White sauce. The recipe is in Russian

White sauce, the recipe of which is very simple and versatile, suitable for various dishes. In France and Italy it is called "Béchamel". In Russia - just a "white sauce". Why white? Firstly, because of the color, secondly, probably because of the fact that, like a white sheet of paper on which you can create any work, it is the basis for preparing numerous sauces with a variety of tastes. This magnificent additive to dishes was known and very popular in Russia in the XVIII century. Most likely, the white sauce, the recipe of which is very popular these days, appeared in Russia together with French cuisine, and how much more has undergone various changes and modernizations in accordance with national traditions and taste preferences. How to cook white sauce? First you need to make a universal base of oil, flour and broth, and then add to it a variety of fillers, depending on the purpose of the sauce.

Basis for white sauce

Two tablespoons of butter or vegetable oil is heated in a pan and mixed with two tablespoons of flour until a homogeneous mass. The mixture is fried a little in a pan until the color changes from light to dark golden. Then gradually add a warm broth (1 liter). The mixture is cooked first with rapid and constant stirring to avoid the appearance of lumps, then with frequent and slow to thickening (consistency of sour cream). The choice of broth depends on which dish the sauce is intended for. Meat or mushroom soup is used for meat dishes, for fish dishes - fish or vegetable, for vegetable dishes - mushroom or vegetable, respectively. As a rule, as a broth for sauce use the one that remained when cooking the main dish, but you can use the bouillon cubes. In the prepared in this way the base is added various seasonings, receiving a variety of different sauces.

White sauce. Recipe with horseradish

In the prepared base, without removing it from the plate, add finely chopped and lightly toasted parsley, celery and onions. Warm it up by holding it in the fire. Then the sauce is filled with the horseradish dressing. For her, the horseradish root is rubbed on a fine grater, lightly fried in oil, then poured a little table vinegar, mixed and well heated. The ready-for-use filling is laid out on a white base. It is possible, together with horseradish, to add the grated apple to the sauce. In this case, horseradish is not fried and not added vinegar, but rubbed on a grater with an apple and immediately added to the prepared base.

White sauce. Recipe with pickled cucumbers

One large or two medium salted cucumber should be peeled and chopped very finely or grated on a large grater. Boil in water with brine 10 minutes. In the sauce-base, add pepper, bay leaf and dill greens when preparing. Then drain the foundation, add the prepared pickled cucumbers, boil, then remove from heat and add a piece of butter.

How to make white sauce with various other additives? As dressings use sour cream (sour cream sauce), infusion of saffron powder on white wine, grated tomatoes and much more. They are simply added to the base sauce, mixed, the sauce is brought to a boil, held for several minutes on the stove and removed. White sauce-base is a good "platform" for culinary experiments and creating original author's dishes.

There is another, very simple, but no longer classic way of making white sauce. To do this, in the proportion of 1x1 mix sour cream and mayonnaise, add chopped greens, grated cheese, ground nuts, garlic, mix everything, give the mixture to stand and spread in the sauceboat. This sauce is very suitable for fish, dumplings, chicken.