contest The Next Throwdown is...
- Thread starter The Hot Pepper
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Ha! Essegi's running skeered! LOLEssegi said:
Actually, I think my favorite throwdowns are when we have the challenge of doing something we are totally unfamiliar with. I love the challenge of finding something that sounds interesting, even though I have never tried it before, but also trying to add a bit of a twist to make it my own. Who of us can't say they were in the same boat for the African-themed throwdown? I think everyone outdid themselves for that one!
Essigi, these are New Orleans dishes.
BASIC definitions:
Roux (Fr.) is a gravy or stew thickener made with flour and fat.
Gumbo is a seafood (or other) stew made with okra and a roux.
Etouffee is a smothered seafood (or other) dish made with a roux.
Both dishes above have the flavor base of the trinity (green bell peppers, celery, onion). Same as a mirepoix, but peppers instead of carrots.
Po' boy (poor boy) is a New Orleans fried seafood sandwich on a bagette with lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo. Other variations exist.
The idea here is to combine the sandwich with a roux-based dish so it is saucy. It is up to you how much you combine, but the end result needs to be a po' boy style sandwich with a roux. So you can gumbo-top a po' boy, create a new po' boy from a roux-based dish, start a roux that you'd use for gumbo but create a kicked up gravy/sauce for whatever po' boy, etc. etc.
That's why it's called Roux'd Boy (pronounced Rude Boy).
Think "FRIED SEAFOOD PANINI" meets "MIREPOIX BASED STEW" but replace carrots with green bell peppers. Combine the two for a saucy sandwich. Get it?
Roux:
Just as it is in classical French cuisine, roux is a mixture of flour and fat, usually butter or oil. The proportion is roughly 1:1, but I tend to use slightly more flour than oil; maybe 1-1/4 cups of flour to 1 cup of oil.
It is the basis for many Louisiana dishes, particularly gumbo, but also etouffees, sauce piquantes, and more.
There are three basic types of roux: light (or what the Cajuns call "blond"), medium (or "peanut butter" colored), and dark. There is white roux also, which is cooked for just a minute to get the flour taste out, but this is rarely used in Louisiana cooking. For gumbos, for instance, Creole cooks tend to prefer a blond or medium roux, where Cajun cooks tend to prefer a very dark roux, which is wonderfully smoky tasting. There are, of course, exceptions to this. In fact, you'll see people making many different "levels" of roux. Blond, light brown, medium-light brown, medium brown/"peanut butter", and dark browns that range from the color of milk chocolate to the color of bittersweet chocolate. This is the most amazing roux of all in flavor, but the most difficult to achieve; it's really easy to burn it from this point. Use your eyes and nose; if it's gone over to being burned you can smell it. It's like the difference between really dark toast and burnt toast. You also have to take it off the heat slightly before the roux gets to the color you want, because the residual heat in the pan (particularly if it's cast iron) will continue to cook the roux. This is why it's a good idea to add your "trinity" (onion, celery, bell pepper) to the roux before it gets to your desired color, because that'll help slow the cooking process.
Roux is used to thicken gumbos, sauces, étouffées or stews, and in the case of a darker roux to flavor the dish as well. Dark roux has more flavor, a wonderful roasted nutty flavor, but tends to have less thickening power.
Preparation of a roux is dependent on cooking time; the longer you cook, the darker the roux. A blond roux will only take four or five minutes; a dark roux up to 20 or 25 minutes at high heat, or up to an hour at low heat. Roux must be stirred constantly to avoid burning. Constantly means not stopping to answer the phone, let the cat in, or flip the LP record over, and if you've got to go the bathroom ... hold it in or hand off your whisk or roux paddle to someone else. If you see black specks in your roux, you've burned it; throw it out and start over.
When you're stirring your roux, be very careful not to splatter any on you. It's extremely hot, and it sticks. They don't call it Creole napalm for nothing ... I have a lovely burn scar on my forearm from last year's Christmas Eve gumbo, when I got sloppy with the stirring.
Certain dishes (like crawfish étouffée) would benefit from a butter-based roux, but if you're going to make a dark roux, this will take a long time. Butter roux must be cooked at low to low-medium heat, or the butter will scorch. Darker roux are better suited to being made with oil. If you know what you're doing, you can make an oil-based roux over medium-high to high heat, whisking like hell, and you'll have a beautiful near-milk-chocolate colored roux in about 20 minutes rather than an hour. Peanut oil works best for high-heat roux cooking.
