There are many great recipes that want you to cook a white sauce, or a cheese sauce. Sometimes the white sauce is called a roux.

But, how many of you turn the page on the recipe book and think a white sauce is just too hard, you're a bit scared of trying, or you've tried and not been successful before? Or, perhaps, like me, you're just cooking for one and when you look at the size of your saucepans you think you'll just have to create a white sauce bigger than you need to fit the saucepan, or it'd be a lot of washing up when you've finished? Ah ... not just me then.

If you want to make a great fish pie, or a cauliflower cheese, perhaps a macaroni cheese, then this quick and easy 5 Minute Microwave White Sauce (or Cheese Sauce!) might be just what you've been looking for...

• 1 tablespoon* of butter or margarine (you can use olive oil for a healthier recipe)
• 1 tablespoon* of plain flour
• ½ teaspoon of salt (only ¼ teaspoon if you're making a cheese sauce)
• 1 cup of milk (250 ml/½ pint)
• Cheese if this is a cheese sauce, 1 cup or as much as you prefer or have

1. Melt the margarine or butter in a 2 pint microwavable jug or bowl, this should take about 30 seconds. Remember if you're melting butter or marg you don't need to melt it all, it's best if you don't over-cook it, but take it out and stir it around so it melts naturally. Don't get it so it's boiling away, just melted.
2. Stir in the flour and salt until you've got a totally smooth paste.
3. Slowly add the milk and blend it into the paste
4. Cook the mix in the microwave for a further 3 mnutes - in 30 second blasts. Stir it each 30 seconds. So: 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir ... until it's been microwaved for a total of three minutes.

Voila - that's your basic white sauce done. Easy, wasn't it!

* This will make a thin sauce. If you want a medium sauce then use 2 tablespoons of flour and butter, if you want a thick sauce then use 4 tablespoons of flour and butter.

The cheese sauce recipe is the same as above, but only use ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Once the basic sauce has been made, add in 1 cup of grated cheese, mix it into the sauce and microwave it again for a further 30 seconds or so until the cheese has melted.

Using Your Sauce

This is a full and proper white or cheese sauce and can be used in any recipe where you need one.

The sauce is now ready to be poured into cooked macaroni to make macaroni cheese, or over cooked cauliflower to make cauliflower cheese or poured over raw fish and topped with mashed potato to make a fish pie.

Let me know what you think - and thanks for reading!