Introduced to me by the awesome Rachel Khoo in her series Little Paris Kitchen, Béchamel sauce was used in her version of Croque Madame Muffins.  Now Béchamel sauce is slightly bland for the Sri Lankan palette and therefore it’s best not be used as a dip or as a spread. But this sauce works perfectly for pies, pastries, mashed potatoes, casseroles, pasta dishes and much more.

It’s delicious because it has a soft creamy flavour and when baked, it tastes cheesy!  So the times when you can’t use as much as cheddar as you want too a little of Béchamel sauce works just as well.  Rich in texture, scrumptious in taste and affordable this precious gem deserves some space in your recipe collection.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups of milk
5 tbs of flour
5 tbs of butter
1 tsp of mustard
Salt
Pepper

Directions

In a heavy based pan, melt the butter on a low heat.

Once the butter has melted, add the flour in to it and combine well.

Let the paste cool down for few minutes and slowly whisk in the milk.

Put the pan back on a medium high heat, add the mustard, ½ teaspoon of pepper and ½ teaspoon of salt, whisk until the sauce is lump free.

Once the sauce has become smooth and thick take it off the heat.

Disasters, Warnings and Tips

These particular measurements were used to make a casserole dish.

For an awesome muffin recipe refer - http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/7878/croque-madame-muffins-.

If you want a slightly less thick sauce, stick to 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of flour.

Béchamel Sauce sometimes works a good substitute for double cream (In savoury recipes of course!).

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is pretty awesome.

Decrease and increase mustard, salt and pepper according to personal taste.

I’m currently looking for enamel bowls and dishes.  Let me know where I can find some.

Use Dijon mustard (instead of regular mustard), if you have any.

By Shazzana Hamid