A great easy Roux recipe to thicken sauces

I

imsosirius

New member
I've been making roux routinely in the following fashion for several years.

4 TB all purposes flour or whatever you want

4 TB extra virgin olive oil - same as flour

Place into small pyrex bowl with steep sizes, 2.5" by 2.5" or so. In 1000
watt microwave cook 3 1/2 minutes at #3 power level. It's VERY important to
cook at a low power level. Oil absorbs microwave energy more than other
ingredients.

Remove: The roux will be light brown and drier than what you'd expect. The
flour will be cooked, and that's what you want. If you want a brown roux mix
it up, put it back and repeat. One cooking is fine for any white sauce, or
even a brown sauce.

This works better a butter based roux because there isn't the 18% water
component that there is in butter. Your sauce is smoother and glistens more
than with traditional butter-based roux. And it's healthier.

I haven't seen this in a cookbook. I keep roux in the refrigerator all the
time, ready to use anytime. You end up with a much nicer smoother sauce.

Kent
 
On 3/26/2011 3:37 PM, Kent wrote:


To my thinking if you are gonna nuke your roux, you might as well buy it
in a jar in the supermarket.



--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.
 
On 26-Mar-2011, Janet Wilder wrote:


All that whisking of a typical roux was something that kept me from making a
lot of dishes for a long time; then, I learned about oven roux. Oven roux
requires less dedicated time to it making, but is just as good as its
stove-top, high-maintenance twin.

Equal parts flour and fat, in a cast iron skillet (or dutch oven) at 350F;
check on it every now and then until it reaches the color you need. Make
extra and store it in the freezer.
--
Change Cujo to Juno in email address.
 
Kent wrote, in part > In 1000 watt microwave cook 3 1/2 minutes at #3 power
level. It's VERY important to cook at a low power level. Oil absorbs
microwave energy more than other ingredients.>

I don't know what watts our microwave is but it can petrify anything at
full power; level #3 is about all we use unless we have the fire dept. on
speed dial.
Another way to make roux is oven baked dry. Just spread 2 cups or so of
flour evenly over the dry bottom of a big iron skillet. Put in a 400? oven.
Stir every 15 minutes for about an hour. This is from 'The Little Gumbo
Book' by Gwen McKee. Her recipe for turkey gumbo is very good and saved our
family from turkey-chip cookies and turkey popsicles. You 'can' have too
much holiday turkey. Polly
 
"l, not -l" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Doing the above in a microwave accomplishes the same thing. The advantage is
that microwave heat is distributed more equally throughout the flour fat
mixture. The fat-flour isn't cooked just on the bottom of the pan, as it
will be, even in the oven. The major advantage is that I walk away from it
for 3.5 minutes, return, and I have a good roux.

Kent
 
"M. JL Esq." wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Extra virgin olive doesn't add any taste. You can use any oil you want,
including butter. Butter will work fine, but it has a water fraction with
milk products that makes everything a bit less clear. If you want the butter
taste, to use that is fine. I now and then use half butter and half olive
oil.

Kent
 
On 26-Mar-2011, "Kent" wrote:


I doubt microwave heat is distributed more equally than oven heat in this
application.

The speed of microwave roux is, in my opinion, its most serious problem.
Roux notoriously moves from one "color" to another very quickly; doing so at
10 times the speed of oven/stove-top method is a serious issue. While it
may be fine for the roux "colors" you use, many of us prefer better control
of the final "color".
--
Change Cujo to Juno in email address.
 
On 3/27/2011 9:10 AM, l, not -l wrote:

Exactly. I take my time with my roux. One recipe I have calls for the
roux to be the color of peanut butter. I keep a jar of peanut butter
nearby just to match the color. Prolly a little anal of me

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.
 
On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:09:52 -0500 in rec.food.cooking, Janet Wilder
wrote,

Peanut butter is made from roasted peanuts. I assume that the
recipe calls for them to be roasted until they are the color of
peanut butter.
 
On 27-Mar-2011, Janet Wilder wrote:


Chunky or creamy; natural or additives? My "peanut butter" roux is the
color of Smuckers Natural - chunky style. 8-)

--
Change Cujo to Juno in email address.
 
On 27-Mar-2011, David Harmon wrote:


My roasted peanut recipe says to roast until the color of "peanut butter
colored roux". ;-)
--
Change Cujo to Juno in email address.
 
"l, not -l" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
You can control the speed. As I've said fat takes up microwave energy more
and more uniformly than other food ingredients. You have to play with your
microwave and make the roux take as long as you want to get the degree of
brown you want.

One important point: you must use more oil than is usually used. What you
put into the microwave should be oilier than what you start with on top of
the stove. After 3.33 minutes it will be the consistency you want.

Kent
 
On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:04:56 -0700, Serene Vannoy
wrote:


Well, it depends on the gumbo, from what I have read. If you do a
seafood gumbo, you can get by with a lighter roux. However it will be
thicker. A darker roux is usually required for most gumbos, almost to
the point where it burns.

I posted a microwave roux a few years ago, when we were doing the
gumbo cookalong. I had gotten it from an eGullet poster, who used to
make it for his gumbos. He got it from a little cookbook.

Here are the directions for the roux, in his words:

Microwave Roux

It's really not a secret...............It's a variation of a
techniqueI got from a spiral bound cookbook I picked up on my annual
jaunt to New Orleans about 25 years ago. The book is called "Tout
Suite a la Microwave". After making roux the conventional way for
years, and watching my mother and cook slave laboriously over
it............all with mixed results, I decided to give it a try.

Take a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup. Put 2/3 cup of flour and 2/3 cup of
oil/butter/fat. Stir with whisk, Microwave on high for 4 minutes.
Whisk, Microwave for 2 minutes. Whisk, Once more. Then go to one
minute intervals whisking in between till the color roux you want is
achieved. In about 20 minutes you have a great roux without
burning.................and much quicker than the 2 hours it used to
take me.

My notes on this:
I did it for the cookalong, and while it is easy and one can achieve
teh dark color from it, I think I prefer the traditional method. For
one thing, it has to be pretty hot when the vegetables are added to
the roux, as the roux cooks the vegetables and at the same time, the
vegetables slow down/stop the cooking process of the roux. I found
that I had to put it back on the stove to get to that point in making
gumbo, so it wasn't really much time or energy saved. Mind you, I
tend to use the Paul Prudhomme method of making roux, which goes
really fast.

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
On 2011-03-27, Christine Dabney wrote:


Total nonsense.



I hope so. I can make a chocolate ice cream colored dark roux in
about 8 mins. I've posted the technique b4.

nb
 
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