/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>9640061
Equal parts butter and heavy cream in a saucepan. Simmer until a lot of the moisture is cooked out and the liquid has thickened.
Whisk in grated parm reg. Season with black pepper and a little nutmeg (optional). You won't need salt since the cheese is already salty.

>>9640063
Sounds easy, thanks. When you make a sauce like that can you keep it in a small pot covered on lowest heat to keep it warm?

>>9640075
That's not a roux though. I would start with equal parts butter and flour. Probably about 2 tbsp of each for this. Cook over medium heat till golden brown, then add in some cream in small additions, stirring each time until you have added 2 cups. Then I would season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and honestly might want to add an egg yolk. Will emulsify the sauce and add a little flavor. I know eggs are taboo for cream-type sauces for some reason but as long as you add the egg after turning the burner heat off/pan off the hot stove, you should be fine. I would add the egg towards when you are going to serve it if you are going to let the sauce sit for a while. I would second the nutmeg suggestion and also add a pinch of cayenne and/or dry mustard powder if desired.

>>9640175
I mean my question is really what is the difference between a roux cream sauce and not...does it really do much for the flavor or is the roux more for thickening

>>9640075
>When you make a sauce like that can you keep it in a small pot covered on lowest heat to keep it warm?
Yes.

>>9640175
A roux is totally unnecessary here since parm-reg melts well. You only need the roux if you're trying to stabilize a cheese that tends to split when melted. All you're doing with the roux is making more work for yourself and covering up the flavor of the ingredients with flour.

>>9640179
Roux is used to stabilize (emulsify) a sauce which tends to break. It also adds thickening. That's important for some things--for example, if you want to make mac and cheese with cheddar. But it's totally pointless and actually counterproductive for this specific application.

General roux info:
A light or "blond" roux isn't cooked very much. It has minimal flavor but a lot of thickening power. The longer you cook it the more flavor it will create but the worse its thickening/emulsifying properties will be. A golden brown roux, IMHO, would introduce an unwanted flavor here, but it would be great if you were making a gravy for a roast dish, for example. A really dark roux, like you'd use for gumbo, has a very strong flavor.

>>9640194
Thanks for the explanation, well worded

I'll take a faggy picture of my ravioli after my girlie gets home if thread is alive

>>9640329
Next time make your own ravioli from scratch

>>9640375
don't like pasta enough to do this, but it would probably get my dick sucked pretty good. don't you need some kind of ravioli maker

>>9640417
>don't you need some kind of ravioli maker
What makes you think you need that? You roll out your pasta, put little dollops of filling on half of it, then fold the other half over the top. Press it down, then cut the raviolis apart. There are tools for this but you can use a knife, cookie cutter, or even the rim of a drinking glass or can.

>>9640424
if they don't have little ruffled edges it's bitch nigga shit

>>9640194
A little off topic but I made gumbo recently. The taste was fine dont get me wrong, but i felt the dark roux was a waste of time and kind of gross. It was an extra cup of vegetable oil and flour added to the gumbo. Tons of extra calories and oil for almost no reason. It also took over an hour to make the roux constantly stirring. The final product tasted nice, but it wasnt much different than a regular gravy flavor and i felt so much oil was completely unnecessary and kind of grossed me out.

>>9640483
Try using only 1/2 cup oil and flour next time. If you really want gumbo you have to have that dark roux in some measurable quantity or it's really just a stew.

>>9640590
Yeah I will try that if I make it again. I have never had a real authentic gumbo before so I don't have a reference on how its supposed to taste. It tasted like a slightly spicy thick sausage and chicken stew to me.

>>9640483
>>9640590
>>9640742
There are many variations on gumbo, but if you mentioned that you couldn't notice the difference between regular gravy and "gumbo" then something went very wrong.

Also, using "oil" isn't very tasty. Use something more flavorful, like reserved bacon dripping or duck fat. The calories shouldn't matter much; 1 cup fat + 1 cup flour makes a massive number of servings of gumbo. The amount of added cals per serving wouldn't be very much.

You can also cook your roux much faster. 1 full hour implies you had it on extremely low heat. Crank that shit up; you can get it properly dark in 10-15 min so long as you are constantly stirring.

