Dark Chocolate Pizza Sauce – Deep Dish Pizza

Dark Chocolate Pizza Sauce - Deep Dish Crust

To say that I adore Pizza is putting it mildly! Pizza is right up there with Prime Rib for me! I use Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Bloody Mary Mix to make my Marinara sauce which makes master pieces of my Lasagna and my Italian Sausage Fettuccini, soooooo, I figured I could do the same with my pizza by using the same sauce, and I did! This is Pizza perfected. The sauce makes it delectable! Enjoy.

Pizza Dough for Bread Machine

Ingredients

1 cup luke warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast or 1 packet

Directions

Put beer, butter, sugar, salt, flour, and yeast in a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough setting, and press Start.

Remove dough from bread machine when cycle is complete. Press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover and let stand 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Spread sauce and toppings on top of dough. Bake until crust is lightly brown and crispy on the outside, about 20 minutes.

Topped with fresh Cilantro

Ingredients

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1.5 cups of Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Bloody Mary Mix

1 can Tomato paste (I use Hunts)

¼ cup onions (diced)

1 tsp Oregano

½ cup of Basil leafs (chopped) (may substitute with fresh parsley)

½ cup White wine (dry)

2.5 Tbsp Garlic (minced)

2 cup mushrooms sliced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions

In oil sauté garlic and onion for 5 minutes, add mushrooms and simmer 3 minutes. Add Bloody Mary Mix, tomato paste, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, white wine. Simmer covered for 20 – 25 minutes.

CHOCOLATE PUMPKIN PIE with Gingersnap Cookie Crust

This year instead of doing the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, it should come as no surprise to you, if you are familiar with Donya Marie’s Beyond Chocolate, knowing that I will put chocolate in just about anything!  This is good, it’s real good, but I will warn you, that if you have your mind wrapped around a traditional pumpkin pie for the Holidays, then you will want to make this for another occasion.

Pie Crust:

2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs

1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter in a small bowl. Press onto bottom and up sides of a 9″ pie plate and bake for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Pie:

2 tbsp. flour

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie spice

1 can pumpkin (16 oz.)

1 Gingersnap cookie crust pie shell

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 c. half and half or canned milk

2/3 c Donya Marie’s Beyond Chocolate Original Decadence Chocolate Sauce

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin in a medium bowl. Mix well. Add eggs. Stir in half and half and chocolate. Mix thoroughly and pour into pie shell. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 40 minutes longer, until custard tests done. This is a new twist to an old favorite.

Dark Chocolate Eggplant Parmesan

I love Eggplant Parmesan and I love Dark Chocolate so why NOT, I ask you? At the suggestion of a talented friend of mine, I decided to try making a ‘Marinara’ sauce, using my Dark Chocolate Bloody Mary Mix as a base.  My friend said it would be awesome and she was so very right! I was delighted with the results! I have used my Dark Chocolate Marinara Sauce in many dishes and the Dark Chocolate Egg Plant Parmesan is just one that I would like to share with you today.

EGGPLANT PARMESAN
1 medium eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch-thick round slices
Salt, as needed
3.5 cups fresh breadcrumbs
½ Tblsp dried oregano
½ Tblsp dried thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
All-purpose flour for dredging
4 large eggs, beaten
2 Tblsp whole milk
Vegetable oil, as needed
3.5 cups Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate MARINARA SAUCE, recipe follows
1 cup grated Parmesan, divided
½ pound fresh mozzarella, grated

Arrange the eggplant slices on baking sheets and sprinkle generously all over with salt. Set aside to let the bitter juices weep from the eggplant, about 1 hour.

Transfer the eggplant to a colander in the sink, and rinse well under cold running water. Transfer eggplant to a work surface and blot very dry with paper towels.

In a large bowl, whisk together 1/2 teaspoon salt, breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, and season with pepper.

In a large straight-sided skillet, pour the oil to a depth of 1/2 inch. Heat the oil over medium heat until it registers 400 degrees F on a deep frying thermometer. (The oil must be heated to 400 degrees F. so that the breaded eggplant, when added, will drop the temperature of the oil to the proper frying temperature of 375 degrees F.)

Place the flour in a medium lipped plate or bowl. In another medium bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Dredge an eggplant slice in the flour, then dip it in the egg, and finally dredge it in the breadcrumb mixture. Shake off any excess breading and transfer the eggplant to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining eggplant.

