Cheese sauce recipe
Started: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 21:30
Finished: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 21:44
Tonight, I made experimental pasta and cheese sauce for supper, which Yanthor and Anya both thought was really good. Yanthor requested that I post the recipe for the sauce.
Since I didn't do much exact measuring of anything, the following are going to be rough estimates. I got some of the ideas for the ingredients from a couple of recipes posted online, but then adapted to the ingredients I had already bought, plus what was available in their kitchen. (Yes, I know it's backwards to buy ingredients before looking at a recipe, but the idea only came to me as I going into Super Saver to see about job openings, and spontaniously decided to buy stuff to make pasta sauce while I was there.)
Here's what I used:
- 1/2 stick of butter.
- Some milk. Probably around a cup.
- Flour, maybe a half cup or a little less.
- 3 cloves fresh garlic.
- 1 pound monterey jack cheese.
- salt and black pepper.
Melt butter in a kettle on low warm. After the butter is melted completely, pour in some milk and stir it together. Then toss in some flour and mix it around until it turns into a thick paste. Chop garlic into tiny pieces and dump it in. Let that cook a couple minutes. Sprinkle in salt and black pepper. Chop the cheese into little cubes, and add it to the mix. Stir it around as the cheese melts. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. When everything is creamy and smooth, it's done!
Dump a scoop on top of some freshly cooked pasta noodles and enjoy!
by DaCapn (2005-05-25 12:21)
Looks like you stumbled on one of the five 'mother sauces'. The recipe is very close to a Béchamel sauce. You wouldn't have posted the directions unless it was good, but I would have taken the following approch:
1) Melt butter
2) Add garlic (for 30 seconds or so, just to extract oils)
3) Add flour, toast flour until peanut butter colored
- This creates a rue, which is common in southern cuisine
- The flour soaks up the flavor of the fat, and redistributes it later when soaking in Milk
4) Add milk, bring to a boil
- Without bringing to a boil you won't know the full thickining power of the rue
5) Reduce heat to a simmer and stir in cheese, careful not to heat it to much because it will break the sauce
6) Add herbs (Rosemarry, Thyme, and Oregano would all be good)
7) Season and serve...
Adding flour to liquid creates paste, which can taste pretty bad (garlic usually hides it). Adding the flour to the fat coats the flour particles with oil and fat preventing the pasty taste. It also toasts the flour which gives it a bit more depth of flavor. Watch Emeril on FoodTV if you are looking for the exact procedure... He makes them all the time.
You could also take this same sauce in a different direction by using red pepper flakes instead of garlic, and putting jalapeno's in with the cheese to make a Nacho cheese sauce.
This is my first approximation. Look at recipes for basic Béchamel sauces for more specific details and ingredient amounts.
P.S. First post!