Béchamel Sauce and Mornay Sauce

The reason I have two sauces is because to get to Mornay, you need to make béchamel. Mornay is béchamel sauce with cheese. It's very, very easy to make this sauce and it can be poured over just about anything (broccoli, in this case). If you leave out the cheese, then you have the best béchamel sauce ever. No kidding, the best. Yum! I'm probably making this again tonight actually. The ONLY thing I will change next time is to stop cooking the béchamel RIGHT before it gets to the perfect consistency. I cooked it until it was thick, and then I added the cheese (I'm sure I went overboard on the cheese), which made it a little bit too thick. So keep that in mind when you're making the béchamel.

And when you are trying to select your cooking soundtrack, I recommend: 

• Charles Aznavour and 
• Francis Cabrel. :)

Aznavour is great, but I'm really into Cabrel at the moment. Top two classic songs to check out: "Je t'aime a mourir" and "C'était l'hiver."

Now onto the food!

Simmer the flour and butter.
Like Kate @ Pinkpancakes, I also need more light in my kitchen!

The thickened béchamel, right before adding the cheese.

Mornay sauce

Béchamel Sauce
Original Recipe: "Vegetables" by James Peterson (1998), p 191
Serving Size = 2 cups medium-thick sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter (unsalted)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (I use organic, unbleached)
• 2 cups milk (I use organic)
• 1 bay leaf, broken in two (I didn't break it)
• Salt and white pepper to taste (I used black pepper)
• 1 pinch of ground nutmeg, or grated whole nutmeg (I used grated whole)

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour as soon as the butter melts. Keep stirring until the flour develops a toasty smell, about 5 minutes. The recipe recommends using a wooden spoon, but I didn't. 
2. Pour in half of the milk and bring to a simmer while whisking. When the sauce boils and is smooth, add the rest of the milk, nutmeg and the bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer very gently for 15 minutes (or until thickened to where you want, I think I stopped with time left). Season with salt and pepper and strain (I did not strain). Remove the bay leaf.

Mornay Sauce

• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of Parmesan or Gouda or any cheese you want

1. Once the béchamel is done, remove from heat and add the grated cheese. You can use any kind you want, or as much as you want. I've used Parmesan cheese in the past, but this time I used Gouda. Use roughly 1/4 - 1/2 a cup, but taste as you go.

I've also been really interested in trying different oils lately. 
My two favorites at the moment are:

1. Almond Oil and 
2. Grape Seed Oil (Big time favorite! Cold pressed is the best if you can find it.)

Not only are they extremely healthy, but they are very mild in flavor, especially the grape seed oil. I use the grape seed oil to sauté, fry, bake, make dressing.... EVERYTHING. It has a super high smoke point, more than olive oil, canola or vegetable oil. I use the almond oil for dressings and baking, mostly. I'll be sharing some recipes in my future posts. I'm really happy to have canola and vegetable oil out of my life since they are so unhealthy. The next oil I plan to try is avocado oil. By the way, if you run out and buy grape seed oil or almond oil, you need to store them in your refrigerator.

Do you have a favorite oil? Let me know so I can check it out! :)

Linking to: Homemaker Monday