Working in small batches, fry the eggplant slices, turning once, until golden brown, about 3 minutes per batch. Using tongs, transfer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and season with salt to taste. Repeat with the remaining eggplant.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cover the bottom of a 10 x 10- x 2-inch-baking dish with 1/3 of the marinara sauce and arrange the eggplant over the sauce. Cover the eggplant with another 1/3 of the sauce. Scatter half of the Parmesan and half of the mozzarella over the sauced eggplant. Repeat with another layer of eggplant, sauce, Parmesan, and mozzarella. Bake until hot and just beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

DARK CHOCOLATE MARINARA SAUCE
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cups of Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Bloody Mary Mix
1 can Tomato paste
¼ cup onions (diced)
1 tsp Oregano
½ cup of Basil leafs (chopped) (may substitute with fresh parsley)
½ cup White wine (dry)
2.5 Tbsp Garlic (minced)
2 cups mushrooms sliced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

In oil sauté garlic and onion for 5 minutes, add mushrooms and simmer 3 minutes. Add Bloody Mary Mix, tomato paste, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, white wine. Simmer covered for 20 – 25 minutes.

Dark Chocolate Maple Ice Cream Cake

There are so many of our customers love our Dark Chocolate Maple Pancake Syrup on vanilla ice cream, so I decided it was time for a recipe incorporating the two!  Oh my….what a sinfully delightful and scrumptious treat this one is, and so easy!

 RECIPE

1 Duncan Heinz chocolate cake mix

1 bottle Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Maple Pancake Syrup

1 qt vanilla ice cream

 Prepare cake per instructions on cake box.

 Line a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap, allowing a 4-inch overhang on all sides; freeze the pan.

Using a food processor, pulse 7 ounces Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Maple Pancake Syrup and the vanilla ice cream until well blended, transfer half the mixture to a bowl and place in the freezer. Remove the loaf pan from the freezer and spread the remaining mixture in an even layer on the bottom.

Trim the short ends of the cake bread and discard. Cut the cake crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Add slices of the cake to fit evenly in a single layer in the pan, trimming as necessary. Press the cake down gently onto the ice cream. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Spoon the reserved ice cream mixture on top of the cake layer. Cover with a second layer of cake, then wrap with the overhanging plastic. Keep any leftover cake for snacking or freeze for the next ice cream cake.) Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Unwrap the top of the cake and invert the cake onto a serving platter. Peel off the plastic wrap. Drizzle with the Dark Chocolate Maple Pancake Syrup.

To remove ice cream cake from a pan, briefly hold the bottom and sides of the pan under hot running water. Invert on a plate and gently tug on the exposed plastic wrap, then pull the pan away and peel off the wrap.

Dark Chocolate Spicy Meat Rub in Coffee Bark?

 

It began innocently enough. Making peppermint bark started out as a tradition of home-made gifts to give to family and friends. It was when Cyndi Arno began receiving requests to make it for others to give as home-made gifts, that her husband began encouraging her to market her bark.

She then learned of a fund-raiser, “Death by Chocolate”, where she brought over a thousand samples for attendees to taste. It’s put on by the Rotary Club and 25 local chefs, with different categories and chocolate galore. She went home with two awards that night, the most exciting being 2nd place with the Peoples Choice!

I met Cyndi while doing a demo of my products for a store in Sun Valley, Idaho.  She and her husband were shopping.  They were intrigued with my line of products and decided to stop and sample the goodness.  Cyndi engaged me in a lengthy conversation about business and we traded business information.  Since that time we have shared information and traded product (I’d be crazy to pass up her bark!).  I have watched her business grow in leaps and bounds.  She had many requests from her customers to come out with a spicy bark.  Cyndi is not new to the world of business; when her customers talk, she listens.  Having had Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Spicy Meat Rub before, she decided to give it a try in her bark.  The result was her “Hot Coffee Bark” and I’m here to tell you, that even I was skeptical!  Can you believe that coming from me!  When I tasted it, it was like coming home to Donya Marie’s!  WOW.  She has another winner!

The Hot Toffee Bark is for those coffee lovers who like everything hot. It has a rich thick layer of Guittard dark chocolate, topped with Guittard white chocolate that is blended with lightly broken fresh dark roast coffee beans and coffee flavoring, but also a dash of hot sauce flavoring that is specially made for chocolate. Then topped with a generous sprinkling of slightly broken rich dark roast coffee beans. This is a bark that bites.

