How to make a ROUX (ROO)

Want to know the secrect to good Cajun cooking? a good roux! Pronounced "roo".

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Heavy pot
• flour
• oil

1. First, measure about 1 cup cooking oil in your pot. It could be canola, vegetable, corn...whatever you normally use. Then measure a little more than 1 cup of flour and mix with a whisk to the oil.

2. The trick is to watch it closely. Put the heat on medium for now. Stir the flour/oil mixture frequently. Almost constantly! It'll start to get a little clumpy looking. That's what it's suppose to look like. Keep stirring. When it starts to brown, you can turn the fire down a little just to keep it from burning.

3. Keep stirring! When it gets about the color of milk chocolate, you are very close so keep stirring. You can probably turn the heat off at this point because the oil will continue to stay hot. But keep stirring. If it gets a rich brown color (and doesn't smell burnt) then you've got it! This is the base for a gumbo or gravy (fricasse) and lots of other great Cajun dishes.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a chopped onion handy to throw in at the end. This will transfer the heat to the onion and keep the roux from burning.
• WARNING! Don't burn the roux!! The smell is obnoxious!