Fish Mornay and a basic white sauce

This is one of those retro meals from the 70’s that paved the way for such delights as Tuna Mornay, Salmon Mornay, filled vol-au-vents and creamy pie fillings. Where we would be without them? I had one piece of white fish fillet in the freezer plus wanted to ‘move along’ a tin of green beans. (Who invented putting green beans in a tin? Not the nicest tasting thing but did the job.)

If you can make a basic white sauce, I think you can make a pretty good tasting meal out of anything. We had corned meat and vegetables last night for dinner and whipping up a basic white sauce to serve with it rounded the meal off nicely. Even if you have plain old vegetables. Top them with a white sauce and grated cheese, put under the grill until melted and you’ll have the kids

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eating vegetables in no time. (Well most kids, my daughter excluded.)

Basic White Sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter (or margarine)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 cup milk

Note:  Double or triple the quantities depending on the amount of sauce you need.

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add flour, stirring for approx 1 minute. This cooks off the ‘raw’ taste of the flour.
3. Add milk and stir with a wooden spoon or whisk until thickened. This should take about 3-5 minutes.

Add fish, prawns, tinned fish, chicken and vegetables for pie fillings, served over rice or pasta, stirred through pasta and baked in the oven for a pasta bake. Add a cup of any kind of cheese for a cheese sauce. Add 1 tablespoon of curry powder for a curried white sauce. This basic white sauce tastes far better than anything you get in a jar and its made in 5 minutes.

Corned beef with white sauce

How Australian can you get? A good old boiled piece of corned beef, smothered in white sauce, mashed potato and vegies. We used to have it growing up quite a bit and my Mum would throw in a tossed salad. Quite adventurous for the times. Trouble is, this salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and finely diced onion was dressed with cream. That’s all. But let me tell you, it was absolutely delicious. Probably one of the reasons I don’t have a gall bladder anymore.

It’s a cheap cut of meat, one that doesn’t need much preparation, just a few things added to the pot and the meat comes out lovely and tender and you can use the leftovers for sandwiches the next day. I don’t do much with mine other than add a few peppercorns, a squirt of lemon juice, a couple bay leaves and maybe an onion if I think of it. I asked the question on Facebook because everyone has their own way of cooking it. Here are some of the suggestions.

Trudie from My Vintage Childhood cooks hers with peppercorns, balsamic vinegar, onion, celery, carrots.

Stacey-Lee from Get On With It Already adds garlic, ginger and peppercorns.

Frances loves brown sugar, peppercorns, vinegar. Then spuds later on.

Ros from Sew Delicious does similar to me but uses vinegar instead of lemon juice and carrot.

Anna cooks hers with malt vinegar, brown sugar, cloves, bay leaves, onion.

Clare likes vinegar, brown sugar and cloves, but loves the sound of the garlic, ginger and peppercorns by Stacey-Lee above.

Mel from Living the Simple Dream uses vinegar, sugar, water and an onion roughly chopped.

Debb adds brown sugar and vinegar but cooks it in the crock pot. One of her favorite teas.

Marnie from 3 Pickles cooks hers in the slow cooker.

Whichever way you like it, it will remain a family favourite of ours and a great tasting, frugal, family friendly meal (except for the fussy one).