Master this sauce and you’ll be able to turn any piece of meat or fish, pasta or vegetables into a complete meal
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 whole black peppercorns
- Few parsley stalks
- 600ml milk
- 50g butter (or margarine)
- 50g plain flour
Method
- 1. Put the onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and parsley stalks into a heavy-based saucepan. Pour in milk and bring just to the boil, then remove from the heat and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain into a jug.
- 2. Meanwhile, put butter (or margarine) into a separate, clean, heavy-based saucepan. Let it melt over a medium heat, then add flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir continuously and very well until you have a smooth, slightly grainy paste. This is called a roux.
- 3. Off the heat, whisk a little of the infused milk into the roux, beating well with the wooden spoon, then return to the heat, beating, until thickened. Repeat until half the milk is incorporated, then switch to a whisk. Continue adding the milk (off the heat) and whisking over the heat until smooth.
- 4. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking the sauce for 4-5 minutes, until thickened, stirring occasionally. Taste, season, and make sure there is no hint of flour.
Chef's tip
To make parsley sauce, the rule of thumb is to make sure the parsley is very fresh, as it really does make all the difference to the finished sauce. My preference is for flatleaf but you can certainly use curly parsley. Chop a good handful – somewhere between roughly and finely chopped – and add to the finished sauce.