One of the five most popular base sauces in European cuisine, Bechamel sauce is considered. Because he can turn an everyday dish into a real masterpiece, making it unique.
Bechamel sauce: classic recipe
This culinary invention, like the classic béchamel sauce, will increase the nutritional value of the finished dish, make it juicier and affect the final taste.
Ingredients:
- Milk 2.5% - 1.5 cups
- Wheat flour - 2 tablespoons
- Butter - 30 g
- Onions - 1/4 part of the onion
- Grated nutmeg - 1, 2 tsp
- Bay leaf - 1 pc.
- Carnation - 2 buds
Preparation:
- Pour the milk into a small saucepan.
- Peel the onion, cut a quarter from it, stick 2 clove buds into it and dip in cold milk. Add grated nutmeg and bay leaf there.
- Put a saucepan with milk on low heat, boil and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove it from the heat, remove the bay leaf and the clove onion.
- Cut the butter into small slices, sprinkle with flour and dip in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Cook the sauce for 3-4 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the butter and flour form a homogeneous mass.
- Slowly pour half of the milk into a saucepan with flour mass and cook until boiling, stirring continuously and kneading the flour mass with milk.
- When the sauce is well mixed, pour in the remaining milk and continue cooking until a thick cream consistency, without letting it simmer.
- Remove the finished bechamel from the heat, strain through a sieve, salt and pepper.
Bechamel sauce with mushrooms
Having tried to make a classic bechamel, you will fall in love with it so much that you will be ready to experiment with different additives. The most famous sauce filler is mushrooms. Mushroom béchamel sauce gives even ordinary spaghetti a French sophistication.
Ingredients:
- Champignons - 300 g
- Butter - 6 tablespoons
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Milk - 3 cups
- Flour - 1/3 cup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Bechamel sauce with mushrooms:
- Cut the champignons into small strips and fry in butter until tender.
- Peel the onions, cut into strips and add to the mushrooms.
- Put flour in a skillet and stir well. Lumps will form, but do not let this scare you, they will then dissolve.
- After the mass becomes homogeneous, pour it slowly with milk.
- Boil the bechamel to the required thickness for about 15-20 minutes. If desired, at the end of cooking, you can add finely chopped dill or other herbs to it.
Bechamel sauce with minced meat
Bechamel with minced meat will also be an original addition to main courses. For example, it goes well with young potatoes, boiled rice, and can also be a filling for lasagna and various pies.
Ingredients:
- Butter - 30 g
- Flour - 2 tbsp. l.
- Milk - 300 ml
- Minced meat - 50 g
- Onions - 1/4 part
- Salt to taste
- Chopped parsley root - 25 g
- Chopped celery root - 25 g
- Salt and pepper to taste
Making bechamel sauce with minced meat at home:
- Pour milk into a small saucepan, dip the peeled quarter onion and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Melt the butter in another saucepan. Then add flour and fry it, stirring continuously, over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until light golden brown. Remove the prepared mass from heat and cool.
- Gradually introduce flour into a saucepan with milk, stirring it constantly.
- Send the sauce over low heat, bring it to a boil and cook, stirring for 8-10 minutes, without letting it boil. Remove the film from the surface constantly.
- When the bechamel has a thick, creamy consistency, strain it through a sieve and season with salt and pepper.
- In a separate skillet, sauté chopped celery, parsley and minced meat in oil.
- Pour the sauce into the skillet with the minced meat and boil it for 10-12 minutes.
Bechamel sauce for lasagna: cooking at home
You already know that bechamel is a very popular European sauce that serves as the basis for many different dishes. But the most popular recipe where it is used is lasagna. Therefore, it is simply impossible not to know how to make sauce for this dish.
Ingredients:
- Butter - 100 g
- Milk - 300 ml.
- Wheat flour - 3-4 tbsp.
- Ground nutmeg - a couple of pinches
- Salt and pepper to taste
Making béchamel sauce for lasagne:
- Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan.
- Then gradually add wheat flour, stirring with a wooden or silicone spatula.
- When the creamy flour mixture thickens, dilute it with cold milk, which also pour in a little. Again, stir vigorously to prevent clumping.
- Slowly, stirring in, pour in all the milk, adjusting the desired consistency of the sauce. Remember that the sauce will thicken a little after it cools down, so don't make it too thick in the first place. Moreover, for lasagna, it should be of a more liquid consistency.
- Add ground nutmeg to the finished hot béchamel, season with salt and adjust with pepper as desired.
- The sauce is ready and can be used to pour the lasagne.
Watch a couple of video recipes and tips:
