The cheat's way to perfect white sauce

I know so many people who do not even attempt to make their own white sauce. The reason for this; well they see chefs on the TV making a roux, adding warm milk a little at a time and coming up with a perfect lump-free sauce. They try it themselves only to not quite get it right, their confidence plummets and they convince themselves that a basic white sauce is the preserve of the professionals.

Now for me, making a roux based sauce is as natural as breathing, but for friends who have not had my culinary training, it seems daunting. Well there is another way of achieving the same result. All it involves is a saucepan, whisk and a gentle heat. And of course the patience to stand over it while it thickens.

When I'm short of time, normally after a hectic day at work when I need to whip up a variation on the white sauce I put everything in the pan, heat gently and keep whisking. After about 10 minutes of gentle heating you will have a sauce that can then be customised; with cheese for cauliflower, parsley for fish, egg yolks for a moussaka topping, nutmeg to create a bechamel to top lasagna, the list goes on.

The default recipe that I use is therefore:

1 pint/568ml of full fat milk
50grams of unsalted butter
50 grams of plain flour
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
half an onion, skin on

Start by combining the milk with the peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves and onion. Push the cloves into the onion to make removing easier. Heat until just reaching boiling point and then leave for 30 minutes, to let the flavours infuse. You could do this the day before, strain and chill in the fridge ready for use when you need it.

When you are ready to make your sauce, strain though a sieve into a pan, then add the butter and flour. Heat gently, whisking all the time, over a low heat until the mixture thickens. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes to cook out the flour, after which time add your flavourings and either serve as it is, or use in your chosen recipe.

Harissa, with a twist

I'm not a fan of overly spicy food. I'll say this now, and am ready for the brickbats, I'm not overly keen on Indian food or anything spicy at all. Well I say that, but since I asked for a Cuisinart spice grinder last Christmas, life has changed. I can now make curries and spicy food as hot or as mild as I want. I have even converted my husband to thai style curries, even though he said he was a coconut hater.

Well I was looking for something different to do with some sea bass that was lurking in the freezer and found inspiration from Yotam Ottollenghi. I have the books "Plenty" and Jerusalem" and found a wonderful recipe for fish in harissa. Except that I was not keen on all the ingredients. So I decided to modify the original Yotam recipe as follows:

1 red pepper roasted until the skin is black
1/2teaspoom of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon of caraway seeds
1 small red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of runny honey
1/2 teaspoon of dried rose petals

Now this is where the customisation comes into play, add as many birds eye chillies as you can dare. Remember however that this gets hotter over time so you might want to moderate accordingly.

You need to pan roast the coriander, cumin and caraway until they start to give off their aroma. Then either tip into a spice grinder, or a pestle and mortar and grind to a fine powder.

Roast the pepper over an open flame until blackened.If you do not have a gas flame then grill turning regularly until the pepper is black. Put in a bowl and leave to cool. Whilst cooling, cook the onion, chillies and garlic until softened.

Add the cooled red pepper and onion mix to a grinder or food processor, together with the spice mix, honey and rose petals. Blitz to a paste and use if your own favourite recipe.

Comfort in a bowl

What can be better in life than a bowl of tomato soup when you are feeling down, or under the weather. Now a lot of people look back on Heinz Cream of Tomato with fond memories, but what could be better than making your own soup fresh to order.

I went to Finland with my husband a couple of years ago, to a small town called Mikkeli. Now Mikkeli is beautiful but despite the abundance of supermarkets,what really struck me was just how expensive fresh fruit and vegetables were. I suppose living in a country where the climate does not lend itself readily to diverse agriculture accounts for this, but it also reminded me of just how important it is not to waste a single thing.

It was on one of these days when my husband, tired of the options in the university cafe, asked me if I could rustle something up if he came back to our apartment during the lunch break. A quick rummage in the fridge resulted in finding a punnet of cherry tomatoes and some basil, about to do from being slightly past their best to unsalvagable. So I decided on soup, putting the tomatoes in a saucepan with little salt and pepper, gently cooking them until they burst and then putting in the liquidiser with the basil and blitzing. That was my original recipe which I have further refined as below:

1 pack of piccolo tomatoes
1 pack on sunstream tomatoes
pinch of salt and pepper
1 pack of basil or basil plant, stalks and all as they add to the flavour

Place the tomatoes in a small saucepan and put over a very low heat. If you want added tomato flavour, place the tomato stems in well, but do not forget to fish out before you blitz.

When the tomatoes have burst and leeched out their juice, take off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Blitz either in a liquidiser or with a stick blender, When still slightly chunky, add the basil and blitz to your required consistency.

You can either eat straight away, or allow to cool and use the next day, after which the flavours will have developed further.