No need to make a classic roux, make this basic sauce which can be can be extended in so many ways.

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 5 minutes plus 1 hour if infusing the milk
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

15 fl oz / 425 ml milk

For Infusion:
Bay leaf
Blade of Mace
10 whole black peppercorns
slice of onion
a few chopped parsley stalks
3/4 oz / 20g plain or sauce flour
1 1/2 oz / 40g butter

Preparation:

If infusing:
Place the milk and infusion ingredients in a saucepan, bring slowly up to simmering point, remove from the heat and leave to infuse until cold.

The milk must be COLD, whether infusing or not, otherwise you will end up with a lumpy sauce.

Pour the milk (strain if infused, discard the flavourings) into a saucepan and add the flour and butter.

Bring the sauce slowly up to simmering whisking all the time with a balloon whisk.

The sauce will thicken as it comes to the simmer, turn the heat right down and simmer gently for 5 minutes to cook out the flour.

Now the basic sauce is ready, it can be flavoured:

Cheese Sauce – add grated cheese to taste and heat gently to melt into the sauce, do not allow to boil.

Parsley Sauce – stir in chopped flat-leaf parsley and heat through.

Onion Sauce – Fry chopped onions (and some chopped garlic if wished) very slowly in some butter and olive oil until soft and starting to caramalise, 30 – 45 mins (yes, really!), stir into the sauce and heat through.

Serves: Makes 25 dessertspoons
Preparation time: Minutes to mix
Cooking time: None

Ingredients:

4 oz Turmeric
2 oz Cumin seed
2 oz Fenugreek
½ oz Mustard seed
1 oz Black peppercorns
8 oz Coriander seed
1 oz Poppy seed
1 oz Dry ginger
1 oz Dry chillies

Preparation: It’s a bit of a cheat, but the best way to make this recipe is to buy ground spices, some of the seeds, like coriander,
must be roasted before being ground as they contain a considerable amount of oil and, when bought ready for use, this part of the work has already been done, by experts, before the grinding.

Store in an airtight container, in the dark for up to six months.