Tuesday morning and the cheese sauce.

I thought I'd post what I did to make that cheese sauce as it was really delicious and very easy.  I'm afraid I don't have quantities as I don't measure out for a cheese sauce.  No photos either.  It was a kind of throw it all in and see kind of thing and really all I wanted to test was the cheese and cornflour method.

I used:
grated tasty cheddar mixed with some cornflour (enough to thicken)
semi skimmed milk
seasoning - a little salt, some pepper and some dried mustard to taste
some Marigold vegetable powder
some grated Parmesan
some cooked macaroni
chopped onion and yellow pepper, softened in butter
some bits of chicken or ham

OK, so the cheddar was grated and mixed with the Parmesan and the macaroni was cooked.  The onion and pepper were softened in butter and the chicken was in small chunks.
I put the milk on to heat up and added the mustard, seasonings and Marigold.  I was very careful with the salt.
when the milk was just under boiling I added the cheddar/cornflour bit by bit, stirring well with a balloon whisk as I did so.  I checked the seasoning (which was fine, as it happened) and then added a bit of grated . . . well, it wasn't Parmesan but something vaguely equivalent (but vegetarian).
What I actually did then was to pour the sauce into a dish and covered everything over because I wanted to do the rest just before dinner.  Originally I wasn't going to add the chicken, of course, but DD and DG didn't come over in the end.  So later on I re-heated the sauce, added all the other things, stirred well, continued reheating and then ate and jolly nice it was too.  I can see that also adding some cream cheese would be very nice but I didn't have any.  However, it's definitely one to do again and so I shall.  Without all the reheating, prepared and eaten straight off, it would be a very simple dish using one pan (I made the sauce in the pan I cooked the macaroni in), a chopping board, a grater and a few utensils.
I can't see myself going back to the roux method now, not with this way being so simple.

So not at all Heston really but I was pleased with it!


No photos of the recipe so here's another of that beautiful Christmas present instead.  If you look carefully, you can see the second bud which should flower soon after the first flowers fade and die.