I went to school in a period when home economic classes
were compulsory and the TV Chefs of the day were the likes of the 'Galloping Gourmet' and 'Fanny Craddock'.

My teacher was a red haired witch, called Mrs Morgan who, ultimately, gave up her quest to teach unruly offspring of  the Mods and Rockers Era basic fundamentals of cooking and went into politics for the local Labour Party in a Conservative borough.

She was a tough old bird and conducted her classes with a Narnia ice queen like rule. If you made the mistake of wearing nail polish to her class a withering glance, over the top of her black horn rimmed glasses, made you slouch up to her desk, where she kept a bottle of acetone and a basket of cotton wool, and remove the offending lacquer.

Did I enjoy her classes? NO!
Did I learn anything? HELL YES!

One of the first things Mrs Morgan taught us (and YES I remember it clearly) was how to make a Roux Sauce. I won't bore you with the details but from that day onwards I have always made a perfect roux - no lumps to be found with no sieving or whisking necessary. Milk, Flour, Butter and seasoning are the basic ingrediants and if you want to get fancy you can infuse the milk with herbs and other such malarky.

The use of Butter in cooking, these days, is frowned upon due to all sorts of discovered dietary blah-de-blahs but,  in my opinion, God would never of created the Cow if he had thought that an unsaturated fat/ low cholesteral product would be a suitable replacement.

I remade the dish using the time old roux recipe (WITH BUTTER), taught by Mrs Morgan, and added the tomatoes, spring onions, garlic, mustard powder and other banned ingredients that the nutritionist had included/excluded in her makeover and the results were pretty outstanding.

Moral of this story - If the recipe requires a roux sauce then never try and replace the butter!

I served the dish up with fresh baked bread rolls and a green salad with a honey and mustard dressing.