Roux the Day

Roux (roo) is the classical thickener used in sauces and some soups, like gumbo. It is made with all-purpose flour.

Thanks to Carol Fenster, (check out her books- http://tinyurl.com/5pvcnr) I was inspired to try to make roux again. Some of the sauces in her books include something called sweet rice flour, which in Asian markets would be called glutinous rice flour- although it has no gluten protein in it. Aside from its good sauce making properties, it doesn’t break when it’s frozen- which is great for me, because I like to double and triple batch things.

When I first made roux with the sweet rice flour I was detecting a slight off flavor in the finished sauce- but I alleviated the problem by toasting my flour in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350*. I put a thin layer- about ½ inch thick- in a pie tin and toast it when I am baking something else. Don’t do this if you have the fan on in your convection oven. Trust me.

The basic recipe for roux is:

Sweet Rice Flour, toasted if desired 2 Tablespoons
Do not sub regular rice flour
Butter or Favorite Substitute (even lard) 2 Tablespoons

Cook both of these together in a sauté pan on medium to low heat with a non-reactive utensil such as a wooden spoon or heat resistant rubber spatula until it reaches a nice toasty color. The darker the roux, the nuttier the flavor will be.

At this point, you can continue to make a sauce, or cool the roux for another time. Two tablespoons of finished roux with thicken 1-1 ½ cups of liquid. Remember that your liquid and your roux need to be opposite temperatures. Cold roux should be whisked into hot stock or hot roux should have cold stock (or milk) whisked into it. Otherwise, it’s lump city.

Béchamel Sauce
This is the basic sauce you can use for almost anything. This is what Cream of Whatever Soup wants to be when it grows up: use this to make your casseroles, white lasagna or serve it over sautéed chicken.
Yields about 2-3 cups

Sweet Rice Flour 2 Tablespoons
Butter or Favorite Substitute 2 Tablespoons
Milk 2%, Whole or Substitute, cold 2-3 Cups
Dijon Mustard ½ Teaspoon
GF Chicken Base of choice** to taste (½ teaspoon)
Salt to taste

**I use Trader Joes Concentrate, but it has a “produced in the same facility” warning on the package. You could substitute some of the milk with stock or broth.

Make your roux. Cook your butter and flour together over medium heat until it becomes a nice beige-y color. Turn up the heat a bit. While you are stirring, add in the milk, a little at a time. Keep stirring. Let it come up to a simmer. Add in the mustard, base and salt. Stir and taste. Adjust the seasoning. Serve.

If you are using this in a casserole or lasagna, make it a little thinner, if you want to make it into a pepper gravy, or something hearty, use a little less milk.

Why the funny hat?

Hello!

I am a lot of things- a chef, a foodservice consultant, a vocational instructor, a sometimes free-lance writer, a mom, a step-mom (if it makes any difference) and a wife.

As a chef, I am a Certified Culinary Educator through the American Culinary Federation (ACF information: http://tinyurl.com/58dbly) . To reach a level of certification requires education, experience in the field, a rigorous cooking exam, as well as a written exam. I achieved this designation within weeks of learning that I had Celiac Disease.

“If I hadn’t seen you cooking, I wouldn’t believe that these sauces were produced by the same chef that cooked the other dishes”, said the man in the tall toque who would determine if I would pass or fail, “The sauces are bland- technically correct, but not anything special—These other items—the African Braise and the Mediterranean seafood dish are inspired, bold and well seasoned.”

The bland sauces were made with roux, a cooked flour and butter thickener used in classical sauces. I had made the required sauces in a proficient way- but they still, well, sucked. I didn’t taste them. I couldn’t. I was three hours from home, and still needed to load up and return all of my equipment.

I never mentioned that I couldn’t have flour. It wouldn’t have mattered.

I’m still getting the hang of gluten free cooking. There are some things I probably never will master- I’m too vain about my weight to do massive baking recipe de-construction.

Cake goes straight to my butt.

That’s not to say that I don’t do my fair share of baking.

Life is good, however. I have made a roux, just in time for Thanksgiving.
Come along with me as I relearn to cook. It’ll be fun!