Last night we had an impromptu dinner bash and one of the guests is gluten intolerant. Cheese sauce for broccoli and cauliflower was on the menu and so I screwed up my courage and tried making it with corn starch instead of the usual roux. Corn Starch was the only alternative thickener I had on hand. After some tasting and adjustments I ended up with a pretty decent sauce. Here's what I learned:
pretty good!
- Basic proportions: 1 Tbl corn starch to 1 Cup milk - stirred until almost boiling and thickened. Cheese, seasoning to taste
- Not using a butter and flour roux removes some of the lovely buttery mouth feel and flavor. After thickening and melting in cheddar and Parmesan I added some prepared yellow mustard, dried mustard, salt, pepper and a dollop of sour cream.
- Be careful to add cheese after sauce is thickened and COOLED just a little from it's boiling state. High temps will break the cheese and you lose that smooth creamy texture.
pretty good!
