start choppin'

So, I cooked dinner with Daniel last night in traditional make-this-shit-up-as-we-go-along style. The starting point was Swiss chard. I was convinced it should be eaten over pasta. Somewhere in my recipe sleuthing I came across the idea of chard in bechamel sauce. I thought, "Hey, I have that parmesan-reggiano I haven't used up. Also, I am a sucker for every description of making a roux ever that emphasizes the "nutty" flavor it is supposed to develop while cooking. LET'S DO THIS."

Béchamel Sauce, originally uploaded by .michael.newman..

I know when you add cheese to bechamel sauce it becomes... Mornay, right? But whatever, I like saying bechamel, so. Pull up your pants. My bechamel sauce involved the roux plus heated milk whisked in, part of a bay leaf and one clove (one clove!), some freshly grated nutmeg and the last of some thyme I allowed to go bad, and the all-important addition of salt and pepper. Then I grated some delicious parmesan in, and we crumbled the last bits of feta left over from eggplant in tomato sauce over couscous. I was pretty stoked about the result and kept slurping dribbles from my spoon off my finger. The resultant combination of chard-mushroom-red-pepper with the bechamel/Mornay sauce was not especially photogenic, but stomachs don't care about aesthetics.

Bechamel! Who wants to make mac 'n cheese? We can make it right after I eat these delicious leftovers.