Cheat's cheese sauce

Kittylester your post made me think back to my first cheat or hack where we used Campbell’s condensed mushroom soup and just added chicken, more mushrooms and a little onion to make chicken and mushroom casserole. Now I make the mushroom soup in a soup maker and add the chicken. Plus ça change . . .

Nutmeg’s a good idea, I’ll try that. I add mustard, gives it a bit of a kick. My Mum used to, too.

I think nutmeg really enhances cheese sauce.

Another cheat I use is Sainsbury's frozen cauliflower cheese. It is brilliant. I grate some nutmeg on the and top with more cheese. And, it's gf!

Mine comes in a ready made pot from the supermarket.

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Among my my first and favourite cook books in the early 70’s were Delia’s “How to Cheat at Cooking “ and Katherine Whitehorn’s “Cooking in a “Bedsitter” . They were all I needed. The latter contained such gems as
“It should be news to no one that red wine goes with red meat …and white wine with fish, veal and the sweet courses. More to the point perhaps is that white wine goes with carpets and red wine only with floors you can wipe clean or don’t care about “
I’m afraid Whitehorn’s recipe for cheese sauce is still the traditional one but Delia did suggest in those days, a packet of cheese sauce!
I thought you might be amused by the state of them 🤣🤣🤣

My school cookery teacher of so many moons ago drummed into us that you had to ‘cook out the flour’ in a roux ( wait until
the flour and butter bubble and stretch out across the pan) otherwise it would taste floury. All these years I have never dared deviate from these instructions!

Do people put cheese sauce in their lasagne? I use plain béchamel and just add some cheese between layers and sprinkled on top, learned when I lived in Italy.

kittylester

I think nutmeg really enhances cheese sauce.

Another cheat I use is Sainsbury's frozen cauliflower cheese. It is brilliant. I grate some nutmeg on the and top with more cheese. And, it's gf!

This is a good day for me. I love cauliflower cheese, but DH does not. I wondered about Sainsbury’s frozen last week. Great to have a recommendation.

Foxygloves

Among my my first and favourite cook books in the early 70’s were Delia’s “How to Cheat at Cooking “ and Katherine Whitehorn’s “Cooking in a “Bedsitter” . They were all I needed. The latter contained such gems as
“It should be news to no one that red wine goes with red meat …and white wine with fish, veal and the sweet courses. More to the point perhaps is that white wine goes with carpets and red wine only with floors you can wipe clean or don’t care about “
I’m afraid Whitehorn’s recipe for cheese sauce is still the traditional one but Delia did suggest in those days, a packet of cheese sauce!
I thought you might be amused by the state of them 🤣🤣🤣

I had that Delia cheat book, Foxygloves - probably the first cookery book I bought 😁

^More to the point perhaps is that white wine goes with carpets and red wine only with floors you can wipe clean or don’t care about^“

White wine gets red wine out of light carpets and cream sofas!
Save a glass to drink afterwards though.

I've got the Katherine Whitehorn book, Foxy. Somewhere.

Mollygo the cauliflower cheese is loose in bags with the peas etc
Doesn't look much but is lovely. It costs about £2 per bag.

kittylester

I think nutmeg really enhances cheese sauce.

Another cheat I use is Sainsbury's frozen cauliflower cheese. It is brilliant. I grate some nutmeg on the and top with more cheese. And, it's gf!

I do this too. With Aldi frozen cauliflower cheese. I was abit dubious at first as it’s just loose florets that look to be coated with frozen cheese sauce, you can cook as many or as few as you wish.

Which is a boon if you are the only cauliflower cheese fan in the house.

Not quite as good as home made but a good substitute, especially if you in the middle a a roast beef dinner cook.

Now that frozen cauliflower cheese is really a tip worth knowing about.
Thank you.

I already keep frozen chopped onions and mixed peppers in the freezer and not always for emergencies!!
Sometimes I just can’t be bothered.

