Besides broth, one of most heavily emphasized French techniques is the roux. Alton Brown has a whole episode about making bechamels or sauces thickened with roux. A roux is equal parts of butter and flour cooked together into a paste, which is then used as a thickening agent for savory soup, gravy and sauces. Escoffier measures ingredients by weight (and for feasts!), so I had to do a little math for my single serving. For the thickest and most effective roux, you have to whisk the flour and butter together quickly over heat. If you let it go browner, it develops a nutty flavor but isn't as useful as a thickener. The darker your roux, the more of it you'll need for your purposes.
Roux begins powdery and dry but if you have the correct 1:1 proportion, it will liquefy and puff up like the photo above. You can turn off the heat and save the paste until you're ready or you can keep the heat on and whisk in milk to start the sauce.
Once the sauce comes together you're opening up a world of possibilities. You can fold in lot's of garlic to make alfredo or handfuls of cheese to make fondue. It's amazing stuff. I happened to have a block of mozzarella cheese, so I folded in thin slices until they melted. Do not leave any cheese sauce alone over heat! You have to keep stirring or it will form a burnt cheese layer on the bottom of the pan. That's fun when you're finished eating fondue but not so great when you're pouring the sauce into macaroni or something.
The french way to season bechamel is "1 point" of cayenne pepper and a dash of fresh nutmeg. A "point" is equivalent to the amount of pepper you can fit on the point of a paring knife. I guess French people don't like their heat (or maybe it was just Escoffier). I split my sauce into two. One for macaroni and cheese, the other for croquetas.
In another pan, I started my flavoring agents of chopped bacon and garlic. No oil is needed when you're cooking with fatty pork. When it was nice and crispy, I folded it into my croqueta sauce. It was all still soupy, so I folded in more cheese. Eh, why not?
I didn't take pictures of the macaroni, but I simply cooked a pot of noodles and folded them into the bechamel. I finished the dish by layering cheese, bread crumbs, sliced squash and more cheese. At this point you can freeze it for a couple days or bake it at 350 degrees until the cheese bubbles.
For the croquetas, I put the mixture into a bowl of froze it until it was scoopable like ice cream. In the meantime, I prepared a dredging and breading station. 1 bowl with beaten egg, 1 with seasoned flour and another with bread crumbs and crushed corn flakes (work with what you've got, dude!). When I was ready, I made little bechamel balls, dipped them in egg, then flour, more egg and finally into the crunchy crumbs. The croquetas rested in the freezer again overnight before I devoured them (more on that tomorrow).
