A properly prepared sauce tops any dish. Traditional sauce with flour goes well with meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, so it can rightfully be considered a universal sauce.
Flour gravy: bechamel sauce
Based on traditional gravy with flour, two delicious sauces are prepared: white and red
The recipes for their preparation are similar, but slightly different in composition (milk is used for the white sauce, and broth for the red one.) By varying the number of ingredients, adding spices, herbs and roots to them, you can prepare the perfect flour sauce for your favorite cutlets or stir-fry.
Bechamel, known as white sauce or milk sauce, has been used in cooking for centuries. It is served with steamed chicken cutlets and steamed fish, boiled and stewed vegetables, mushroom dishes. Chicken breast with creamy mushroom sauce, vegetable casseroles, cannelloni, meat lasagna, mushroom julienne and even pizza are prepared on the basis of white milk sauce. The delicate taste of white flour sauce goes well with rice, mashed potatoes and pasta.
To make béchamel sauce you will need:
- a small piece of butter (about 50 g)
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 500 g cream (to reduce the fat content of the sauce, you can replace it with milk)
- salt and pepper to taste
Put a frying pan or a heavy-bottomed saucepan on a small fire, melt the butter in it. Fry the flour in melted butter (not for long, it should not darken). Then, stirring constantly, pour half of the cooked milk or cream into the flour mixture. Stir the future sauce well and let it thicken, this will happen in a couple of minutes. After that, pour in the rest of the liquid, and then add salt and pepper. After a few minutes, when the gravy thickens again, it can be served.
The taste of the classic béchamel sauce is neutral, so you can add bay leaves, dill, parsley or chopped onions during cooking.
Remember that bechamel is not recommended to be reheated, so it should be cooked just before eating.
Red flour sauce, or red sauce, unlike white sauce, is prepared on the basis of broth and served with meat dishes and game.
To make red flour sauce, you will need:
- 30-40 g of butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups strong vegetable or meat stock
Melt the butter in a skillet and fry the flour in it until golden brown (the shade should be darker than in the white sauce recipe). While stirring, pour half of the broth into the gravy, and after a few minutes add the rest. The taste of red sauce should be rich, so it is recommended to add roots, herbs and spices to it, if you wish, you can add a spoonful of tomato paste and a little sugar.