Cheese Sauce
Cheese Sauce
Mamta Gupta
This sauce is very easy to make and it can be served with many ingredients. This method is much easier than the usual roux method, where equal amounts flour and butter are first cooked together and then cold milk is stirred in slowly to thicken the sauce. For a cheese sauce, this method is simple and pretty good, no risk of lumps. Also, you can omit the butter all together. Makes approximately 700 ml.
Edited March 2023
Ingredients
600 ml. or 1 pint milk, I use semi-skimmed milk
40 gm. or 1 1/2 oz. plain flour (Use besan/Bengal gram flour for gluten free version.
125 gm. or 4o z. cheddar cheese or Cheshire Cheese or Lincolnshire cheese, grate. I sometimes use blue cheeses like St Augur or Danish blue or even Stilton, if I have some spare.
Optional ingredients, any or all of which can be added
40 gm. or 1 1/2 oz. butter
1 tsp. mustard Powder
A good pinch or 1/2 tsp. of freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper or coarse ground chillies
Instructions
Place milk in a pan, saving 1/2 cup aside.
Add optional ingredients like mustard powder, pepper, nutmeg, chilli etc. to milk in the pan. You can add these ingredients at the next step instead, to the flour and milk mix. Bring to boil, stirring a few times to make sure it does not ?catch? at the bottom of the pan.
Meanwhile, dissolve flour in the saved 1/2 cup of cold milk. Keep aside.
Add the flour & milk mix, and butter if you are using any, to the hot milk and stir.
Simmer briskly, stirring all the time, until the sauce thickens like custard. This is B?chamel sauce.
Turn heat off. Now stir in the grated cheese, a little at a time, until melted and mixed well.
The sauce becomes a little thicker now. If it is too thick, you can add a little extra milk, but this is not necessary, if you have measured the ingredients correctly.
Taste and adjust salt/seasoning. I find that salt in the cheese is usually enough. Add more salt if not enough.
Serve hot with fish, eggs, cauliflower, broccoli or use to make Macaroni Cheese.