What sets Cyndi’s bark apart from others is giving each flavor a crunchy topping that matches the flavoring of the respective bark.  This gives a texture that makes it impossible not to get each morsel of flavor out of the bark rather than letting it partially melt and then swallowing before you’ve had a chance to benefit from all of the flavors married together with the chocolate.  It serves to enhance the chocolate experience.

Dark Chocolate Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken pot pies bring back great memories for many of us.  I always wanted to make one that was heartier than what I have ever had in restaurants or from the frozen food section of the grocery.  Don’t let the Dark Chocolate Meat Rub throw you off.  If you’ve been with me for a while, you already know that I use my meat rubs as all purpose spices in my kitchen, not because I want a chocolaty dish every time, but because they give great flavor to the dishes I prepare.

I was fortunate enough to obtain my stewing hen from McClaskey’s Glads.  They dont’ just raise the most beautiful gladiolas around, they also raise laying hens.  The stewing hen, a mature hen of 10 months or more is ‘put out to pasture’ so to speak when it is no longer considered a good laying hen, but in this case, it was ‘put into Donya’s kettle’!  Cindy and Mark McClaskey are local growers here in the Treasure Valley of Idaho.  They practice farming methods that are much better and safer than the large “corporate’ chicken farmers.  I know and trust there products.  Please try to purchase your products locally from small farmers.  We need to support the small farmer so they keep putting healthy food in our kitchens.

Recipes for dishes similar to chicken pot pie date back to the medieval era. Savory pies were an important element of any royal chef’s repertoire.  Recipes for chicken pie can be found as early as 1796.  The earliest recipe for a pot pie is found in 1839, and it is for a sweet, not savory, pie.  The first chicken pot pie recipe is from 1877, although it is very likely the dish was prepared long before.  Pot pies were baked in a deep pot lined with crust.  The purpose of the crust was to protect the food from the flavor of the metal; initially, it was not eaten. The first frozen pot pie was made by Swanson in 1951.

Recipe

1/2 cup potato, diced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup chopped carrot

1/3 cup melted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chicken stock (recipe below)

1/2 cup half-and-half

½ tsp dried thyme leaves

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 – 9 inch pie crusts (either store bought or your own recipe)

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sauté onion, carrots and potatoes in butter for 10 minutes.

Add flour to sautéed mixture, stirring well.  Cook one minute stirring constantly.  Combine broth and half and half.

Gradually stir into vegetable mixture.  Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in peas, salt and pepper; add chicken and stir well.

Pour into shallow 9″ pie dish with crust on bottom and top with 2nd pie crust.  Cut slits to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 45 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

NOTE:  Can make these in pot pie tins and it make three.  Freeze these before baking.  When baking frozen pies, place on baking sheet and bake at 375F for about 50 minutes.

 

Chicken Stock

1 Stewing hen

3 large carrots (roughly chopped)

5 stalks celery (roughly chopped)

1 large onion (roughly chopped)

1 large red bell pepper (roughly chopped)

2 Tblsp minced garlic

2 Tblsp Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Meat Rub (Spicy or Double flavor)

Place above ingredients into large pot and cover with water.  Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and simmer 5 hours or more.  De-bone chicken and strain stock.  Freeze stock not used for future recipes.

Crunchy French Toast with Dark Chocolate Maple or Huckleberry Syrup

An all time favorite meal for me has always been breakfast.  But out of all the breakfast choices, French Toast is my very “mostest” favorite (yes ‘mostest’ is now a word!).  Most of us are familiar with French Toast being bread dipped in egg, and often with milk and sugar added, and then fried in butter or oil. 

Depending on what part of the world you are from it could have an all together different recipe. 

In Hungary, it is “Bundáskenyér” (Coated bread) and is made with salt and pepper, and usually served with onions and tomatoes, mayonnaise, or ketchup.  In India, the version is salted rather than sweet. The egg is beaten with milk, salt, green chili and chopped onion.  Bread is dunked into this mixture and is deep fried in butter or cooking oil. It is served with ketchup.  

In France, Belgium, New Orleans, Acadiana, Newfoundland and the Congo a similar but distinctive food is called pain perdu, or “lost bread”, since it is a way to reclaim stale, “lost”, bread: hard bread is softened by dipping in a mixture of milk and eggs, then fried. The bread is sliced on a bias and dipped into a mixture of egg, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. The slices are pan-fried in butter and traditionally served dusted with powdered sugar and with jam on the side. Alternatively it may be served with syrup.

