Rue Alternatives

[jhunter46]

I'm making a basic Béchamel sauce base for some mac and cheese tonight. I haven't made a rue with GF flour before. Does it work as well as regular flour?

How does cornstarch work in a rue, has anyone tried it before?

[Fidissimus]

I find that bean flours work better in making a rue than corn or potato starch. The starches make a nice glaze but don't give it an opaque feel like you'd find in a gravy. Depending on the manufacturer some of the All Purpose GF flours work well too.
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Cheers!
Jenn

GF BD: Feb. 2001
Free of wheat, barley, rye, oats, dairy, eggs, almonds, pineapple and brewers yeast.
http://graindamaged.blogspot.com/

[cruelshoes]

The Gluten Free Girl has a recipe using a basic bechamel sauce on her Blog. It's pretty much identical to the one I found on GlutenFreeda. Both simply call for "gluten free flour" for their roux. I would use an all-purpose blend. Starches alone would give the wrong mouthfeel. For all-purpose flour, I use the brown rice flour blend (2 parts brown rice flour / 2/3 part potato starch / 1/3 part tapioca flour).

Please let us know how your recipe turns out!
_________________
-Colleen
Dx 8/05 via bloodwork/biopsy
10-YO son Dx 11/05 via bloodwork/biopsy
Daughters (12 and 2) have neg. bloodwork

A woman is like a tea bag-you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. - Eleanor Roosevelt

[jhunter46]

Not bad. Started with four tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

Added four table spoons of All purpose GF flour mix. Cooked the rue for about five minutes.

Stirred in two and a half cups of milk, whisked constantly until thickened.

I then whisked in about 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese one handful at a time, making sure each was melted in before adding the next.

Cooked my pasta to just underdone, drained and rinsed and folded it into the sauce.

Added the mixture to a casserole, topped with the cheddar and baked for 20 minutes.

A few thoughts.

I still had a cereal taste on the backend. This could have been from undercooking the rue or the gf flour. More milk might help as well.

Finding something to cover with for a crunch might work as well.

I used sharp cheddar, but I didn't get that whole taste, I may try a mix of cheese next time. Perhaps a sharp cheddar and a colby or gouda.

Overall, I was pretty happy with it for a first go around.

[aklap]

Hi J,

Glad to hear it went reasonably well for your 1st GF Rue. Undercooking it will give you a floury taste. Although 5 minutes, should be long enough...

Peg's got a Bette Hagman Mac n Cheese recipe thats pretty good. We'll have to see if we can find it.
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[The Edifying Conscience]

When I need a roux I always use sweet rice flour. It holds up to heat quite well, stays thickened (unlike cornstarch) and refrigerates well. Like Al, I tend to think cooking a roux for 5 minutes should have killed the flour taste. Did your mix include strong tasting flours? Also did you season the roux?

[celiacmaine-iac]

I just made a roux the other night using the Wendy Wark flour blend, and it came out just fine. I think a 6-2-1 blend would work equally well. I've also found while experimenting that roux doesn't require as much butter as called for. I consistently use about 1/2 the amount of butter, and get the same result. Also to get a perfect roux every time, heat the milk in the microwave for a minute or two. Using cold milk can cause a roux to fail. And I agree with Al, under-cooking will give you a raw flour taste.

For meat based gravies I've used sorghum flour with very good results. I just use it measure for measure like wheat flour. No one could tell the difference with the turkey gravy I made for Thanksgiving. I also add no fat to my gravies now, and I skim almost all the fat off my pan drippings too. I cannot tell any difference in flavor when making gravies this way, and it's a lot healthier. The flavor really comes from the drippings.

For crunch you could make some GF croutons or crumbs for the top. I'm also thinking some crushed up GF pretzels tossed in a little melted butter might work. For the casserole I made the other night I used some cheese crackers that I made. It worked fine.

Steph

[aklap]

We really like sweet rice flour for thickening gravies too. Peg said it works better than wheat flour
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[Jags]

I use Red Mill's GF bisquit mix, although if you want a dark roux you will have to add a little sugar to help it brown.
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Peace
Big Jon

[Fifi]

crushed up potato chips might give that crunchy topping also. I miss gravies, I'm glad for the ideas! Thanks

[Tori]

On the bake of my mochito box (sweet rice flour) there is a recipe for a roux. So I assume that would work.