Mornay Sauce

To make a croque monsieur – or in this case – a croque norvegien, you need to make a mornay sauce.  And to make a mornay sauce, you need to trace through two of the most basic sauces: the roux and the béchamel.

Together with hollandaise, velouté, tomato sauce, and espagnole, béchamel is considered one of the five “mother sauces,” – so named, because these five sauces form the building blocks for hundreds of other sauces. They are to cooking what Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine are to DNA.

Mornay Sauce

WHAT TO GRAB:
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 to 1 cup low-fat milk
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, freshly grated
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

HOW YOU DO IT:

ROUX: ONE PART BUTTER, ONE PART FLOUR

1.  A mornay sauce begins with a roux.  To make a roux, melt the butter over medium-low heat  in a  medium saucepan until it begins to bubble and foam.  Once bubbling, whisk in the flour, stirring until the two are well-combined, and the flour is off-white with a nutty smell – about 2 to 3 minutes.

BECHAMEL: A ROUX WITH MILK

2.  The roux now becomes a béchamel.  To make the béchamel, slowly add 3/4 cup of milk, whisking constantly, until thickened.  If it’s too thick, you can always add more milk.

MORNAY: A BECHAMEL WITH CHEESE

3.  From the béchamel, we get the mornay sauce.  To make the mornay, off the heat, add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan.

SUGGESTIONS

4.  Use your mornay sauce to make a Croque Norvegien!