This month's Microwave Easy Cooking event focuses on the basics. And you can't get much more basic than White Sauce, nor can you easily find something more versatile when you venture into the world of western cooking.

Update: You can see the other entries for the event in the round-up on Srivalli's Cooking 4 All Seasons.

From the standard "continental" or au gratin dishes in India that consists of some boiled vegetables with a bland white sauce poured over it and stuck under the grill, to your basic grown-up macaroni and cheese or greek moussaka, once you have mastered a white sauce, a world of options open up to you.

Now, I say "master" because many people are scared of trying to make a white sauce; they have been told how easily lumps form, how you have to watch it like a hawk and keep stirring madly all the time. But with a microwave it is easy to get a perfect white sauce every time, with very little effort.

Remember: each model of microwave is different; the times are given as a general guide, and will differ from model to model.

You start to get an inkling of how simple this is when you look at what you need: just 5 things.

Equipment:

Microwave proof dish holding at least 4 cups - I use my Pyrex measuring cup

Wire whisk - this is very important

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter

2-4 Tbsp flour

~2 cups milk

	Note: Click on the pictures to see (much) larger images. The first step is to place the butter into the vessel, and microwave on high for 30 seconds or until the butter is melted.
	Add two tablespoons of flour to the melted butter, and whisk it in until all the butter is absorbed. Now here you have a choice, depending on how thick you want the final product to be. If you stop adding flour now, your base (roux, pronounced roo) will look like the picture on the left. If you add two more tablespoons of flour, it will look like the picture on the right. Either way, you proceed the same from here on.
	You now need to add the milk; slowly. Start with roughly four tablespoons of milk, and start mixing slowly. Once all the liquid has been absorbed, add a little more this time. Keep whisking gently, and you should end up with a pliable mass. Now you can add more milk in a stream while whisking, until the volume in the vessel is about 1 cup, and everything is mixed thoroughly without lumps.
	Place the vessel back in the microwave and turn it on high for about 3 minutes. When the time is up, look at the contents: it should look as in the picture on the left i.e. there should be a semi-solid rim of slightly darker yellow, and some portion of more liquid, whiter sauce in the center. If it does not look like that yet, put it back in the microwave for another 90 seconds at a time. Keep checking and cooking for another 90 seconds until it starts to resemble the picture. Once it reaches that stage, whisk it, breaking up the semi-solid rim and mixing through the liquid part; the result will look like the picture on the right.
	Now add the rest of the milk, slowly as above, i.e. first a very small quantity, and once you've whisked that in, a bit more, and finally the whole lot. You will now have a liquid with some substance, about the consistency of good dosa batter. Place this back in the microwave, for 3 minutes on high. Check and stir, then return to the microwave for 3 minutes more; after this do 90 seconds at a time, until the sauce has thickened.

What did I use this particular white sauce for, I hear you ask? I made a quick supper dish of Spinach and Pasta Bake.

I sweated a chopped onion and a slit green chilli in oil in a kadhai after I had spluttered some mustard seeds, and when they became translucent, I added chopped spinach that had been thawed from frozen and squeezed dry. Once the spinach was heated through, and had picked up the flavors from the kadhai, I added some homemade tomato sauce. (You can use your favorite recipe, or just use some bottled pasta sauce. This is also the time to add your favorite veggie protein like "cooked" Nutrella chunks if you want to make the meal more substantial).

I mixed in two cups cooked macaroni, and after tossing it through, I scooped in the white sauce and mixed well. After checking and adjusting the seasoning, I stirred in a luscious amount of cheddar cheese, and let the ooey-gooey goodness melt in there. You can serve it at this point or (as I did) place it in an oven-proof dish (e.g. corningware), sprinkle some more cheese on top, followed by some breadcrumbs, and place it under the broiler to get a lovely crisp crust.