Food Word Friday: Roux

Some of the best sauces are those that are thick and lovely - think macaroni and cheese.  Probably the most common way of thickening sauce is by using a roux - and that is the food word of the day!

Roux refers to a combination of flour and fat (usually butter) that is used to thicken a sauce.  Flour and fat are traditionally used in equal amounts (by weight) - though you can experiment with the proportions.  I used a roux when making my souffle earlier this week - the base is essentially a bechamel sauce (milk sauce thickened with roux) to which cheese and egg yolks are added.  (Roux can be used to thicken almost any liquid - not just milk.  Think thickened chicken stock for making gravy.)

The basic approach to making a roux is as follows:

Melt the butter.

Whisk in the flour to form a smooth paste.

The roux can be cooked to varying degrees, depending on the type of flavor and color you want.  A white roux is barely cooked, while a blond roux is cooked slightly longer, and a brown roux is cooked until it is brown and has a nutty flavor and smell.  As the roux gets cooked more and more, it loses its thickening ability, so a greater quantity of brown roux is needed to produce an equal degree of thickening as compared to a white or blond roux.  The color/degree of cooking of the roux is largely determined by the desired color of the sauce it will thicken.

Once the roux is ready, the (to-be-thickened) liquid is whisked into the roux (along with any flavorings/spices, which can be seen in the picture).  Whisk very well to ensure you get rid of any lumps!

Cook, simmering, to allow the sauce to fully thicken and cook out the raw flour taste. 

The proportion of roux to liquid that you use depends on the thickeness desired in the final sauce.  In the example above, I used half a stick up butter and a quarter of a cup of flour to 1.5 cups of milk, and the result was on the thick end of how you would want to eat a sauce (it was going into a souffle, so it was a little bit different than eating a straight sauce).  If you are going to add things like cheese, that would thicken your sauce even more, so keep that in mind.

It takes just a little bit of practice to get used to working with roux, and especially with fall at hand, there will be plenty of dishes that would be lovely with a nice thickened sauce!

On the Table: Bleu Cheese and Parm Souffle

Bleu cheese and eggs went so well together in bleu cheese eggs, I decided to do a variation - bleu cheese in a souffle!  The eggs take a very different form, but the results are still delicious!  I used half bleu cheese and half parmesan cheese, which really helped balance out the flavor.  I adapted a recipe from the 1961 version of The New York Times Cook Book - they used cheddar cheese, which I bet would also be delicious!  To prepare:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Butter or spray the inside of a two-quart souffle dish, and coat the inside of the dish with grated parmesan cheese.

Separate four eggs (I just use my hands, but you could also use an egg separator).

Put 1.5 cups of milk (2% or whole) in a small saucepan over low heat, and bring it up to a simmer.

In the meantime, melt a quarter of a cup of butter in a medium-sized pot.

Whisk a quarter of a cup of flour into the melted butter.

Allow to cook for a few minutes, so the mixture lightens slightly in color.  Whisk in the hot milk (try to get out any lumps).  Add in salt, cayenne pepper, and worcestershire sauce to taste.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow it to cool slightly.  In the meantime, grate/crumble half a pound of cheese - I used approximately equal parts bleu and parmesan.  Stir the cheese into the milk mixture, until the cheese (mostly) melts (the bleu cheese might remain in small chunks).

When the cheese is incorporated, whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time.  Once all of the egg yolks are incorporated, allow the mixture to cool while you whip the egg whites.

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.  You could use a stand mixer, hand mixer, or your hand and a whisk.  I do not recommend the last option!

Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.  Don't stir it, really, otherwise you'll lose a lot of the air you incorporated into the egg whites.  You want to add maybe a quarter of the egg whites at a time, then incorporate them into the cheese mixture by running a spatula through the egg whites and around the bowl, then folding it all together.

When all of the egg whites are incorporated, pour the mixture into the prepared souffle dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for about half an hour, until the souffle is risen and nicely browned on top.  (I used the oven light to check on the souffle's progress; if you are going to open the oven door, open it just a little and very gently - you don't want cold air whooshing into the oven or your souffle might fall).

Eat immediately.

Enjoy!

In the Neighborhood: Afghan in Bethesda

Bethesda has a whole lot of trendy new-ish restaurants, but sometimes I think it's really worthwhile to go back to the smaller, more established restaurants for a great meal.  Bacchus and Faryab are two of my favorite Bethesda restaurants, and they have both been around for a while.  I recently went back to Faryab after quite some time, and it was as delicious as I remembered!  (I guess I'll have to go back to Bacchus soon to refresh my memory there as well!) 

Faryab is an Afghan restaurant, which means you can expect lots of lamb and yogurt.  However, the best thing on the menu is the pumpkin.  We ordered the side-dish version as an appetizer, and ended up ordering the entree version later - it really is that good!  The general consensus seemed to be that the side-dish version is actually better (it comes with a fantastic meat sauce, whereas the entree version is vegetarian), so next time I might think about ordering a double of the side dish, rather than the entree (don't get me wrong, though, the entree version is delicious also - but the meat really makes it!).  We ended up splitting a whole bunch of entrees so we could try some of everything.  One entree per person is good in terms of quantity of food (maybe with a few apps thrown in), but sharing allows for more variety!  We had the lamb with spiced rice (I'm skipping the Afghan names here - instead of butchering them, I just pointed to the menu while ordering!), the steamed dumplings, lamb with spinach, lamb with eggplant, and the aforementioned pumpkin.  Like I said, lots of lamb!  Everything really was delicious, but I am a sucker for eggplant (this dish inspired my eggplant stew) and pumpkin.  All of the entrees come with salad (uninspired, but you're not here for the salad) and bread.  There are chicken and shrimp entrees also, so you are not limited to lamb or vegetarian options.