>>9640763
I was under the impression that the roux should be cooked slowly to avoid little darker bits of roux that start to form on the bottom that you scrape up. Bacon/duck fat does sound like a better idea, next time I will try that. Lots of recipes I found just said to use vegetable oil. I did have a huge pot of gumbo probably 15 servings or more but it was just off putting to me.

>>9640814
>to avoid little darker bits of roux that start to form on the bottom that you scrape up
That's only a problem if you don't stir constantly. If you are stirring constantly then it's not possible for anything to burn or stick to the bottom of the pot.

>>Lots of recipes I found just said to use vegetable oil.
I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but most recipes you find online suck. There's nothing surprising about this.

I'll post one of my previous gumbo cookings. First off, the veggies.

>>9640824
Garlic here. Normal on the left, smoked on the right.

>>9640829
Whack with the flat of the cleaver to smash the garlic. (or, if you're a glutton for punishment, use your garlic press or mince it with a knife)

>>9640834
Veg all cut up and ready to go.

From left to right: celery, green pepper, onion, shallot. Garlic on top.

>>9640838
Meats. Boneless skinless chicken thigh on top, smoked boudin on the left, smoked andoullie on the right.

Boudin in gumbo is fairly rare, but I like how it thickens the gumbo compared to using okra or file powder. I was taught this trick by an old lady in St. Amant parish.

>>9640847
Cut up the chicken

>>9640853
Lard in the pot.

>>9640858
Brown the chicken well. I'm doing this in 2 batches so I don't overcrowd the pot.

>>9640861
One batch done. Repeat for the rest of the chicken.

>>9640863
Cut up the andoullie

>>9640867
Brown it the same way.

>>9640872
Cut up the boudin but don't brown it. (if you try, it will probably do nothing more than make a sticky mess in the bottom of your pot)

>>9640874
Other ingredients ready. The green stuff is parsley, the lower left is about 1 quart of strong homemade beef stock

OP here. FUCK, my heavy cream is bad. I just opened it a week ago! Another $2.50 or so down the drain.

Do any of you guys use powdered heavy cream? I throw away half the pint literally every single time I buy it

>>9640878
Time to make the roux. If your cooking fat doesn't have any burnt bits in it then use that. If it does have burnt bits then clean out your pot and get fresh fat. Here I have 1/2 cup lard + 1/2 cup flour.

>>9640881
I've never seen powdered cream before. Powdered dairy products are usually nonfat because fat would go rancid, so that sorta defeats the point.

>>9640889
Whisk like a mofo. I like the ball-end whisk because it can get into the corners of the pot.

>>9640892
Keep going....
this pic is after about 10 min, if even that long.

>>9640897
Forgot pic like a moron.

>>9640889
it exists, various varieties have 4 star ratings on amazon with roughly 10% of people saying its nasty and unusable

>>9640900
Keep cooking and stirring until it gets a dark brown. The shiny pot & the flash make this look lighter in color than it really is. I try and match the color of an old tarnished penny. Dark brown, but not black.

>>9640903
Get the veg in.
Mix it up and cook it out for about 10 min or so.

>>9640901
Interesting. I would expect it would probably taste awful since they must be doing something fishy to deal with the fat rancidity problem. I suggest checking your fridge temp with a known good thermometer. It should last far longer than a week.

>>9640913
Keep stirring.
I actually think this is the most tricky part of cooking the gumbo. Here it can burn just as easy as cooking the roux alone, but you absolutely need to do this step otherwise the texture will be wrong later on. Keep cooking until the onions are translucent. Stir often so it doesn't stick or burn.

>>9640922
When you see the onions go translucent add a big handful of chopped parsley and about a quarter cup of Worcestershire sauce. Cook it out for another 2-3 min or so. Note the steam from the high heat.

>>9640929
At this point we're ready to continue.

>>9640933
Meats & tomatoes go in. Pour the stock in too.
Get it simmering.

>>9640939
While you're waiting on that, bust out the green onions.

>>9640943
Slice 'em.
You've got your rice cooking already, right? Good.

>>9640948
Here we are after about an hour of simmering. The chicken is good and tender. Add the green onions a couple min before serving.
Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.

>>9640956
Rice in the bottom of the bowl, gumbo on top. Done!

>>9640958
That looks fucking dank bro.

>>9640958
interesting, thanks for posting that, i will try it.