Things with béchamel - a vegetable moussaka, and kumara, ricotta and sage cannelloni

Those of you in New Zealand are in need of some winter comfort, and a proven remedy for such vile weather is to smother things liberally in béchamel.

Béchamel is so important to the French that they deem it a ‘mother sauce’.

The Italians tried to claim it as their own with a rambling bit of nonsense about Catherine de Medici bringing it to France when she married Henry II, even though she never had an Italian chef. The most likely creator is Varenne, who was Louis XIV’s chef at Versailles, and named it, perhaps a little ingratiatingly, after the man who paid his salary.

A bechamel with cheese is called a mornay, if I wanted to be properly pedantic. I see it as the perfect opportunity to get rid of all of those pesky odds and ends of cheese floating about in the fridge - chuck em all in.

You may want to infuse the milk with bay, rosemary, peppercorns, shallot and garlic, letting it sit for a while on the lowest temperature, before straining and adding to the roux.

Happy comfort cooking.

S xx

VEGETABLE MOUSSAKA

This may be heresy, but I think I actually prefer this one to a traditional meat moussaka. I know there will be splutters of indignation from the more committed carnivores among us, to which I can only say, shut up, and try it.

The only addition I can think of, besides a few leaves and the bare minimum of ouzo, are some parboiled spuds, sliced and layered in, amongst the mushroom mix. But otherwise, I think this is pretty damn delicious. The eggs in the bechamel help to make the dish just a little richer, and makes it puff up a little as it bakes.