I was the only child of a working single mother.
My mother was widowed when I was 11.
I soon learned to cook simple meals and very good cookery lessons from the same age when I went to Grammar school was a good experience.
I am now 86 so I have been cooking for 75 years, 60 of them married to a husband who loved his food.
I think a few shortcuts and ready meals ( and the occasional takeaway) are allowed now.
I am sure many of you have very similar experiences.

I agree Ann!That's really my point!!

The cauliflower cheese is a real boon.

kittylester

I wouldn't use a jar or packet - I don't cheat that much!!!

As I said, I usually have Sainsbury's 4 cheese sauce in the freezer and would use that but I was hoping for different ideas.

I like the idea of creme fraiche or cream with grated cheese or just cream cheese.

Mascarpone is good too.

Jamie Oliver used to do a very quick sauce for lasagne (I think on a Sainsburys advert around 15-20 years ago) where he mixed 600 ml of creme fraiche with 100 g parmesan/cheddat. I tried it once on a pasta bake when I was tired after work and it was very nice (although perhaps not as nice as handmade bechamel)

When I was au pairing in France, the lady of the house said we would be having cauliflower cheese for lunch. So I diligently set to making my roux. She came in and asked me what I was doing. She told me not to bother with that, to chuck it away and pop down to the dairy along the road and get some creme fraîche.

It was 1975 and I'd never heard of creme fraîche. The dairy shop sold it loose, wrapped in paper, and it was yellow and almost like butter. Needless to say the cauliflower cheese was delicious. And much less hassle!

kittylester

Some of these recipes seem to be more complicated and us more equipment than I was hoping for.

I can do the traditional method and have been doing for 53 years - I love cooking but, if there is a cheats way of making life easier why not use it.

Some people use stock cubes (or, probably worse still, stock from Sainsbury's chiller cabinet!!) Others will make their own. Some people add tins of soup to casseroles - others don't.

I think they are called hacks or short cuts! As well as cheating!

If my method with the food processor is too much equipment, you can also do it with a tall jug and stick blender.

I do wash my food processor by hand, but the stick blender I bung in the dishwasher

Ever since I read of Saint Delia’s method for making a white sauce (whack it all in and use a balloon whisk) it is much less of a faff to make a cheese sauce.
Stir in salt, pepper, plenty of cheese and a good dollop of English mustard, bingo.

Witzend

Ever since I read of Saint Delia’s method for making a white sauce (whack it all in and use a balloon whisk) it is much less of a faff to make a cheese sauce.
Stir in salt, pepper, plenty of cheese and a good dollop of English mustard, bingo.

I made a parsley and lemon sauce by the whack it in and whisk method this evening.

It was very good 😇

From an old M&S Cooking with Vegetables book recipe for a veggie lasagne but works with meat one too - large pot plain yoghurt (not low fat) mixed with small bag grated cheese (if in rush), add half tsp mustard powder and pinch cayenne pepper. Use on top only, finish with good sprinkling of porridge oats. Never looked back!

We did used to make life difficult for ourselves, didn't we? Our Domestic Science teacher taught us to make the roux, then add the milk or stock a little at a time, stirring vigorously and removing from the hob each time, and nowadays the results can easily be achieved by cooking it all at once, whether with balloon whisk, stick blender, or even a wooden spoon.

She also had us make a custard tart by baking the filling a little at a time, taking the pie out, pouring in a little more filling, baking that and then pouring in a little more etc etc. The results are perfectly OK if you dump the lot in at once and bake it all at once (on a low temperature, giving it plenty of time to set). Then you're not running back to the oven every ten minutes and can get on with something else in the meantime!

Whenever I've tried the whack it all in method for classic white sauce (i.e. made with a roux) it's just gone lumpy and needed twice as much effort to get the lumps out.

Cooking out the roux properly, adding milk bit by bit & vigorously beating it in with a wooden spoon equals the same effort with a better result for me.

I use cornflour rather than plain flour because it's gf, then stir with a whisk. Cornflour tends not to go lumpy.