I'm told that some home cooks are making roux in the microwave now. "No stirring!", they say. "It works!" Bah. Humbug. There's a certain satisfaction to stirring it by hand that I myself refuse to delegate to a microwave. Some things simply must be done by hand if you're serious about this.
Now, one not-so-bad idea is the oil-less roux, pioneered by Cajun Chef Enola Prudhomme. Basically, you just dump the flour into a cast-iron skillet and toast it dry, making sure to stir it around as you would a normal roux. I've never tried this, but apparently it works rather well, and is perfect for folks who are on low-fat diets.
Source
BASIC definitions:
Roux (Fr.) is a gravy or stew thickener made with flour and fat.
Gumbo is a seafood (or other) stew made with okra and a roux.
Etouffee is a smothered seafood (or other) dish made with a roux.
Both dishes above have the flavor base of the trinity (green bell peppers, celery, onion). Same as a mirepoix, but peppers instead of carrots.
Po' boy (poor boy) is a New Orleans fried seafood sandwich on a bagette with lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo. Other variations exist.
The idea here is to combine the sandwich with a roux-based dish so it is saucy. It is up to you how much you combine, but the end result needs to be a po' boy style sandwich with a roux. So you can gumbo-top a po' boy, create a new po' boy from a roux-based dish, start a roux that you'd use for gumbo but create a kicked up gravy/sauce for whatever po' boy, etc. etc.
That's why it's called Roux'd Boy (pronounced Rude Boy).
Think "FRIED SEAFOOD PANINI" meets "MIREPOIX BASED STEW" but replace carrots with green bell peppers. Combine the two for a saucy sandwich. Get it?
Roux:
Just as it is in classical French cuisine, roux is a mixture of flour and fat, usually butter or oil. The proportion is roughly 1:1, but I tend to use slightly more flour than oil; maybe 1-1/4 cups of flour to 1 cup of oil.
It is the basis for many Louisiana dishes, particularly gumbo, but also etouffees, sauce piquantes, and more.
There are three basic types of roux: light (or what the Cajuns call "blond"), medium (or "peanut butter" colored), and dark. There is white roux also, which is cooked for just a minute to get the flour taste out, but this is rarely used in Louisiana cooking. For gumbos, for instance, Creole cooks tend to prefer a blond or medium roux, where Cajun cooks tend to prefer a very dark roux, which is wonderfully smoky tasting. There are, of course, exceptions to this. In fact, you'll see people making many different "levels" of roux. Blond, light brown, medium-light brown, medium brown/"peanut butter", and dark browns that range from the color of milk chocolate to the color of bittersweet chocolate. This is the most amazing roux of all in flavor, but the most difficult to achieve; it's really easy to burn it from this point. Use your eyes and nose; if it's gone over to being burned you can smell it. It's like the difference between really dark toast and burnt toast. You also have to take it off the heat slightly before the roux gets to the color you want, because the residual heat in the pan (particularly if it's cast iron) will continue to cook the roux. This is why it's a good idea to add your "trinity" (onion, celery, bell pepper) to the roux before it gets to your desired color, because that'll help slow the cooking process.
Roux is used to thicken gumbos, sauces, étouffées or stews, and in the case of a darker roux to flavor the dish as well. Dark roux has more flavor, a wonderful roasted nutty flavor, but tends to have less thickening power.
Preparation of a roux is dependent on cooking time; the longer you cook, the darker the roux. A blond roux will only take four or five minutes; a dark roux up to 20 or 25 minutes at high heat, or up to an hour at low heat. Roux must be stirred constantly to avoid burning. Constantly means not stopping to answer the phone, let the cat in, or flip the LP record over, and if you've got to go the bathroom ... hold it in or hand off your whisk or roux paddle to someone else. If you see black specks in your roux, you've burned it; throw it out and start over.
When you're stirring your roux, be very careful not to splatter any on you. It's extremely hot, and it sticks. They don't call it Creole napalm for nothing ... I have a lovely burn scar on my forearm from last year's Christmas Eve gumbo, when I got sloppy with the stirring.
Certain dishes (like crawfish étouffée) would benefit from a butter-based roux, but if you're going to make a dark roux, this will take a long time. Butter roux must be cooked at low to low-medium heat, or the butter will scorch. Darker roux are better suited to being made with oil. If you know what you're doing, you can make an oil-based roux over medium-high to high heat, whisking like hell, and you'll have a beautiful near-milk-chocolate colored roux in about 20 minutes rather than an hour. Peanut oil works best for high-heat roux cooking.
