Is it just me?
To look at me, you can’t tell. In many other areas of my life; I’m completely normal. I look just like you. I only have a small number of embarrassing CDs’ and I never talk about them in public. I work hard – ish, and my antisocial hobbies are limited to knitting shapeless items out of beautiful wool. Its alright – I don’t give them as presents and I rarely wear them. You can even ask me not to. I won’t mind.
What I can’t do is make a cheese sauce. Or a white sauce. Or anything involving the cooking flour and butter together shenanigans.
I can do tomato sauce. I even almost made a mushroom cream sauce the other day.
By accident, that is. I meant to make a topping for something. I understand the theory – melt butter, stir in flour, then add milk, continue to stir til it thickens, add cheese if needed, but it never works. I have killed 3 saucepans. I nearly cause an entire hall of residence to evacuate.
Twice.
I may be beyond help. Please stay here and look after me.
lauraensantiago said,
May 11, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Top tip:
You don’t need to do the whole mixing the butter and the flour together french style thing… whisk the flour into the milk before you put it on the heat, add butter and just keep whisking over the heat until it thickens… voila: all in one white sauce; add cheese for cheese sauce, funnily enough.
Why anyone bothers with the ‘official’ method is beyond me…
birdy said,
May 13, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hallelujah! I see a canneloni in my future….
Ms Melancholy said,
June 26, 2007 at 7:27 pm
There are 2 reasons why I feel compelled to comment. Firstly I just can’t resist anyone who says I may be beyond help. Please stay here and look after me.. That is probably my first mistake. Secondly, I have to disagree most strongly with your first commenter. You absolutely have to cook the flour out, in the melted butter, otherwise you end up with a floury sauce. The roux is essential. The key is to make sure you are using the correct quantities of butter to flour, cook the flour out in the butter for at least 2 minutes, and then add the milk slowly. Let the sauce get thick and lumpy before adding more milk. Don’t worry about the lumps, they will beat out as long as you add the milk slowly. Very slowly.
I do feel like I must know you. Give me a clue????
Ms Melancholy said,
June 26, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Oh god, could I just apologise for giving a very serious foody response to what was clearly just a funny post? Sometimes my sense of humour fails me at crucial times.
birdy said,
June 27, 2007 at 6:30 pm
No – that was a great response – all help gratefully recieved and I like the idea of it being a slow process!