The restaurant is pretty small, so I would definitely recommend reservations if you have a large party (large being more than four).  Service is quick and efficient.  As I said earlier, I definitely think sharing is the way to go, but be prepared for some complex maneuvering to get everything to fit on the table!  Faryab definitely has increased its prices over the years, but it is still pretty reasonably priced.  There is another Afghan restaurant near my house that I have not been to in a while - I may need to go visit soon, because now that I have eggplant and yogurt in my head, I'm going to be craving it for a while!

On the Table: Yellow Beans

I have had a serious "bacon makes everything better" party for the past few days - bacon in the eggplant, bacon for breakfast, and then bacon and yellow beans.  I found the yellow beans at the farmers' market, and I wanted to try them. 

They are pretty much green beans that are...yellow.  The flavor is slightly less pronounced than that of green beans, but otherwise they are very similar - nice and crunchy!  I cooked them pretty simply, and they were delicious!  To prepare:

Wash the beans and cut the ends off them.

Dice up five slices of thick-cut bacon.

Put a 3.5 quart pot over medium/low heat.  Thinly coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil.  Add the bacon to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the bacon becomes nice and crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan and put it onto a paper towel-lined plate.

Add the beans to the pot.  Stir well to coat with the bacon fat.

Add to the pot 3/4 of a cup of chicken stock, 1/4 of a cup of light brown sugar, one tablespoon of worcestershire sauce, one teaspoon of red chili flakes (or less, if you like less spice), and salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Allow the liquid to come to a simmer, turn down the heat to maintain a simmer, cover the pot, and allow to cook for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the lid.

Mix one tablespoon of corn starch with cold water until it dissolves (sorry, white liquid in a white bowl doesn't photograph very well!). 

Stir the mixture into the beans.  Allow the liquid to come to a simmer, and the corn starch will thicken the sauce as it gets hot.

Serve over rice and topped with the bacon bits.

Enjoy!

On the Table: Stewed Eggplant

I think last week was probably the end of eggplant at the farmers' market, and since, well, I could eat eggplant every day, I figured I should make one last fantastic dish for the season.  I had recently had a delicious eggplant dish at an Afghan restaurant, so I decided to make something similar.  This version was fantastic!  It featured this little guy (I think he told some lies!)...

...and this little guy (the lighter eggplant seemed to have a sweeter, slightly onion-y flavor - it was great mixed with the darker variety).

To prepare:

Dice up the eggplant into approximately one inch pieces.

Dice up half a yellow onion.

Dice up a large tomato (it's also the end of the season for them!).  The pieces can be be fairly big (up to an inch long) because they are going to shrink a lot during cooking.

Dice up four slices of thick-cut bacon.

Put a 3.5 quart pot oven medium/low heat and put just a splash of canola oil in the bottom of the pan.  Add the bacon to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the bacon gets nice and crispy.  Scoop it out of the pot and onto a paper towel-lined plate.  Leave the bacon fat in the pot!

Add the onions to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the onions become translucent.

Add the eggplant to the pot.

Stir well to coat in the bacon fat (!!).  Add the tomatoes to the pot...

...along with chicken stock to come about 1/3 of the way up the eggplant, a dash or two of cinnamon, salt (be careful, since the bacon and the chicken stock can both add a lot of salt to the dish), and freshly ground black pepper.

Bring the liquid to a simmer, lower the heat just to maintain a simmer, and cover the pot.  Allow to cook for about twenty minutes.  Remove the lid and cook for five minutes, then stir in about a cup of rice and cook for another five minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve topped with the bacon.

Enjoy!

On the Table: Braised Chicken with Carrots and Tomatoes

I made some delicious braised chicken the other night, and it was incredibly easy - perfect for a weeknight meal!  To prepare:

Cut up five carrots into bite-sized chunks (the carrots I used were close to the same width along the whole length, but if yours are a lot thicker at one end, you should cut the pieces in half length-wise.

Cut up a large tomato into bite-sized chunks.

Put a 3.5 quart pot over medium/low heat, and thinly coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil and a little bit of butter.  When the oil gets hot, put two chicken thighs (or more! - you just want them to fit into the pan in a single layer), skin-side down, in the pan.  Cook until the chicken is nice and browned.  Flip the chicken over and brown on the other side.  (The chicken does not need to be cooked through at this point.)

(The piece of chicken on the left could definitely have been cooked more.)

Add the carrots to the pot.  Stir well to coat the carrots in the fat. 

Cook for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes to the pot.

Add to the pot chicken stock to come halfway up the height of the chicken, along with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Allow the liquid to come to a simmer.  Cover the pot, turn down the heat so the liquid just maintains a simmer, and cook for about 45 minutes.

Check to make sure the carrots are tender, and if they are not, allow to cook for a little bit longer.

I served the chicken with baked sweet potatoes, but it would also be delicious over rice!

Enjoy!