You may have heard of béchamel. It is one of the classic sauces in French cooking and has many applications, e.g., creamed carrots, peas, spinach or cauliflower. When béchamel is applied in soups it is generally called a velouté, which you may have read on restaurant menus - it describes a creamy soup. Baked casserole dishes like lasagna and other noodle dishes are the perfect fit for béchamel. The outcome is a gustatory wonder.
Cream or not?
As a young cook I was taught that béchamel is a cream sauce, which I never questioned, but many years later when I started to re-examine classic recipes it occurred to me that béchamel is made without a drop of cream. Its three basic ingredients are butter, flour and milk. Indeed the “cream” explains its texture so perhaps it should be called “creamy sauce” though velouté and Béchamel sound a lot more poetic.
Béchamel is spiced up fairly simply - salt, pepper and a few gratings of nutmeg make a tasty sauce, which you can apply to numerous dishes.
Contemporary Béchamel
Béchamel may be translated into a contemporary cooking style – meaning one that is more cautious about fat content. Classic béchamel is made with bleached white flour, which gives the sauce a velvety texture. I prefer to switch out that nutritiously empty flour for more wholesome whole-wheat flour, which lends the sauce a naturally nutty quality. I have had great success with changing the butter in a classic béchamel recipe for extra virgin olive oil, which makes a perfect “creamy” sauce. And the best part of making béchamel is that it can be prepared within 10 minutes!
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Béchamel
(makes approximately 1-¼ cup béchamel)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
2 cups whole milk
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper from a mill, to taste
Nutmeg, 5 gratings or ¼ teaspoon
- In a gallon sized pot heat oil on medium heat setting
- Add flour, stir with a wire whisk constantly and cook for 3 minutes
- Add milk and spices then cook for 5 minutes. Once the mixture starts boiling stir constantly – this will prevent scorching
- Pour the sauce into a bowl and scrape the pot clean with a plastic spatula. Cover the sauce with plastic saran-wrap. It will prevent the sauce from drying out
Béchamel application suggestions:
Béchamel may be prepared a day
ahead and reheated in a microwave in a microwavable container covered with a
loose fitting lid.
Each application serves four:
- For each person steam 4-6 spears of asparagus. In a square-shaped baking dish layer asparagus with thin layers of béchamel. Top with freshly grated Parmesan or cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.
- Dice 4 strips of bacon and a clove of peeled garlic and cook in a skillet for 2 minutes. Add 4 cups of English peas, ¼-cup water and cook 5 minutes. Add 4 tablespoons béchamel and bring to boil. Garnish with ½-tablespoon freshly chopped mint leaves.
- In a pot steam 4 bunches of cleaned, de-stemmed spinach. Add 4 tablespoons warm béchamel.
- In a pot combine 2 cups chopped carrots, ½-cup peeled, diced onions, 2 peeled cloves of sliced garlic with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper and cook on medium heat setting for 20 minutes. Add 4 cups of vegetable broth and 2 tablespoons béchamel and bring to boil. Put mixture into a blender and process for 4 minutes. Garnish with 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.
