To make a gratin is easier than what you think— chop and cook the vegetables, make a white sauce in 5 minutes, pop it into oven and relax.
What is Gratin
Gratin is a dish and cooking technique that originated in France and mainly refers to a dish with a layer of bread crumbs or cheese baked until golden. There are a variety of ingredients in it, which can be chicken, white fish, seafood such as shrimp, and various vegetables cooked with white sauce. Most of the white sauce are added cream.
Béchamel vs White Sauce
You may have heard of béchamel and white sauce. What’s the difference between them?
They are basically interchangeable. While white sauce is a general term refers to any sauce is white in colour, béchamel is one kind of it. To be specific, béchamel is made from cooked butter and flour with gradually whisked in milk to make it creamy.
In this recipe, we are making béchamel.
Easy Béchamel without Cream
After reading how Japanese makes a gratin, I realized that making béchamel is so simple, and it does not require cream. You only need 4 ingredients that you probably already have in pantry:
- Milk
- Butter
- Flour
- Bouillon powder (or salt)
No need to cook the flour and butter separately. Simply stir all the ingredients together and cook until thicken.
No wonder the Japanese said: ‘There are many ways to make béchamel, some use microwave ovens, some heat butter and flour little by little, I have tried many different methods, this one is the simplest, least failure way.’
But if by chance you’re a purist who believe the flour and butter should be cooked before adding the milk, then below video may help.
A Conventional Way to Make Béchamel
Broccoli Potato Gratin Recipe (Without Cream)
The béchamel sauce is the key. Mix this with any veg and layer atop generously with cheese, nobody can resist it I believe.
Ingredients
Makes: 21 x 15 x 7cm（1L container）
- ¼ broccoli
- 1 small potato
- ¼ onion
- 1 mushroom
- a handful of frozen peas
- 50 g short grain pasta (I used fusilli)
- cheese for baking
- salt and pepper
For the White Sauce
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- ¼ tsp salted vegetable bouillon powder
- 200 ml milk
How to Make
- Cut the broccoli into florets; slice or dice the potato into 0.5cm thickness; slice the onion and mushroom as well.
- Cook the pasta in salted water as per packet instructions.
- Warm 1 tbsp of oil in a pan over medium-low heat, and sauté the onions until softened.
- Add the potatoes with a pinch of salt to cook until slightly brown. Then add the broccoli and mushrooms to cook through, season with salt and pepper.
- Turn off the heat, and return the cooked pasta to the pan, everything stir well and transfer to an oven-proof container.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC fan mode).
- In the same pan (cold), add in all the white sauce ingredients. Turn on with low heat, keep stirring for a few minutes until no granules left. The sauce should now be thickened. Take off from heat and pour it in the container.
- Sprinkle enough cheese on top and bake until the cheese turned beautifully browned.
