This week I am not going to review any restaurant but would like to write about thickening agents that we use to thicken sauces, soups, stews, desserts etc. What started as a food tasting adventure at a restaurant turned out to be this column. You see, I went to eat at a restaurant that had some good and some not so good items on the menu and the food that they serve was both Thai and Western. The chefs and the owners learned how to cook Western food from books and various cooking classes. I am sure that the owner who knew how to cook is very good but as the business expanded a “chef” was needed to make all the food in bulk. These Thai chefs did not have very deep knowledge Western cooking processes and techniques. They came armed with only knowledge of cooking handed down to them from working at Western style restaurants, hotels and from the head chefs.

             There is also a belief amongst Thai chefs that they should not impart all knowledge of cooking to trainees or aspiring chefs because if they became better than the master did, the master would be out of a job! Consequently, most Thai chefs who had no formal training in culinary arts are not fully equipped to understand the food that they are cooking nor are they equipped with all the technical knowledge required to execute recipes and correct their mistakes. I wish there were cooking schools in Thailand that teach aspiring chefs the proper ways of cooking and prepare them fully to become true chefs in every sense of the word. We Thais complain that other races are benefiting from the popularity of Thai food by claiming their restaurant to be Thai something abroad. In order to rectify this, we should school aspiring Thai chefs in the international standard of cooking as a basis of learning the system.

             Then, we should have another school which teaches Thai cuisine in the modern way by explaining the whys as well as the how to cook Thai food. We don’t even have a Thai version of Larousse Gastranomique! We don’t even have dictionary of technical terms nor do we have a dictionary that describes what a Tom Yum Kong is! Or what the original recipe of Tom Yum Kung was and how many variations there are! Here I go again going off on the standard of Thai cooking schools and the perception of most Thais on Chefs and Chef schools.

             Well, let’s go back to my original subject. I ordered a plate of mussels in marinara sauce and although the mussels were fresh and well cooked the sauce tasted starchy. I asked if they had put flour into the sauce to make it thick and the answer was just a little. I went on to explain that Italian tomato sauce need not be thick and starchy. It should taste fresh and light but very flavorful. The reason why I could detect the taste of flour of the sauce was the fact that, if the chef really want to thicken the sauce he had two choices. One, he could just simmer and reduce the sauce until it thickens. Two, if he must, he needs to cook the flour that he adds to the sauce in fat, olive oil or butter. Then add the thin sauce to this “roux” and using a wire wisk beat the roux into the liquid and bring the sauce back to a boil while stirring. This beating of the whip prevents the liquid lumping up. Any sauce that has this kind of thickening agent “roux” needs to come back to a boil and need to boil to cook out the starch in the sauce.

             The use of flour cooked in fat to make a roux has been one of the techniques of thickening soups and sauces for ages. This roux is what thickens the milk in you white sauce or what chefs correctly call Bechamel sauce. When you cook the flour in butter use medium heat and cook until the flour bubbles in the butter. The trick to a smooth white sauce is that when you add the milk to the roux, you should add cold milk or milk at room temperature and all at once not a little at a time. At this point you stir with a wire wisk to evenly distribute the roux particles in the liquid, raise the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes to a boil and boil it out to cook the starch about 5-10 minutes.

             Season the sauce with salt pepper and a little ground nutmeg and a dash of Tabasco to cut the richness. From this mother sauce you can make a cheese sauce, correctly called Mornay by adding grated cheese to your sauce. Once you understand how to use roux you can make fish stew, beef stew, or cream soups easily. Remember that recipes are only guidelines for cooking certain named dishes. Once you understand the reasons and techniques new recipes from your own imagination is limitless.