Good Gravy!

I cooked a de-boned turkey breast on the rotisserie in my grill last night.  Around this time I crave turkey, after not wanting to look at it for a while post Thanksgiving.   As I was being mesmerized by the rotation of the nicely bundled meat, I started to think about all the gravies I have tasted and how different ways of making this simple condiment seem to belong to different generations and cultures.  And how families pass down their methods.  There is adding cornstarch, adding potato flakes (really?), adding arrowroot and that 1950’s method of adding raw flour to a special “gravy cup”, shaking it with the drippings and serving made the hackles on my neck rise every time I saw that one.  Raw flour is not a pleasant taste.  Not to mention that people actually buy gravy in a jar. Yes I have seen it with my own eyes!  Is it so they can replicate the diner at home??

So I thought why not blog my favorite basic recipe for making gravy.  It’s fool-proof.

Gravy Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 TBL butter
• 2 TBL flour
• 2 C. of low salt broth (chicken or beef) and/or drippings, heated
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat the butter in a pot over medium-high heat.  Don’t let it brown.
   

   The Butter

2. Dump all the flour at once into the pot with the melted butter and immediately stir with a whisk until all the flour is incorporated.
   

   With the Flour. The ROUX

3. Cook, whisking until the flour and butter mixture turns medium brown.  This may take 5-8 minutes.  Adjust the heat to keep the mixture lightly bubbling and slowly turning brown, but not burning.  This combination is called a ROUX and the different colors this mixture reaches are used in different dishes.  As the color deepens, the flavor changes.  We are going for a nutty brown for the gravy.
4. Add the heated broth, stirring vigorously to work out any small lumps.  Adding the broth, heated, minimizes the chance of the gravy turning lumpy by having both the butter/flour and the broth at a similar temperature.

5. Bring it to a boil and cook, simmering, for about 5-10 minutes until nicely thickened.  Feel free to pour it though a fine-holed strainer to ensure that it is flawlessly smooth.  Serve.

Now, wasn’t that easy?  Feed that stuff in the jar to the dog!