Parsley sauce

Ingredients

  • 425ml full fat milk
  • Bunch of flat leaf parsley finely chopped (but keep the stalks)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 onion, thickly sliced
  • 5 peppercorns
  • Pinch of nutmeg
  • 20g plain flour
  • 40g butter
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to season

Preparations

    step 1

    Put the milk, parsley stalks, bay leaf, onion, peppercorns and nutmeg in a heavy-bottomed pan.

    step 2

    Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then remove from the heat and allow to go cold. This will help to infuse the milk before making the sauce.

    step 3

    Slowly melt the butter in another saucepan. Add the flour and stir continuously for a minute so that you cook out the raw flour flavour. Remove from the heat.

    step 4

    Strain the milk through a sieve to remove the infusing ingredients and slowly add the milk to the butter and flour mixture. Keep combining a little more milk every few seconds until you’ve added it all. You should now have a thin, lump-free sauce.

    step 5

    Return the pan to the heat and stir the sauce until it starts to thicken. This will take about 5 minutes.

    step 6

    Once it’s thick, remove from the heat. Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

    step 7

    Serve your parsley sauce with salty roast gammon and new potatoes, crispy fishcakes or grilled white fish.