester year and scratch cooking I feel it's a science, maybe even an art.

So, studying today. Washing on the line. Write down how to make lasagne. Plant up my herb trough. And generally daily jobs. Going to sit down to make my nephew to be's cardi and practise some more knitting. A full day made up of odd jobs on the list.

Mrs_Chip

In a my born days I have never used cornflour for a white sauce (or read a recipe for it) and now here are two:rotfl:. I must try that jug method Lyn, and ignore Mum rolling in her grave

ginnyknit

I always seem to be carrying big bottles of milk up and down the lane and they are sooo heavy that I changed to powdered milk for cooking custards and sauces etc. It makes a lovely sauce. GQ as Delia says just keep whisking your sauce and it should be lump free (or strain them out through a seive :rotfl:) I do a layer of baked beans in my lasagne, makes it bigger and the menfolk love it.

Am off to see Mommy dearest today as she is a bit low. She has been knitting topsy turvy dolls for me to make up and add to my stockpile of crafted goodies - taking over the house now! Actually she is knitting a lot and it seems to be keeping her busy which is good.

The slugs have officialy wiped out all my crops now except spuds and oniony type things. Even my precious watercress which was doing so well in the greenhouse - I am devastated, thank god we have a pantry full of supplies. When I nipped on the market yesterday for a tray of eggs I noticed the cooked meat and dairy stall has diversified a bit and has plastic tubs of peanut butter for £1.50 ( think they were a kilo) and good Sr flour for 50p. I ordered 5 bags of the flour and will pick up one of the peanut butters on the way home from Mums. I do like good flour and Mr T seems to keep a low stock of their budget flour so its win win.

Hope everyone is getting through the gloomy day. I read the poverty articles that have been posted and find it sad that people who have worked so hard have little comfort in their lives and obviously no savings to tide them over. It seems in this country you are either obscenely rich or in deep doo,doo's with no paddle.
The other problem is if you work long hours to keep the wolves from the door you dont have time to do the research we all do sourcing bargains etc. Well at least we have the NHS thenk goodness, its the only good thing (when it works)

short_bird

I tend to think the overall result is better if the sauces are a bit runnier than usual to soften the lasagne sheets.

[Deleted User]

MRS CHIP - this one came from my MIL who was a caterer and used it all the time. It may not be conventional but it works really well and saves on the washing up. Plus it's so quick and easy. Cheers Lyn x.