Thickening Sauces

I have recently been asked how to thicken up casserole sauces.  There are a number of ways. 

• If it’s a beef or chicken casserole you can quickly fry the meat for about 5 minutes in some olive or sunflower oil to seal in the flavours. Then add some cornflour to the frying pan and fry for another 1 minute.  When you cook the meat in a slow cooker or casserole the cornflour will naturally thicken the casserole sauce,

If you have already cooked a casserole and the sauce is too runny, you can;

• Put a couple of teaspoons of cornflour into a cup with some cold water, the consistency should look like a slightly runny, sticky paste.  Add this to the simmering casserole and after a few minutes the sauce should thicken.  If not repeat until it does.

There are a couple of ways to cheat.

• If it’s a tomato sauce as the base of the casserole e.g. tinned tomatoes add some tomato puree to thicken
• If it’s a gravy base add some instant gravy granules, such as chicken or beef.