The following recipe is my own, inspired by a friend who is an awesome cook and known for her wonderful scones (which I’ve been craving).

Crunchy French Toast (makes 4 pieces)

4 large slices Sour Dough Bread

1/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

1/4 cup Grapenut cereal

1/4 cup almonds

1 Tblsp vanillia extract

1/8 tsp almond extract

2 tsp sugar

3 eggs

3 Tblsp cup milk

1/4 cup oil

Donya Marie’s Maple or Huckleberry Pancake Syrup

In a food processor or electric chopper, combine coconut, Grapenuts, almonds and chop/grind finely.  Place into 9″ pie plate.  In second pie plate combine eggs, vanilla & almond extracts, and milk, whisking until throughly mixed.

Heat skillet with oil over medium heat.  Dip bread into egg mixture, making sure to coat both sides, then dip bread into Grapenut mixture, making sure to coat both sides.  Place bread into skillet.  Turn once, browning both sides well.

Top with Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Maple or Huckleberry Pancake Syrup.

DARK CHOCOLATE STOCK: TYPES OF STOCK

The legendary French master chef Auguste Escoffier once said, “Stock is everything in cooking.  Without it, nothing can be done.”  In this modern day of convenience, many kitchens that no longer do their own butchering use commercial chicken or beef bases in lieu of stock.  Some discriminating home cooks still observe the stock ritual to maintain high-quality cuisine, not mention healthy.

There are four main types of stock:

Brown:  Made from oven-browning beef marrow and other bones (and often veal) before adding to water with vegetables, herbs, spices, and sometimes dry wine.

White:  Blanched veal (frequently a combination that includes poultry and beef bones) bones form the basis for this light stock.

Chicken:  Obtained from simmering poultry wings, backs, and necks with vegetables and seasonings.  Dry white wine is often an ingredient in my kitchen!

Fish:  Quicker and simpler to prepare, it is derived from poaching fish, and frequently bony parts as well, in seasoned water with dry white wine.

If my stock will be used in a dish I wish to have a hint of chocolate in, I use my dark chocolate double meat rub in the stock while simmering the stock makings.

To freeze your stock, simply remove congealed surface fat from chilled stock, place in containers leaving head space before sealing and freeze.  It’s convenient to freeze some of the stock in ice cube trays, then cubes can be used as needed.  Once the cubes are frozen, transfer them to ziplock freezer bags.

DARK CHOCOLATE CARNE ASADA

Carne Asada is a roasted beef dish, simply meaning “roasted meat”.  The dish mainly consists of pieces or thin cuts of beef, usually flank steak or skirt steak.  Sometimes marinated, sometimes lightly salted or rubbed  with pepper and/or spices, and then grilled. It can be eaten alone, with side dishes, chopped and eaten as tacos, or chopped and used as a filler for tortas, burritos, etc. It is usually accompanied with guacamole, salsa, beans, cilantro, onions, salsa and tortillas (corn or flour).

 The dish is commonly prepared in the northern parts of Mexico (in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Coahuila, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Texas.  It is sold at Mexican meat markets called “carnicerias” in the American Southwest; especially those states with Mexican/Mexican-American enclaves.

When purchasing Carne Asada from meat markets you can purchase meat that has already been marinated and seasoned or you purchase it un-prepared.  Buying the prepared meat takes all the fun out it, but does save you some time.  I like to have my own fun with it and put my own mark on it!

In Mexico and the American Southwest you will find that Carne Asada is the Mexican equivalent of Barbecue.  Traditionally a large fire pit is used to prepare this dish but you can use whatever you have.  Since everything is prepared over direct heat you don’t need a lid or a fancy grill.  If you are planning on a big party and want to have plenty of meat for everyone plan on about 1 pound of meat per person.  If you plan a lot of side dishes then you can cut back on the amount of meat you prepare.

A popular and good marinade for Carne Asada will have a lot of lime juice, garlic, onion and black pepper. Of course other fruit juices work great as well, like papaya, which makes the meat tender because papaya is a natural tenderizer.  You can add hot peppers to the marinade if you want but be careful you don’t over power the meat and make it too hot to appreciate.  Don’t add salt to your marinade.  Save this for the cooking stage.

