Congratulations! It's hard to do because it's burns in a split second. Can't wait to see pics.

Oops! It's the New Basics Brass Band, not the Dirty Dozen coming in.

But it's still Fat Tuesday, and we're living fat, despite the 14 inches of snow.

Congrats! Given that its Mardi Gras, I do believe I'll get gumbo fixings today. And a NOLA dessert...will report back.

But I'll microwave my roux

Way to go Alison! I bet everyone is going to love your Gumbo. Perfect Fat Tuesday fare.

Congrats, Alison! I'm jealous! Hope your arm has recovered. ;)

Tamara

Wait a minute... you can MICROWAVE ROUX?!

Learn something new everyday.
It looks a little lighter in the picture, in reality it's closer to dark chocolate than milk chocolate color.

Some of the folks here at work don't like shrimp, so I cheerfully ate their portion of shrimp. Since none of them have allergies, I didn't mention the shrimp stock. So far, everyone loves it and it's going fast.

(Thanks, Tamara; all my limbs are intact -- for the moment!)

Congrats! Making roux (and not burning it) is a major culinary milestone in my book. Your gumbo looks fabulous!
jo

After watching Karen stir for a decade (well, it seemed like a decade) when she made Gumbo for us in Tennessee, I can really appreciate the effort!

I have not been brave enough to try making it yet, but I do have the recipe and detailed instructions for when I am feeling particularly confident! LOL

Your Gumbo looks good, Alison!

Linda

The gumbo looks delicious, Alison, I don't have any doubt that it is going fast.

Since patience is not one of my strong points, my roux seldom gets past "tan", so I do appreciate the constant stirring and attention to get yours to dark chocolate. Good for you.

Now rest your arm, don't do anything more strenuous than picking up your wine glass (or other liquid refreshment of your choice).

Annie

Once I learned how to make a roux in the microwave, I stopped doing it on the stovetop. You CAN burn it in the microwave if you don't pay attention, but the microwave process tends to be more forgiving.

Here's how I do it:

Before starting the roux, get all your vegetables cut up--celery, onion, green pepper. Have them ready, because you'll be using them to 'quench' the roux and stop the cooking.

Take a large Pyrex glass measuring cup (say, 8 cups)--it needs to be about 3 or 4 times bigger than the volume of roux you're making. So if you're making a roux of 1 cup of oil and 1 cup of flour, an 8 cup measure is ideal. The timings I indicate are based on a roux of roughly 1 cup each of flour and oil, but you need to see how much energy your microwave has; a powerful microwave will, of course, cook things faster, so be on the lookout. And smaller amounts cook faster than larger amounts.

In the glass measure, mix roughly equal parts of flour and vegetable oil (I use peanut). Place it uncovered in the microwave, and microwave on HIGH for 2 or 3 minutes. It'll bubble and foam. (What you're doing is driving off the water molecules which are attached to the starch molecules.) Remove the measure, stir up with a fork, and return to the microwave and nuke for a minute. Once it stops foaming, then you need to pay close attention to the degree of browning going on. Remove it, mix it up again. As it starts to brown, cut back on the period that you nuke it--so you may be nuking it for periods of 3 minutes to start, then one minute for a time or two or three, then thirty seconds, then 20 seconds, 10 seconds, etc. until you reach the desired level of brown-ness.

Then, when it's as brown as you want it, remove the measure from the microwave and dump a good amount of the veggies in the roux. BE CAREFUL: it will release ungodly amounts of steam, and watch out for spatters; they don't call that stuff 'Cajun Napalm' for nothing. At this point, the coldness of the veggies (and the water content of the veggies) arrests the browning and it'll never get any browner. Mix up well, then add more veggies to get them coated. Add some stock to loosen it all up and tranfer the mixture to the gumbo pot.

I never bother being really precise with the amount of oil simply because about 10 minutes before the gumbo is finished I use a ladle and degrease the whole mess. (If you're cooking a gumbo with sausage, it will release a good amount of oil as well, so you need to do that degreasing step anyway. Oh, and don't bother making gumbo with one of those low-fat turkey sausages. It'll taste like hot dogs. If you're not going to use good sausage like andouille or good kielbasa, you're better off omitting the sausage, IMHO.)

Cool! Thanks, arley; I'll definitely try the microwave version when I next make gumbo -- I'm thinking of trying chicken and sausage next weekend.

I can't stop raving about the roux, tho'. I make a lot of soup, but they often feel a bit thin, aand lack a little bit of that 'mouth feel' you get in commercial soups with a lot of chemicals. Despite having only a 1/2 canola oil in a enormous Dutch oven full of soup, this has a wonderful, almost buttery taste. And I'm sure it's the richness of the roux that somewhat masks the fact I used about 4x the cayenne called for in the recipe -- there are so many other layers of taste going on you don't get the full kick of the cayenne until very late. (And I'm a notorious heat-hater!)

Now that I've got a recipe I like -- and a technique thaat seems practical -- I see a whole lot more gumbo in our future.

My co-workers thank you!

'Cajun napalm' roflmao! As she heads to the nuker....with looooooong gloves....

I've made this version of a microwave roux copied from an egullet foodblog. It's worked well for me but I do cut the final few intervals down to 30 and then 20 seconds. With those short cooking times, you have good control of the color at the end. It's been a while since I've made it but I don't think it took as long as twenty minutes in my microwave. The directions are about three quarters of the way down the linked page.

Lee

Take a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup. Put 2/3 cup of flour and 2/3 cup of oil/butter/fat. Stir with whisk, Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Whisk, Microwave for 2 minutes. Whisk, Once more. Then go to one minute intervals whisking in between till the color roux you want is achieved. In about 20 minutes you have a great roux without burning.................and much quicker than the 2 hours it used to take me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Microwave Roux

You probably know this, but the thickening power of roux decreases with how dark it is; medium brown rouxs thicken something more effectively than dark roux. Nothing keeps you from having two rouxs in one dish, though, if you want both thickness and a roasty dark flavor.

Congrats! That is definitely an accomplishment to be proud of!

Alexa

Arley.....whaddaya think of using a pressure cooker for Part II of a gumbo, after the roux and veggies/meats (bone in chicken?) are mixed....

Congratulations Alison, quiet an accomplishment!

I didn't know about the microwave roux. Alton Brown had a show on making a roux in the traditional oven though.

Jessy: it might work. Cook the meats in stock in the PC then add your roux/veggies mix, then mix everything together and adjust seasonings.

BTW, I may not have been really clear in the instructions above; as Lee notes in his post, after each nuking session, you need to stir or whisk the roux in the glass measure.

Yeah, I made a roux, once! LOL Back when I was young a friend and I took a Louisiana cooking class - Gumbo and parker house rolls are the only two things I remember learning about but there were a few other dishes. Oh yeah, and a bread pudding. Anyway, she and I got together to make everything we learned for a dinner party. It was fun but I learned that I don't want to make roux again. I guess that was over 25 years ago and I'm still holding on strong in my resolve to not make roux again.

35 minutes of stirring! Oh man!! But oh does that gumbo look delicious!