Mornay Sauce
Could my family roots have an impact on the way I’ve been cooking? I’d say “YES”!
Being a French descendant (Scottish as well) and Québécoise, my roots definitely have had a huge influence on my cooking style. I grew up eating a lot of sauces. My mother made sauces for almost every dish. With a few exceptions, sauces were as common at dinner time as having a fresh baguette and butter on the family dinner table every night. It’s interesting because a friend of mine when I was just starting at junior high was impressed that each time she came over for dinner, there was always a sauce accompanying the meal – either cooked in or with sauces. Her background was Irish and her family didn’t eat that much sauce.
As a child, I was used to eating that way and it’s only when I moved out on my own that I realized I had to learn how to make sauces… and quick! My culinary talent in my early 20s’ was minimal but one thing that saved me quite often with my amateur recipes was my sauces. I mastered the 5 mother sauces of French cuisine without knowing it. I obviously had a great culinary teacher… my mother and my father (he’s pretty good in the kitchen)!
Let’s go back to how our background can effect what we eat…
When David and I started living together, after a few months he told me that he never ate so much cheese in his life – his background is German! I always have at least 7 different cheeses in my refrigerator. That is how it was at my parents house so obviously I love cheese… a lot! On the other hand, I never ate so much sausage…lol, fair trade!
A couple of months ago, I showed you the technique on how to make a Béchamel Sauce aka White Sauce which is one of the 5 mother sauces of French cuisine. From this particular recipe, a few other sauces are made and they are called “secondary” sauces. One of them is Mornay Sauce!
Mornay sauce is basically a white cheese sauce. It’s used quite often in pasta recipes as well as with poultry, seafood, fish, vegetables, and so on… This is a great sauce for you to have in your repertoire because it can be used in a wide variety of your dishes. There are other secondary sauces under Béchamel like Cheddar Cheese Sauce, Écossaise, Soubise, and Nantua.
Like anything else, you have to learn how to crawl before running and this is why I first posted the Béchamel Sauce aka White Sauce so you can make sauces like Mornay Sauce and many others! It’s very easy to make and you’ll be very happy to have this recipe around…
Bon Appétit!
Here are several great sauce recipes for you to enjoy…
– Basic Brown Sauce
– Tartar Sauce
– Citrus Cranberry Sauce
– Iguana’s Mushroom Sauce
– Smoky Buffalo Wing Sauce
– Bolognese Sauce
and click on this link for more delicious sauce recipes… Recipe Category • Sauces & Marinades
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Mornay Sauce
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Ingredients
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
- 4 tbsp. butter tips & tricks
- 4 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
MORNAY SAUCE
- 3/4 cup Gruyère cheese, grated (substitute Jarlsberg, Emmental or Raclette)
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/8 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg, grated Footnote
- 1 pinch white pepper
- 1 pinch ground Himalayan sea salt
Directions
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add butter and when it’s melted, add flour; whisk and cook for 5-7 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Pour in milk, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.
MORNAY SAUCE
- After the béchamel sauce is done, add the two cheeses and whisk until melted.
- Add nutmeg, white pepper and sea salt (*see footnote). Whisk for 2 minutes before serving.
- If not using right away, cover it by placing a piece of wax paper on top, making sure it touches the surface to prevent skin formation.
Notes
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