Ideally the meat should be cooked over a charcoal fire.  Traditionally mesquite is used.  If all you have is a gas grill, not to worry - this will work fine.  When you get ready to grill you will want to have a course salt on hand (I use celtic sea salt).  You want to grill over a good, hot fire.  This dish cooks pretty quickly so have everything else to be served with your meal prepared before you start the meat on the grill.

Traditionally Carne Asada is grilled to well done.  In my opinion you get the best flavor when it’s grilled to well done (this is the only read meat dish I like well done).  Once you have the meat grilled to perfection you will want to take it straight to a carving board.  Cut the meat across the grain with a good sharp knife.  The pieces should be thin strips. Keep the meat warm in a heavy pot with a lid.  You don’t need to add heat but you want to hold in the heat you have.

Serve with warm tortillas and whatever fixings you prefer. A good Carne Asada taco would be in a homemade flour tortilla with homemade salsa, topped with guacamole.  If you have leftovers, make enchiladas the next day (I’ll save that for another blog!).

Now, I have tasted a lot of Carne Asada – being raised in Southern New Mexico/Arizona, so it’s not like I don’t have a corner on what it should taste like.  I have to say, hands down, the best Carne Asada I’ve ever tasted was using the recipe below.  The chocolate seriously added depth to the taste factor in the Carne Asada!  OH MY GAWD!  I’m hooked!  All of that being said, let us not forget the important role that the meat played in this particular recipe.  I used Carne Asada (un-prepared) from Hardtrigger Canyon, a local 900 acre ranch.  Hardtrigger cattle are grain fed; the meat is dry aged for 15 to 21 days; the owners raise all of the corn, hay, and barley that is fed to their cattle (using ‘no till’ farming), with the end result being, beef that is leaner, has increased tenderness, and is more flavorful.  Certainly a plus for this delectable dish.

DARK CHOCOLATE CARNE ASADA

This recipe is for 1 lb of Carne Asada

Marinade:

2 cups Lime juice

3 cloves of fresh Garlic (Mashed with the flat of your knife – do not chop, as you don’t want the garlice to get stuck to your meat and remain there while you are grilling – it will impart a bitter taste to your meat)

Seasoning:

3 Tblsp Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Meat Rub (your choice of flavor)

1/4 tsp cayenne

2.5 Tblsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 Tblsp Pepper

1 Tblsp Cocoa

1 Tblsp Onion powder

(note do not add salt to this mixture)

(For the Double Meat Rub – leave out the cayenne; use only 1 Tblsp of chili powder)

Mix together the cayenne, cumin and chili powder with the meat rub.  Mix the seasoning in with the marinade.  Place your meat in a zip lock back.  Pour the combination of marinade/seasoning into the bag.  Removing as much air as possible, seal and place the bag in the freezer for 8 hours or overnight (overnight is best).

Place the meat on the grill and when the juices start to rise on the surface, sprinkle with salt. When the salt liquefies on the surface flip the meat over and repeat. This seasons the meat as it cooks. Carne Asada is supposed to be on the salty side but this doesn’t mean that you need to drown the meat in salt.

Roux / Dark Chocolate Shrimp Etouffee

 

Roux

Roux (roo) is basically a thickening agent made from flour and oil.  It is used to thicken sauces, soups, stews.  It can also be used as a flavor enhancer depending on the color level the roux is cooked to.  Roux dates back over 300 years to French cuisine.

If you want to really make an award winning sauce, soup, or stew learn to make a roux.  It’s an extremely easy process that every home cook should know about and use.

The difference in a roux and other thickening agents is that the flour is cooked before use in other dishes.  Cooking the flour removes its raw taste.  The result is a smooth and delicate thickener.

Vegetable oil is generally used as the oil for a roux, but animal fats are also used.  When making a Roux it is best to make it in quantity, as this is easier to obtain the desired consistency and color.  If made in a small amount you run the risk of burning and not having a silky smooth roux.

The measurements for making a roux are 1 part flour and 1 part oil or animal fat in weight.  If you don’t have a kitchen scale to weigh this out then plan on 1 part oil/fat and 1 ¾ part flour (use all-purpose flour).

I usually make 1 cup oil/fat to 1 3/4 cup flour, as I like to make a bigger quantity so I don’t run the risk of burning.  You can store the roux in the fridge for up to 3 months and use as you need it.  If you don’t think you’ll use it within 3 months, share with your friend and give them your favorite recipe that you use the roux in.  Heat your oil/fat over medium heat until a sprinkle of the flour in the oil just begins to bubble.  Stir in 1-3/4 cups of flour to form a thick paste the consistency of cake frosting. Once you start the roux, DON’T leave it.  Get a glass of wine and stay put, hovering and stirring!

