This basic white sauce recipe is essential in a cook’s kitchen repertoire as from the basic, comes a whole host of variations.

Ingredients

• ½ small onion
• 1 small bayleaf
• few whole cloves
• 2 cups (500ml) milk
• 50 grams butter
• ¼ cup flour

Method

1. Cut a small slit in the onion and push the bayleaf into the cut. Secure by piercing the two together with about 3 whole cloves.
2. Put the studded onion and milk into a saucepan and heat gently to scalding point (just before boiling) and then discard the onion.
3. Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan and add the flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes over a moderate heat stirring regularly to prevent burning. It is at this stage you must cook the flour to burst the starch grains so that the sauce will not end up with a raw flour taste.
4. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the infused milk to make a thin smooth sauce. Return to the heat and stir over a low heat until the sauce has thickened. Simmer for 2-3 minutes stirring regularly. Season with salt and white pepper.

Cooks Tips

Tips for the perfect sauce: Use blue-topped milk to achieve the richer flavour. The butter and flour mix (roux) must be cooked well at the beginning. This is to ensure the starch grains from the flour are well cooked and leave no residue uncooked raw flour taste on the finished sauce. The roux should be cooked over a moderate to low heat without browning. Do not boil sauces with cheese in them. Cheese is a protein and like all proteins if over cooked or boiled to hard will go tough and become stringy and may even cause your sauce to separate. Use parmesan cheese for best cheese flavour. Add herbs just before serving otherwise they can loose flavour and make sauces become a dull grey colour. To keep without a skin forming on to, brush a piece of baking paper with butter and sit directly on top of the sauce. This can easily be removed when it comes time to reheat.