Dry Roux

[mvscal]

I'm not reading your emails, clones.

The OL and I are looking to cut calories not quality and stumbled on this. It's not really a recipe. More of an ingredient/technique. It succeeded far beyond expectations. What is this 'dry roux', you ask? Pretty fucking simple. Toasted fucking flour. The temp and time seem to be based on how much flour you're toasting.

I did one cup of sifted flour spread out on a foil lined baking sheet.



The sites I looked at said 425 degrees for an hour. Don't listen to those fucking people. They're idiots. Maybe they're doing pounds at a time. You don't have to stir it up as often as a traditional roux, but every ten or fifteen minutes. Use your nose and take a peek at it. After ten minutes, it was damn near done. I dialed the oven down to 400, mixing thoroughly every ten minutes twice more. 30 minutes total. That is less time than it takes to make trad roux, it doesn't require your undivided attention and it is shelf stable whenever you want to use it. I took it to a light peanut butter. It will be darker when you mix it in. Obviously, don't burn it, you donkey.



Ready whenever you need it



Instant roux. You can use it with the regular 1:1 flour/oil ratio, if you want. Just heat up the oil, add the toasted flour and Bob's your uncle. It's done. I used it for a coubion. It didn't need more fat than what I used to saute the trinity and then add your stock.

[Roux]

Coubion, pronounced coo-bee-yan and spelled courtbouillon or court bouillon. For those who may not know what you're talking about. And it is really good.

[mvscal]

Coubion, pronounced coo-bee-yan and spelled courtbouillon or court bouillon. For those who may not know what you're talking about. And it is really good.

It certainly is. It's one of my favorite things to cook. I enjoy the process.



Not pictured: green salad and buttered, lightly toasted French bread. I use the vernacular phonetic spelling to separate it from the classic French court bouillon which is completely different in every respect. Coubion is more like a first cousin to gumbo.

[StrawMan]

You've got me sold on trying both. I've made plenty of traditional roux, but had no idea there is a dry process, too.

Also, do you have a recipe handy for Coubion? TIA

[Roux]

Redfish Courtbouillon

Creole Redfish Court-bouillon

John Folse Redfish Courtbouillon


Don't get obsessed about specific ingredients. Just understand the technique.

[mvscal]

Also, do you have a recipe handy for Coubion? TIA

Kinda. It is a project. This is about 8 servings maybe ten depending on sides and gluttony.

Ingredients

3# seafood*

28oz can whole tomatoes. I use Cento brand San Marzanos if I don't have home canned passata.

~4 cups seafood stock or two 14.5 oz cans. (Don't go cheap here. Fish heads and shrimp shells make a great stock. Remove the gills, though. Also, I always have a 6 pack of Bar Harbor Seafood stock on hand. It's pricey on Amazon, but worth it. I like being able to identify all the ingredients)

1 cup each of small dice onions, celery and green bell. Minced garlic is optional. Don't get carried away if you do. 2 cloves max

1 12 or 16 oz bag of chopped frozen Okra or fresh if in season. (Also optional and completely non-traditional. I use it because I fucking like okra and it helps thicken the sauce.)

2/3rd cup normal roux or 1/2 cup dry roux

Lemon wedges and green onions or chives for garnish

Seasonings: Cajun seasoning like Tony's or Slap yo mama, a couple bay leaves, summer savory (or thyme). Summer savory seems to have been forgotten by the Cajuns. It was used extensively by pre-diaspora Acadians. It is similar to thyme, but more mild and a bit sweeter. I never make beans of any kind without it. They go together perfectly.

Technique

For dry roux method:

Preheat oven to 275.

In a 5.5 or 6 qt dutch oven, sweat your trinity in about 4tbs butter. You don't want any color. Hit it with a pinch of salt, add the bay leaves (2), summer savory (1 TBS) or thyme (1.5 tsp) and cover for about ten minutes on low heat. You just want to soften it up and draw some liquid out, but not evaporate it. Add the dry roux and mix thoroughly, then add the stock and bring to a simmer. Add your tomatoes, mush em up a bit and bring back to a simmer. Now add about a tsp or more of Cajun seasoning and some umami bombs. I use a few dashes of Maggi seasoning and a small glug of fish sauce. Red Boat is my brand. Partially cover and put in the oven for no less than two hours. Your trinity should be pretty much melted as will most of the okra if you used it. Stir, taste and adjust seasoning. About 30 minutes before the sauce is done, season your fish.

Take it out and add your seafood, nestle it in to the sauce, cover and cook until done. This won't take much time. Serve over white rice, garnish with green onions and lemon wedge. For sides I usually keep it simple with a green salad and some buttered and very lightly toasted baguette.

* Seafood? That's pretty much dealer's choice. In Louisiana, catfish or redfish filets would be typical. The picture above is monkfish and crawfish tails. To season crawfish tails, I toss them with a scant tsp of Zatarains liquid crab boil. For monkfish tails, I remove the membrane, chunk them and toss with about a tsp of Tony's. Feel free to use whatever you want. Shrimp, crab, oysters, squid whatever. Go wild. I think salmon would be weird, though. That's just me.





Roux can check my work to see if I've done it proper.

[Roux]

The only thing that made me pause in the mvscal recipe was the okra. Not sure that I've seen a courtbouillon with okra.

But so damn what, if you want to use okra then do so.

Cooking is not about following a recipe to the letter. It is about making something you like to eat. So no objection at all.

And props to mvscal for introducing courtbouillon here. He's right, it is like a first cousin to a gumbo, and it is really good. Y'all need to try it.

[mvscal]

The only thing that made me pause in the mvscal recipe was the okra. Not sure that I've seen a courtbouillon with okra.

For sure. Like I said, it's completely optional and, if you are making a traditional coubion, you would not include it. I've made it with and without. It's all good. Okra probably drags it closer to a "seafood gumbo", but I can live with that. I love okra. In gumbo or spicy pickled okra chopped in a salad or straight out of the jar. Shit, I put okra in cabbage roll soup and that is definitely not an ingredient associated with Eastern Europe.