Creamed Asparagus on Toast – Béchamel the Creamy Mother Sauce

Sauces are the core of great cooking.  They add flavor and moisture to food and can elevate an average meal to exceptional. We have done 2 of the 5 french mother sauces (tomato and hollandaise) and now I am going to show you a few things you can do with a béchamel sauce.

Béchamel is your classic white sauce.  It is the base for creamed eggs, alfredo sauce, cheese sauces, and is found in greek pastitiso and moussaka. When you master this quick and easy sauce you can eliminate many processed food from your pantry and make a wide variety of flavorful meals.

Yes this is a butter and milk based sauce and contains all of the calories that would indicate.  However if you are going to eat food with a white sauce base you are better off to make it yourself.  Commercial white sauces which claim to be better for you because they are low in fat are loaded with sodium, modified vegetable fats, preservatives and simple carbohydrates. Many health researchers will tell you these sauces are worst for your weight and overall health than a homemade white sauce.  From a flavour standpoint there is no comparison, commercial white sauces taste like salted wallpaper paste.  If you are going to enjoy a white sauce you are always better to make it yourself.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

2 Cups of Fox Hill Cheese Milk (If using regular milk add in 1/2 tbsp more butter)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg

Finish seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

Yields about 1.5 cups of sauce.

The foundation of béchamel is butter and flour, this cooked together is called a roux.  You need to melt the butter over medium heat and then add the flour and stir with a whisk.  A common mistake here is to just add in the milk, you don’t want to do that yet.  You need to cook the flour, so whisk over medium heat until the roux turns a golden, almost brown color.  This is a blonde roux, there are darker ones but for a white sauce we stop the cooking here.  This process toasts the wheat a bit, if you don’t do this it will rob your sauce of flavor and add a starchy taste to it.

Once your roux is golden, slowly add in the milk and whisk until it is smooth, heat until it starts to bubble and then remove it from the heat, add in the salt and nutmeg.  You can add more milk if you desire to thin the sauce.

This sauce can be used as is, but I usually add different flavours to it depending on what I am making.

Creamed Asparagus on Toast

This recipe uses a basic béchamel sauce with a few little twists.  Prepare the béchamel as per the recipe above with the following changes.

• After you melt the butter add in 1 tbsp of minced onion then after they soften, about 1 min add in the flour for the roux.
• When the milk is added add in 1 tsp of dried mustard and 1/4 tsp of tabasco sauce.
• When the sauce starts to thicken add in 3 tbsp of fresh grated parmesan cheese.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste

Preparing the Egg:

I like my boiled egg in this dish with the yolk firm but not dried out.  Take one or two eggs per person, place them in cold water, Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce to medium low for 6 minutes.  Drop into an ice bath until you can handle then peal the eggs.

Preparing the Asparagus and Plating:

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.  Trim the lower 1/2 inch of asparagus off.  Allow 4 to 5 spears per person.  Salt the water with 1 tbsp of salt and then drop in the asparagus for 3 minutes.  Allow to dry for a couple minutes on a clean tea towel and then place on the toast, top with the béchamel and a boiled egg cut in half.  Season with a pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

This is one variation using the Béchamel mother sauce.  It is also the base for a great cheese sauce, which I will use to make spicy macaroni and cheese, and nice garlicky Alfredo sauce or any herb based cream sauce, like the one I used to make my Dill Lemon Creamed Eggs with Foxhill Cheese Milk” href=”https://timskitchentable.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/dill-lemon-creamed-eggs-with-foxhill-cheese-milk/” target=”_blank”>Dill Lemon Creamed Eggs on Toast.  Master this mother sauce and say good by to all of the starch salt and chemical filled processed food that will harm your health and rob you of flavour.

Thanks to my local farmers for producing the high quality ingredients I used in this recipe:

Milk:          Fox Hill Cheese

Eggs:          Evans Family Farmers Market 

Asparagus:     Taproot Farms