guidelive.com
August 2008
S M T W T F S
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

Previous entries


Recent Posts

Big Tex Awards: Getting fried at the Fair

Jennifer Schaertl's 'Crappy Little Kitchens'

Why it pays to ask questions at ethnic markets

Book signing with a cheese maven this Saturday

Local mom dishes on family friendly restaurants

My RW adventure: Craft

Update on Casey Thompson

New Mighty Leaf flavors

Restaurant Week: two down, one to go

Slow Food Nation gears up in San Francisco


Categories

Best in DFW

Cooking

Dining Talk

Events

KRLD Restaurant Week

Restaurant News

Restaurant Reviews

Shopping

State Fair of Texas

Television

Texas Foods

Wine & Spirits


GuideLive.com
Entertainment Blogs


« A midweek chat with Tim Love | Main | Savor Dallas: Say hi to Frei Bros.' ex-Texan »

Sara Roahen rouxs the day ...

5:44 PM Thu, Mar 06, 2008 |  | 
Bill Addison   E-mail   News tips
Sara Roahen.jpg

I attended a cooking class at Central Market last night taught by Sara Roahen, whose eloquent book, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, came out last month. (A review of the book will appear in this Sunday's paper.)

Roahen and her editor debated whether to include recipes in the book and ultimately decided against it. But because she'd already developed some of the recipes, Roahen makes a deal with readers who buy her book: Send her a copy of the receipt and she'll send you back recipes.

Those of us at the cooking class got to sidestep that bargain. We got a packet of recipes and a six-course meal while Roahen demonstrated the dishes of her adopted city.

Much of the evening's discussion centered around roux, that blend of fat and flour that gets more mysteriously fragrant and complex the longer you cook it. She used a blond, butter-based roux for a subtle cream soup of fresh artichokes and oysters. A medium-dark roux made with bacon drippings paved the way for a sherry-scented crawfish bisque worth of a formal meal.

And the last one - "as dark as I am brave enough to make," confessed Roahen - provided the foundation for the seafood and okra gumbo. This one, made simply with vegetable oil, was the one to watch, literally.

"You want to burn it, but you don't want it to be burnt," was how Roahen characterized the dark roux, which she or an assistant stirred for about 30 minutes until it was a shade lighter than dark chocolate. It had filled the room with a nutty, rich scent. She noted that those gumbos that turn out almost inky black are typically reserved for restaurant cooking: "The darker the roux, the thinner the gumbo. The lighter the roux, the thicker the gumbo."

Of course, she made sure to say that there are never any fast rules regarding gumbo. Some folks use all three classic thickeners - roux, okra, file powder (ground sassafras leaves) - in their gumbo. Others think that's blatant heresy. Ditto the debate about the inclusion of tomatoes: Some feel that citified, but Roahen knows some country-living Cajuns who throw them in the pot.

The Central Market cooking school staff did sprinkle some file on each serving, so we considered ourselves duly heretical. I wish I'd had more than a small cup of this elixir - I haven't had much luck finding good gumbo in restaurants here. Time to make some myself, I suppose.

For more thoughts on true gumbo, check out the work Roahen did for the Southern Foodway's Alliance oral history projects here.


Leave comment

Comments limited to 30 words or less are preferred.





Type the characters you see in the picture above.

  

E-mail entry:

Message (optional):
Send to e-mail address:
 Your e-mail address:
 

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://dev.beloblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/75668
Advertisement
Entertainment
on the Web

Spotlight