I'm told that some home cooks are making roux in the microwave now. "No stirring!", they say. "It works!" Bah. Humbug. There's a certain satisfaction to stirring it by hand that I myself refuse to delegate to a microwave. Some things simply must be done by hand if you're serious about this.
Now, one not-so-bad idea is the oil-less roux, pioneered by Cajun Chef Enola Prudhomme. Basically, you just dump the flour into a cast-iron skillet and toast it dry, making sure to stir it around as you would a normal roux. I've never tried this, but apparently it works rather well, and is perfect for folks who are on low-fat diets.
Source
Essi skeered?
I think not.
He just isn't familiar with NOLA cooking is all.
Dude won in his first t-down or 2nd entry didn't he?
THP beat me to it.
I think not.
He just isn't familiar with NOLA cooking is all.
Dude won in his first t-down or 2nd entry didn't he?
THP beat me to it.
It's to Essigi, if he wants to read it.
Dammit! This one's perfect for me but timing's off. If it was my weekend off I'd be all over this one, but I've got to work this weekend. Won't have time to do anything unless I can cheat and use store bought roux?
Store bought roux?
That's a joke or real? You cook butter into flour in a pan. A blond roux takes 5 minutes. The rest of the meal is the hard part, the roux is the thickener.
That's a joke or real? You cook butter into flour in a pan. A blond roux takes 5 minutes. The rest of the meal is the hard part, the roux is the thickener.
The Hot Pepper said:Store bought roux?
That's a joke or real? You cook butter into flour in a pan. A blond roux takes 5 minutes. The rest of the meal is the hard part, the roux is the thickener.
That's not even funny.
Dude I worked for last year that was supposedly a cajun/creole master of cuisine used store bought roux.
Often he was too lazy even for that and used corn starch.
Shameful it was.
I know it takes 20 minutes to make a dark roux and to time it just right so it doesn't burn but DAYUM it's flour, butter, and some bacon fat... LOL.
Roux from a jar. SAD!
Roux from a jar. SAD!
The Hot Pepper said:
Sheeit happens.
Like buying bechamel or hollandaise.
Blonde roux isn't used around here, and after 12 hours of standing, cutting and heavy lifting at work I really won't feel like standing around a saucepan stirring butter and flour to make my own roux. Besides, by the time I get home, showered and started to make my own roux it'll be well after 7. Which means by the time it's ready it'll be too damn late for me to eat and still get a good nights sleep for work the next morning. Sorry for trying to find an easy way for me to enter the throwdown.
I know blonde is Creole not Cajun.
I 'spose do what you gotta do! The more entries the better!
DO IT!
I 'spose do what you gotta do! The more entries the better!
DO IT!
TBH from what I've seen when my wife cooks Cajun meals, homemade roux takes longer than 20 minutes. Hence why I asked if I could skip a step due to time constraints. Still doubt I could whip up something appetizing enough to have a chance even with store bought roux with the limited time I'll have. Might look good, but won't taste good enough for my liking. Going to have to skip this one. Though the Aussie/Cajun fusion I was looking at with a rissole poboy smothered in shrimp etouffee sounded damn good to me.
Its all cool and the gang mang.
Do what you gotta' do.
In light of your situation, yessir, crack that jar open and use it.
They'll be no objection from moi.
I appreciate a workin' man who adapts, improvises, and overcomes to git ter' done.
Do what you gotta' do.
In light of your situation, yessir, crack that jar open and use it.
They'll be no objection from moi.
I appreciate a workin' man who adapts, improvises, and overcomes to git ter' done.
MeatHead1313 said:
Brother, now you HAVE to enter!
If you're using jarred roux to save 30 minutes to be able to enter that magic. You now have to.
I was just fussing because of the way it's made, flour and butter... but mayo is oil and eggs and no one is knocking jarred mayo, so do your thing!
Anyone liking your recipe can make their own if they wish. That's the point.
Ima' bring the get down brown funky town to thisn'.
Wet Po'boy?
Plah!
I be makin' that sheeit wetter than a shampoo'd water buffalo.
Wet Po'boy?
Plah!
I be makin' that sheeit wetter than a shampoo'd water buffalo.
WTH is going on in here...soggy Po' Boys....
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