So how many people hate making roux? I’m fine with making blonde roux, mostly used the thicken things, but when it comes to making penny-roux, the deep dark, meant-for-flavor type of roux used to make things like gumbo, I either lose patience (because it takes so long) or I mess it up by burning the whole thing. Either way, it isn’t my favorite thing to do, so when America’s Test Kitchen demonstrated a dry roux (by placing plain old flour in the oven for an hour), I was really happy. That photo isn’t of cinnamon, it’s flour! And it turns out to work well, at least in making this Chicken and Andoille Sausage Gumbo. At the end of the day, it takes about the same amount of time (2 hours), but you can also toast the flour weeks or even a month or two ahead of time. Game changer! (Oh, and in addition to the technique, the Gumbo is pretty dang tasty too!
Browsing Tag
soup
I’ve been feeling a little under the weather these days, with mostly what feel like a head cold. Seemed like a good excuse to make Chicken Noodle Soup, but frankly, I didn’t feel much like cooking either so enter the “cheater” recipe for soup, using a rotisserie chicken. The ones from Whole Foods seem mostly healthy, and yes, I did have to go to the store to buy said chicken (nothing like spreading germs!) but this was ready to eat in a just a short bit. It did make me feel a bit better though, so success on that front!
Today’s Soup of the Day: Creamy Sweet Potato Curry Bisque. I feel like I’m in a restaurant whenever someone says “Soup of the Day”. 🙂
It’s actually gotten cooler here in greater Boston, which is nice for mid-October. It’s been too warm for soup until now, but it’s supposed to be the start of Soup Season, right? At any rate, cool enough to make this sweet potato bisque. It’s a variation on my Roasted Butternut Curry Soup, which is one of my favorites. Worked just as well with sweet potatoes. The best part: it freezes really well, so double the recipe and you’ll have a freezer full to last you a while!
Ok, back from a little hiatus from blogging about food, but here I am again. The weather has been miserable, even for New England spring weather, so I made this butternut squash soup as comfort food. It’s lovely and super easy. Besides having to roast the squash for an hour (which is hands off) I think the whole thing took an additional 15 minutes beyond that. And you could use any other kind of squash or pumpkin too. The curry is super nice, so if you can, serve with naan (both Trader Joes and Whole Food sell some good naan, if you are so included).
Another “cold-weather” recipe. This weekend, it was kinda cold and rainy here in Boston. No big deal — it is November, after all — but it did inspire me to make another cold weather meal. This is very creamy, even though it uses only milk, not cream. The trick is to use a combination of both mealy (ie. russetts) and waxy (red, yukon gold) potatoes. The russetts fall apart and lend their starch to the broth, versus the waxy that hold together. I even used a few purple potatoes in mine, just for contrast.