Easy Parsley Sauce

It's winter down here, so it must be time for hot filling meals.

Corned beef is a good kiwi favourite, and parsley sauce is a great accompaniment for cured meat like corned beef or ham.

The beef took a day in a crock-pot (slow cooker) but the sauce only takes about fifteen minutes, start to finish.

This is a simple white sauce, so we need flour, fat and milk.

Milk (skimmed or normal) 500ml/1 pint
Butter 50g/2oz
White flour 2 tablespoons
Biiiiiiiiig bunch of parsley (probably 50-75g 2-3oz)
Bowl of cold water

Get a bit pot of water boiling.

Hold the bunch of parsley by the stalk and dunk the leaves into the hot water. Shake them around to dislodge the entrained air and ensure that the water gets all through the bunch.

Hold it there for as long as you can stand the steam on your hand, or fifteen to twenty seconds (whichever is longer).

As soon as you lift the parsley out, dunk it in the cold water and run more cold water through it.

Cut off the big bundle of stalks and the tape holding them together and chuck them away.

Chop the leaves as finely as you can be bothered. Finer is better and it's actually fairly quickly done if you keep your fingers out of the way.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a fairly low heat.

Season the flour and then add it to the melted butter, stirring constantly.

When the flour is entirely incorporated into the butter, a wooden spoon dragged through the mix will leave a trail that takes a second or two to fill up. The fifth picture above shows what it should look like.

Add the milk, a little at a time, again stirring constantly.

Bring the sauce to a simmer. If you increase the heat to the pan then be even more careful to keep stirring to prevent the sauce sticking and burning.

Once the sauce has reached a slow simmer, tip in the parsley and stir it all in.

Get the sauce back up to a simmer for a minute, and then decant into a jug for serving (ideally one which looks nicer than my Pyrex one).

Alternatives

I like a runny sauce with fairly big lumps of parsley which is what this recipe produces.

If you like a smoother sauce then blitz it with a stick blender after the parsley has been added.

If you like a thicker sauce then double up on the quantities of butter and flour.