Thursday, March 30, 2006

Béchamel's Variation No. 2

315. Parsley Sauce

The second variation on the béchamel recipe is for parsley sauce, which is "heavenly... to blanket broad beans". To turn ordinary béchamel into white sauce, you infuse parsley stalks with the milk, and add blanched and chopped parsley leaves when you pour the strained milk into the butter-flour mixture.

We had the parsley sauce broad beans thing for lunch today, to bulk out a lunch of leftovers (vegetable soup and Clarice's cheesy aubergine bake).


parsley sauce

I used one frozen packet of broad beans, boiling them for a couple of minutes, letting them cool, adn then removing the tough outer skin from each bean. You'd think that this would be the type of kitchen task that I'd avoid like the plague. However, I really, really love broad beans. The tough skin would simply impede the swift enjoyment of the tender bean within.


Broad beans in bowl, discarded skins in LK coffee cups.

And here is our lunch - crusty bread, broad beans and parsley sauce, leftover aubergine bake and vegetable soup. How delicious! And vitamin filled!


lunch


broad beans blanked in parsley sauce

The parsley sauce was really good on the broad beans, but it seemed a bit of a palaver - I don't know if I'd bother making the whole thing just for a regular lunch. However, for an occasional meal, it's a nice change from the usual.


megacloseup

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I love broad beans too and, like you, always take off the tough outer skins. Your close up looked sooo good - I want broad beans now!

FooDcrazEE said...

u really know how to eat - chuckle

nice simple meal eh ?

Lady M said...

sweetie, you KNOW i'm loving the close-up shot!!! that broad bean w/ parsley sauce does look like a great entertaining type of item, like a mezze...!
where is the second variation of the bechamel? i think you said the cheese sauce was the 1st and the parsley sauce the 3rd?? I is confused. :))

Sarah said...

Hey Ilanakins,

The cheese sauce is the first variation, and the parsley sauce is the second variation. However, I referred to the parsley sauce as the "third recipe" because I counted béchamel itself as the first béchamel recipe.

Sorry that was confusing!

I'll edit it to make it less so.

Love,

xox Sarah

Lady M said...

No worries, honey bunny! It's my fault for obviously not keeping up.. ha! Have a good day, honey bun!

xoxo