Bechamel sauce is one of the basic sauces of French cuisine, but it is also used to prepare traditional dishes from other countries. For example, Italian lasagna is unthinkable without a white sauce, which, in fact, is the world famous Bechamel sauce. By the way, French cuisine was enriched by him thanks to the Italian, who was in charge of the royal cuisine of the French monarchs. Anyway, the recipe for white sauce must know any cook who prepares European dishes. However, in order to make a bechamel sauce for lasagna, you do not need to be a great cook. Its basic recipe is simple, its variations are not complex either. It is enough to know a few subtleties to prepare a perfect white sauce in your kitchen.
Cooking Features
Cooking any sauce requires a certain skill. Without knowing the intricacies of technology, you can get an unexpected result: lumps, large pieces of vegetables, an unbalanced taste will nullify your efforts, and the used products will be spoiled. If you haven’t had to prepare bechamel sauce, then the advice of experienced chefs will be useful to you.
- The basic white sauce recipe includes only four ingredients: flour, butter, milk and salt. Milk, if desired, can be replaced by cream, add flavor to the seasonings. Most often ground nutmeg is added to the composition, but you can add herbs, pepper, and other spices to it. It is not forbidden to show imagination, however, it is necessary to remember the sense of proportion: spices and spices used in large quantities can interrupt the basic taste of the sauce, and the whole dish.
- In order for spices and spices to open up, having given their flavor to the sauce, but without interrupting its taste, they are added to the already warm milk, and not immediately.
- Density of sauce depends on the ratio of components. For a lasagna, a rather thick sauce made from 0.5 liters of milk and 50-100 g of flour is suitable. For this amount usually take at least 50-100 g of butter, a pinch of nutmeg.
- Do not rush to add flour, if it seems to you that the sauce turns out to be too liquid: if you cook it longer, it will thicken.
- There are two technologies for making bechamel sauce. One method involves roasting flour in a dry frying pan, followed by adding salt and milk to it, the second option involves melting butter in a pan, followed by the introduction of flour and milk. The choice of method depends on what tint sauce you want to get. In the first case, the sauce will have a creamy tint, in the second case it will turn out almost completely white.
- It is best to cook the sauce in a deep-frying pan with a thick bottom. Cooks often use stainless steel utensils that do not have a non-stick coating. This is due to the fact that when cooking bechamel sauce must be intensively stirred, even beat, to prevent the formation of lumps. Non-stick coating can be damaged. Therefore, if you still use dishes with a non-stick coating, you must purchase a whisk of plastic with a silicone coating.
- The slower the milk is poured into the pan, the easier it will be to avoid lumps in the sauce. Therefore, before adding milk, it is advisable to pour it into a jug or a milk jug with a comfortable neck.
Bechamel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for two days. So that it does not dry out, you can pour it from above with melted butter. Before using cold sauce must be heated.
Basic Bechamel Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- wheat flour of the highest grade - 100 g;
- fresh milk (at least 3, 2% fat) - 0.5 l;
- butter - 90 g;
- salt - to taste;
- nutmeg - a pinch.
Preparation Method:
- Pour the flour into the pan. Fry it over low heat, stirring with a wooden spatula, until it becomes a creamy shade.
- Add butter, fry the flour with it for 3-5 minutes, intensively stirring with a spatula.
- Pour milk into the pan in a thin stream, whipping the sauce with a whisk. In the sauce should not be a single lump.
- Add salt and nutmeg, stir sauce.
- Continue cooking the sauce, whipping it with a whisk, for another 8-12 minutes, until it is thick enough.
After that, the sauce can be used. It should be applied hot. If it cools down, then before pouring lasagna or greasing dough, the bechamel sauce must be heated.
Bechamel Sauce in Olive Oil
Composition:
- wheat flour - 50 g;
- olive oil - 120 ml;
- shallots - 75 g;
- milk (cow or coconut) - 0, 4 l;
- allspice - 2 pcs .;
- bay leaf - 1 pc .;
- nutmeg - at the tip of a knife;
- salt - to taste.
Preparation Method:
- Cut the onion into small pieces.
- Heat some butter in a frying pan, fry the onion in it until it is soft.
- Add flour, fry everything together until flour turns golden.
- Pour the remaining oil into the pan, mix the contents of the pan thoroughly with a wooden spatula.
- Slowly pour in the milk while stirring the sauce intensely. When the milk is finished, remove the pan from the heat and whisk the sauce with a whisk so that there are no lumps in it.
- Put the spices in the sauce, add some salt. Return to the stove.
- Boil the sauce until it has the desired thickness.
Before use, remove the peppercorns and bay leaf from the sauce. This bechamel sauce recipe is perfect for vegetarian lasagna. True, the dough for her, too, will have to be prepared according to a special recipe personally.
Bechamel sauce with dill
Composition:
- butter - 100 g;
- wheat flour - 40 g;
- high fat milk - 0, 3 l;
- onions - 100 g;
- fresh dill - 50 g;
- black pepper - a pinch;
- nutmeg - a pinch;
- salt - to taste.
Preparation Method:
- Melt half the butter in a pan.
- Put the onion, chopped into small pieces, fry it until golden.
- Pour in flour, stir. Fry it with onions for a minute.
- Pour in the milk and mix thoroughly.
- Pour the finely chopped dill, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Cook the bechamel sauce, stirring until it is thick enough.
- Add the remaining oil. When it is completely melted and mixed with the sauce, remove it from the heat.
The sauce prepared according to this recipe is poured over the lasagne immediately before serving. He will give her a unique flavor.
Spicy bechamel sauce for lasagna
Composition:
- wheat flour - 100 ml;
- butter - 80 g;
- egg yolks - 2 pcs .;
- fish or vegetable broth - 0, 2 l;
- pickled cucumbers - 100 g;
- capers - 25 g.
Preparation Method:
- Melt the butter, brew flour in it.
- Spread the dough with broth, stirring carefully.
- Remove the sauce from the heat, strain it through a sieve with a not too fine mesh. To speed up the process, you can use a silicone spatula.
- Pour some sauce, whisk with yolks.
- Enter the mass into the sauce.
- Chop cucumbers finely.
- Add cucumbers and capers to the sauce.
- Stir and sauce the prepared lasagna.
The bechamel sauce prepared according to this recipe is particularly well suited to fish lasagna. You can not cook it in advance, you need to use it fresh, until it is cold. It is important that this recipe can only be used if you managed to get eggs that you are sure are safe.
Sweet Bechamel Sauce
Composition:
- wheat flour - 50 g;
- drinking cream - 0, 25 l;
- butter - 100 g;
- salt - a pinch;
- honey - 50 ml;
- walnut kernels - 0, 2 kg.
Preparation Method:
- Grind the nuts thoroughly to a paste.
- Fry the flour to a creamy shade in a dry frying pan.
- Add the nuts, fry them for 2 minutes with the flour.
- Add butter, fry the nut mass with it for 3 minutes.
- Add honey and salt, stir.
- After a couple of minutes, dilute the thick mass with cream. Beat so that there are no lumps, and the sauce has acquired a uniform consistency, then remove the pan from the heat.
Fruit lasagna is rarely cooked, but if you are one of these gourmets, the given recipe for bechamel is probably useful to you.
Bechamel sauce can be used not only for lasagna, but also for other dishes. It is served with meat, fish, mushroom and vegetable dishes.