Continue stirring as the roux gently bubbles/foams and cooks to the color you desire (see below for colors and cooking times).  Do not allow the roux to bubble/foam too strongly, or it will burn rather than brown. 

Roux begins to thicken soon after it is combined with a liquid, but it must be simmered for 10 to 20 minutes for it to reach its full flavor and thickening potential.  This additional cooking time permits the flour to soften and absorb the liquid, resulting in a silky smooth soup or sauce.  If the simmering time is too short the flour in the roux will remain grainy.

To guarantee thickening without the lumps remember this general rule:  cold ingredients should always be added to hot.  When making roux as part of a recipe, the liquid ingredient must be cold or room temperature, and slowly whisked into the hot roux. Do this by adding the liquid a little at a time, stirring until smooth between each addition, until the roux forms a thin paste, then whisk in the remaining liquid and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cold or room temperature roux is stirred into a simmering soup or sauce until it dissolves. These methods make certain the roux is integrated slowly and the mixture will not form lumps.

When the roux has finished cooking, pour it into a metal or heatproof container and allow it to cool.  As it rests, the flour will begin to settle to the bottom, and the oil will rise to the surface.  Stir the oil back into the flour before using as this will make the roux dissolve smoothly.  If you decide to pour off the oil, the roux will still work, but it will require more stirring into a sauce in order to fully dissolve.

The amount of time the roux cooks determines the color of the roux.  There are four color levels a Roux can reach (your recipe will usually specify the color level to reach for):

White – used in light sauces/soups such as clam chowders, milk-based sauces, macaroni and cheese, classic white sauce.  Cooked around 5 minutes, just long enough to take away the raw taste of the flour.

Blonde – used for stock based stews, sauces, and soups.  Cooked around 20 minutes.  The color is most like lightly toasted bread.  This color level is the most commonly used because of it’s rich flavor (nutty), and the thickening power.

Brown – Used in Cajun and Creole dishes, hearty stews or chowders.  Cooked around 35 minutes, to obtain a peanut butter color.  The aroma of this colored roux is much nuttier than the blonde color.  Cooked for this amount of time the roux will lose some of it’s thickening power but give off a richer flavor, therefore more of the roux will need to be used to obtain the thickening power desired.

Dark brown – Used in Cajun and Creole dishes, and hearty stews and soups. Cooked around 45 minutes to the color of ‘dark brown’.  The end result is a faint chocolaty aroma!  This of course is one of my favorites!   The color of roux has less thickening power due to the length of time cooked but the flavor factor is intense.  This color level will give you a flavor enhancer first and thickening agent second.

Remember that the secret to a good roux is ‘patience’, as in slow and easy.  Cook it too fast and you burn it.  Set aside some time to make the roux.  This is why it is best to make it in quantity, then when you need it, it’s made and you can spend your precious time on the dish at hand.  I have tried cooking roux in aluminum, cast iron, stainless steel and Teflon pans and I have found that cast iron and stainless steel work best.  But then I don’t claim to be an expert either!

My favorite recipe that I make which uses a roux is my     

DARK CHOCOLATE SHRIMP ETOUFFEE:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 cups chopped onions

2 cups chopped green bell peppers

2 cups chopped celery

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Spicy Meat Rub

1 quart chicken stock

3 pounds medium shrimp (21 to 25 count per pound), peeled and de-veined

1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves

Steamed white rice, for serving

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion tops, for garnish

Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven set over medium heat. 

Add the flour and stir continuously to make a roux.  Stir the roux over medium heat until it is the color of peanut butter, 35 minutes.

Add the onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic to the roux, and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes to the pot and season with the bay leaves, salt, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon of Donya Marie’s Dark Chocolate Spicy Meat Rub.  Cook the tomatoes for 2 to 3 minutes and then whisk in the chicken stock.  Bring the mixture to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. 

Cook the etouffee, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.

Season the shrimp with the remaining tablespoon of Meat Rub and add them to the pot, stirring to evenly distribute. Cook the shrimp for 5 to 7 minutes, or until they are cooked through.

Add the chopped parsley to the pot and stir to combine.

Serve immediately over steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onion tops.