Rock and Roux

My Step-Dad, whom I from now on will call "Dad" because that's what I call him, has a philosophy that can best be defined as "Jackson Browne/John Lennon/Bob Seger/ Little Feat" with a touch of gourmet cooking thrown in.

Basically my Dad thinks everyone should know how to rock and they should know how to roux.

The "rock" part I never had a problem with. To prove that my Dad taught me how to rock, I would have no knowledge of Bob Seger, Johnny Lang, Little Feat, Sting, or Bryan Adams if it weren't for him. In fact, when I was in High School and I told him I wanted the new Pat Benetar album for Christmas, I thought I saw him grin from ear to ear. When I told him I wanted the new Rick Springfield for my birthday, I thought I saw him hang his head in shame.

The "roux" took me a little longer to catch on to. In fact, my Dad used to quote some cajun song that had a line that said, "Baby, can you roux?" and I had no idea what he was talking about.

But once I learned how to roux, I was rouxing all over the place.

A basic roux (that's french for "roo") is this:

For every Tablespoon of butter you melt in a pan, you must use a Tablespoon of flour and a Cup of Liquid.

What kind of liquid and other ingredients you use depends on you.

This is my most recent example:

My husband came home with a 7 pound (!) pork tenderloin that he found on sale in the grocery store. On sale is very big in my husband's family. If it's on sale, it must be good. But that's another blog.

Anyway, he found this pork tenderloin on sale and brought it home. I was actually excited because I like pork tenderloin and hey, half off is half off. After my meat buying fiasco with the meat truck (see previous blog), I wasn't about to criticize my husband for a great deal even if I did have NO IDEA what I was going to do with the thing.

I decided on cutting the huge hunk of meat in half and cooking one half one night and the other half the next night. I created a rub made of kosher salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and Turkish Seasoning (Google "Penzy's Spices"). I threw about 4 pounds of the pork in the oven at 350 degrees and cooked it for almost 2 hours.

But the awesome part of the meal was the roux. The sauce. The stuff that you pour on top that makes everything amazing.

Because we were having a friend over for dinner, I doubled my Dad's pork sauce recipe.
I melted 2 Tablespoons butter in a saucepan (don't let it burn) and added in 2 Tablespoons flour. Stir until the flour and butter are smooth and just barely beginning to bubble. Slowly pour in 2 cups of liquid of your choice. For this sauce it is 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup red wine, and 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce. Stir constantly on low-medium heat until sauce thickens and bubbles around the edges. Take off heat and then serve with meat.

YUM. I mean it. Yum.

Throw it over roasted garlic, rosemary, and onion cubed red potatoes too.

YUM!!

It's my Dad's recipe, so I can't take credit for it, but it makes me look like a darn good cook.

And it will make you look like a darn good cook too.