2019 weekly - Week 12

17/03/2019

I might have done something right last night on my Bechamel sauce as it turned out one of the creamiest I've done. For a long time, I've always felt my Bechamel sauce, although no visible lumps, always tastes a bit grainy/sandy, as if I could taste the very fine flour particles on my tongue. It's not velvety smooth as you would taste clotted cream, which is what I am aiming for.

But I learned a good tip from Youtube which is to mix high moisture cheese (such as cream cheese or Mascarpone) with low moisture ones (such as Cheddar or Parmasen). This is to help hard cheese with deep flavor melt more easily. So that's one thing I did differently last night and I am extremely pleased with the texture and the taste with my Bechamel sauce.

This is the recipe I use:

75 g butter
75 g flour
400 ml whole milk
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
salt to taste
100 g cream cheese
100-125g cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg (optional, for Mornay sauce)

Cook the roux until the flour seems disintegrated into butter. Stir in ground nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Heat off before adding the milk in batches. Stir the mixture constantly and incorporate milk fully before adding the next batch. After all milk has all been added. Put the pot back on the stove with medium heat. Stir until the sauce thickens.

Once the sauce has thickened. Heat off. Mix in cheddar first and stir for a minute before adding in cream cheese. At this stage, I no longer heat my Bechamel. I simply used the residual heat to melt the cheese.

Depending on how the Bechamel is used for later, you can mix in one egg after the cheeses are fully melted.

18/03/2019

My business trip this week was cancelled today. I am beyond happy.

Happy so much that I look forward to sitting through another French class even though I could only understand 50%!

19/03/2019

Alarm set off at 5am this morning, for a mind numbing project.

Getting up extremely (?) early seems to unset my biological rhythm completely every time. My head is heavy and clouded until 11am. I eat uncontrollably all day long. Not sure why. Thank God it's only once every 2-3 months.

20-22/03/2019

An 8am-start for the next three days. But nothing beats to be in your own bed every night.