1801

do you desire revenge against someone? if so, i have no idea.

1802

CUPCAKES!!!

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Chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, and chocolate/peanut butter glaze.

1803

Pick, pickle, crush, salt, hot sauce. if you’re equipped, some smoking in there wouldn’t hurt.

H.

1804

My regular camera died, so all I’ve got is cell camera evidence. But I made Oatmeal breakfast bread today, subject of a recent Tuesdays with Dorie pass.

It’s cooling now. The crumbs you see are a result of not flouring the loaf pan enough. Some of the under crust stuck.

1805

Homemade arrabbiata sauce, and I’m sure I spelled that wrong. I want to make it at least one more time while tomatoes are still in season, and next time I’m putting Italian sausage in it.

1806

My tomatoes are almost done so I’d love to hear how you did this. Love that sauce.

-xtien

1807

What is the point of the roux?

I’ve been tempted to make the gumbo without it, but haven’t felt bold enough to try it. I’m not much of a cook and really rely on my recipies for getting the dinners done and coming out right. I envy the people who can imagine what might go good with what, or improvise recipie wise. I occasionally can do this, but sometimes things like this roux make me realize I have no idea what the hell is going on with any of my dishes. Will it be a noticeably different dish without it?

1808

Made some green chili stew. Pretty basic, but not bad.

1809

Flavor and thickener. Also.

1810

Basically, roux is the mother of all thickeners. At least that’s how I understand it. You could try throwing raw flour in to thicken your sauce, and what you’ll get is the taste of raw flower. That is to say…nasty. Cooking the flour with butter (or some other fat) takes that floury taste away and adds…magic.

I couldn’t make my favorite baked mac 'n cheese (thanks Alton) without it.

You can try a gumbo without roux. But what you’ll be making is soup. You’ll lose a great deal as far as texture and depth of flavor are concerned. Still there’s no reason not to experiment with it. Seriously. What’s the worst that could happen?

-xtien

1811

I know my wife has explained that you use the flour because it will taste like crap without it, but it didn’t really click with me. I didn’t understand the connection between the flour and the fat. As with all fats, they bring the taste at the cost of calories. My kids complain about too many vegetables in the gumbo, but really I think they want more fat. I may slip a little more oil into the mix and see what happens.

tiohn, I know what you mean about questions easily Googled, but I think you have to have a certain amount of confidence to begin with to be able to get these kind of answers that way. For example, look at the top hit Wiki page and all it’s hoity-toity French words and pictures of ugly glop. If that’s not intimidating for an amateur cook, what is?

Besides, this is something I’ve been curious about and xtein’s post made me think he had something to share about the roux with the rest of us. I wasn’t wrong!

1812

Tim, if you’re so afraid of cooking that you’re bothered by a picture of a sauce and are intimidated by the helpful links that Wikipedia provides for the four or five hoity-toity French words in that article, I don’t know what to tell you. None of those things are difficult and you’re only doing yourself a disservice for thinking so. Fortunately for you, it seems that Xtien is a nicer guy than I am.

1813

Fortunately for all of us!

1814

My daughter had her first day of second grade today, and I have resolved to cook more this year (as opposed to basically never, though I enjoy the idea of it). To get ramped up, I picked 6 or 8 basic staples out of How to Cook Everything. So far I’ve made spicy lentil soup, Bittman’s basic meatloaf using a 50/50 pork/chuck mix (I think I’m not a fan of the pork), some roasted chicken cutlets, and a sponge cake. All simple, and I would deem all pretty successful. None of this is super exciting, but I’m pleased that I’m moving in the right direction.

1815

Vietnamese lemongrass chicken.

I’ve never made Vietnamese food before, although I like it at restaurants. This turned out to be really easy to cook, and very tasty. Not quite right, though–the recipe I used called for curry powder, which is clearly a sop to the average Western cook’s spice cabinet. But close enough that I can see that amazing lemongrass chicken is within my reach.

I must play with this some more.

1816

You usually want to have equal parts fat and flour for the roux. The fat is important because it will surround all the flour particles and keep them separate so when the hot liquid is introduced the flour protein doesn’t instantly gelatinize into lumpy clots.

1817

I have a question:

I went to this demonstration where this local chef made a pretty simple salad using what he called “Greek Oregano.” Now when I went to the store to get a bunch of stuff to make this simple but delicious salad, I am told that all oregano is Greek (though I’m pretty sure there’s Mexican oregano too so wtf store employees?) Was he just trying to sound important and exotic when making this, or is there some super secret Greek Oregano hiding out in a specialty store somewhere?

Here was the recipe anyway:

A couple heirloom tomatoes
An English cucumber
Red onion
Olive Oil
Kosher salt
Greek Oregano
Feta

He cut up the tomatoes and cucumber into chunks, diced up the red onion, dumped them in a bowl, then poured a bunch of olive oil on it, sprinkled salt and “Greek Oregano” and stirred it all up. He said it tastes way better if you let it sit a little, but he dished out a bunch of samples, sprinkled feta, and it was damn good. So I want it. God damn Greek Oregano!

1818

Perhaps he meant the store only carried Greek oregano?

1819

I don’t know if Stop & Shop is that good. It’s possible I guess!

1820

There’s a specific variety of oregano called Greek Oregano. When I pick out my herbs, there’s a a few different Oregano plants and Greek is one such variety. So that’s what I’m assuming he meant (kinda like French vs English Thyme). Greek is stronger than plain oregano.

Pickled some of my own homegrown jalapenos (and some my farmer’s friend cucumbers). Very happy about that. Very unhappy about heirloom tomatoes. I get one cropful and then they die and don’t bloom anymore.