Low-fat marg - can I use it in a roux?

[PassTheTwiglets]

Obviously it isn't ideal - but will it work?

It's the lowest of low-fat, by the way - the sort that isn't supposed to be for cooking with.

No. It's low-fat because they add chemicals to bind more water in - as soon as you heat it, the water comes out and you'll just get a watery mess (voice of experience). Just use real butter/marge but a bit less, or some oliver oil instead if you want to be healthier?

I've done it before. Tastes shit compared to butter but if you've let a morsel of the stuff pass your lips before now that won't come as a suprise to you.

Mild olive oil (or, I would guess, other mild oils like sunflower) work very well because you can blend the flour and liquid in cold then just stir as it heats so is very easy way to avoid lumps.

Yeah but it's just a way of getting flour into milk without lumps.

that was to expat btw

If you are bothered about not using proper butter, I would omit the fat entirely and use cornflour to thicken your sauce. It works fine.

It's for a white sauce in a fish pie. Do you think cornflour would work for that? I don't want to use butter because I'm doing WeightWatchers and the Points are way too high. I could swing to a teaspoon of olive oil though. Would the collective recommend olive oil or cornflour then?

I really wouldn't make any kind of white sauce without using butter, sorry, certainly not a bechamel like sauce. I also wouldn't try it with oil, really it wouldn't work I think. Certainly never never never with low-fat margarine.

Another option is to do a sauce made of creme fraiche instead of the bechamel, something like what's suggested here. I've tried it for lasagne & works well: and you could use low-fat creme fraiche, I can't see why that wouldn't work. However, I can't guarantee this would work for a fish pie. What do others think?

bleurgh. Can't you get no butter?

I tried to make a roux with low-fat olive-oil spread as had run out of butter. It went really weird when I tried to melt it, like a kind of grey mush, didn't work at all! I think you need minimum fat content around 50% to work. Basically unless it says suitable for cooking/frying on the tub don't bother.

I remeber putting olive spread on toasted hot cross buns. Was disgusting. It doesn't melt. Horrid horrid stuff.

I'm not sure I'd want to use olive oil for a white sauce, but I do it all the time for cheese sauce - so I'm only half-overloading our arteries - as the cheese gives it enough flavour without the butter.

But its not a low fat alternative. You have to use the same amount.

IIRC sainsburys used to do a special 'sauce flour' advocated by St Delia, which was specially formulated so you could make fatless sauces. Don't know (a) if they still do it (b) if anyone else does

I have used cornflour in white sauce loads of times. It really does work.

Fatless fish pie? Ugh. Why not saute the fish in a little olive oil and have with some mash and veg on the side, or do a tomato-based fish stew? (This Nigel Slater one is delicious and not fatty.

snowball, jsut that the kids love fish pie and they wouldn't eat a tomato stew.

I think I will risk it with cornflour then - many thanks for the advice, everyone!

How about sauce flour? St Delia is a fan and it needs no fat at all...

newyorkminute (I love that song!), funnily enough, I was just looking at that! However, it's all by-the-by now, as have just discovered that we have no potatoes for the topping! So I am going to make snowball's fish stew instead and just be prepared for the kiss to hate it :)

kids

I'd suggest using fat free yoghurt or fromage frais next time in place of the sauce :)

Low fat fromage frais or yogurt separate when heated unless stabilised with cornflour.