A cultural aside, t-shirt spotted on Treme: “Roux the Day.”
The ability to make a good basic sauce is a major milestone for would-be cooks.
An easy substitute for pie crusts: buy a package of puff pastry. Put the pie filling into a ramekin or other suitable oven-safe dish, place an appropriate-sized square of puff pastry on top and bake. I like it better than traditional pie crust.
I agree with those saying blue cheese in béchamel - throw in a bunch of baby spinach for the best creamed spinach you’ll ever have.
Also look up microwave roux, it so damn easy and quick you’ll be making roux weekly.
I watched this movie where the guy used what looks like vegetable oil.
http://youtu.be/KE5_8mLRdGE At around 2:55. It’s a fun movie if you can get a hold of the whole thing.
Never heard that. When I took a Cajun cooking class in New Orleans, the woman just used canola oil.
Here’s Justin Wilson, the Cookin’ Cajun. He starts making roux at around 2:40:
Wife prefers to use canned cream of soup over making a simple, fucking roux. Adds powdered gravy mix to make gravy. If some good came from her being half bedridden it’s that she stays out of the kitchen most days.
I used to use roux as a base for nearly everything. Now that I’m doing “the low carb thing” I’ve found good substitutes. A tiny bit of sodium citrate makes an awesome cheese sauces (cauliflower instead of pasta, natch), which keeps the cheese proteins from clumping. I use guar gum to thicken cold stuff, and xanthan gum for hot stuff, or a combination of the two if I need to really thicken something.
At a guess, because butter is more, you know, French.
And the Cajuns came from … where? :dubious:
Nova Scotia, etc. France before that, yes, but . . . It has been said of the Creoles that they are like the Chinese in that they eat rice and worship their ancestors. Nobody ever said that about the Cajuns. Different culture, a step further removed from la belle France.
Maine, and also some little country north of there. 
… And this makes them more French than the Cajuns? 
[quote=“terentii, post:26, topic:732631”]
Here’s Justin Wilson, the Cookin’ Cajun. He starts making roux at around 2:40:
[/QUOTE]I just looked at a dozen or more Cajun roux recipes online and none of them call for olive oil. Traditionally, roux was made from animal fat or something like Crisco, but healthier times call for canola or other bland oils. Olive oil may be healthier, but it would have to be one of the lighter varieties or I think it would impart an unwanted flavor to the dish.
Probably because butter is more expensive than oil or some kind of leftover animal grease would be my guess. Everything I’ve ever read or seen leads me to believe that Cajuns typically didn’t have much money, so their cuisine reflects it - not a lot of butter or cream, and a lot of game and vegetables.
When my grandmother had trouble sleeping, she sometimes got up, made a roux, and refrigerated/froze it. So many recipes start with a roux that if you cook Cajun or Creole regularly, you’ll need it soon, even if you don’t right now. And you can always make brown gravy to go over the biscuits instead of that white stuff the rest of the country insists on putting on them.
Personally, I am rather known for my gumbo, which I make with a very dark roux. Fried chicken is invariably accompanied by rice and brown gravy, with any leftover chicken going into the gravy to make smothered chicken. (It reheats better that way.) Fried cube steak is handled similarly, as are occasional venison cutlets.
My beef stews are invariably thickened with roux, and I’ve been considering trying my hand at steak pies (no kidneys for me, though).
On the oil discussion: I have made roux with many different kinds of oil–various vegetable oils, olive oil, butter, drippings from bacon or beef. Chefguy is correct that a lighter olive oil is better, but a well-seasoned dark roux can incorporate the flavor well enough. Olive oil is what I generally use now, mostly because I usually have it on hand.
[quote=“terentii, post:26, topic:732631”]
Here’s Justin Wilson, the Cookin’ Cajun. He starts making roux at around 2:40:
[/QUOTE]Justin was primarily a standup comic. I have two of his albums. And just about every Cajun is a cooking Cajun.
When we lived in South Louisiana before Cajun food became faddish I don’t remember my wife used olive oil in making a roux - pretty much just butter.
BTW at that time, 35 years ago, there was a Cajun cookbook called “First you Make a Roux” which is what I thought this thread was about.
Geaux Cajuns!
Sort of like ghee for Indian cooking. I always make a few cups of it, as you need it for much of that cuisine. It stores on the kitchen counter for quite a long time, as long as you get nearly all of the solids out.
No, it makes the Cajuns less French than the Creoles.