hi I'm Joanie Hilton your YouTube mom today I'm going to show you how to make something that's going to sound hard but it's not it's a roux and now you're going to think oh I know Roux that's that really dark sauce they use in Louisiana for all the Cajun cooking for Gumbo's and things it's not let me tell you about this kind of room this is a roux you're going to want to keep in your fridge like a staple like you keep milk in the fridge what it is it's equal parts butter and flour stirred together now what I have here is a quarter cup of butter that's half a stick and I've already melted it now I'm going to put in another quarter cup of flour equal parts and I'm simply going to whisk it together it's going to make the paste a really simple melting base purpose no really easy see that's all there is to it kind of looks like gravy already if you want to make it a dark Roux you just keep cooking it until it's dark dirt brown to taste you know however dark you like it but what I want to tell you to do with this is to put it in a little bowl you can use a bowl much smaller than this I'm going to be making more and you cover it with plastic wrap and you stop it in the fridge now what is it for but this is going to save you so much time and be so much fun it's a thickening agent so whenever you have anything whether it says a sauce a gravy a soup that you want to thicken just take a spoonful of this and put it in if you want to make a white sauce all you do is mix two cups of milk with this heat it up let it thicken and you have a white sauce so this is the basis of thickening anything let's say you're going to make mac and cheese this will help thicken it up if anything's too watery you go to the rescue and just put in a spoonful of Roux or a tablespoon of room and you're good to go I'm Joni health and your youtube mom we'll see you next time