They say necessity is the mother of invention and so there I was, looking for a gravy dish with all purpose flour. I considered bread koftas, flour koftas and a whole lot of other things. But the drawback was to spot the recipe in a book/cookbook I own. So finally, rememebered the white sauce and checked up by vast resource of cookery books.

I found the recipe for Vegetable Au Gratin in 3 books by Nita Mehta. One had mixed vegetables with plain white sauce, another had a low fat version with corn flour, and the third was babycorn and mushroom with herbed white sauce.

I liked the sound of ‘herbed white sauce’ and decided to give it a try.

Since I was out of corn and mushroom, I decided to use the vegetables I had. I also didn’t have any cheese or bread crumbs, so I skipped the baking part too.

So, in short, this is not quite an Au Gratin (baked dish with cheese or bread crumbs browned on top), just vegetables in white sauce. I still have some of the sauce left, may be I will make some pasta dish with it :-)

Check out the Blogging Marathon page to see what the fellow participants are cooking!

Recipe Source: Nita Mehta’s ‘Continental Cookery Book’

Serves:  2

Ingredients:

• Mixed Vegetables            :          2 1/2 cups (I used 1 big carrot, handful of beans, 1/4 cauliflower, peas)
• Cheese (or bread crumbs)    :      1/2 cup (I skipped the baking part :D)

For the sauce:

• Flour                              :           3 tbsp
• Milk                               :            2 cups
• Butter                            :            2 tbsp
• Chilli flakes                   :           1 tsp
• Herbs                            :             3 tbsp (I used dry dill, basil and fresh coriander)
• Salt & Pepper

Method:

1. Steam or pressure cook the vegetables (with salt).
2. For the sauce, in a pan, add the flour and milk until no dry lumps remain. Add salt, pepper, chilli flakes.
3. In a heavy bottom pan, melt the butter. Add the herbs and saute for a few seconds. Add the milk-flour mix. Keep stirring until it comes to a boil. Simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes more, stirring all the while.
4. Take off the heat and keep aside.
5. For assembling, in an over proof dish, add the vegetables in a layer. Tip the sauce on top of this. You maynot need all the sauce, use your discretion.
6. Sprinkle cheese or bread crumbs on top and bake in a preheated oven until the top turns brown. Serve with toasted bread.