The holidays are fast approaching & with them comes holiday meal planning. Not many things strike fear in my heart – but I’ll admit that making gravy makes me nervous. It never comes out right. It is always oily or wrong, or it tastes weird. My in-laws are coming for turkey day next week and I immediately went out & sought gravy advice, because after all, what is Thanksgiving turkey without gravy? Luckily, our friend Anita(http://twitter.com/tshumbie ) offered to help us out with gravy advice, as she is The Gravy Queen.
(Ok fine, she didn’t offer, I begged. Either way: delicious gravy!)
Take it away…….
Gravy is one of those highly appreciated simple sides….once you know how to make it.
In the pan that you roast your turkey is the best place to make gravy. (You can make gravy from the drippings of a brined turkey, just be sure to rinse it off before roasting!)
When making your turkey (or chicken) I always slice a couple of onions and layer the bottom of the pan, somehow this seems to soak up a lot of the grease that is created during cooking. It also adds some great flavor to the bottom of the bird.
Remove the turkey from the pan and let it rest before carving. Remove the onion slices and throw them away.
Place your roasting pan on the stove (probably using 2 burners) and add about a glass of white wine, and mix it up using the wine to deglaze your pan. If you notice that your drippings has a layer of fat on it, and you don’t want that, there are a couple of things you can do – pour it in a bowl and put in in the freezer for a few minutes, the fat will congeal quickly, spoon off any fat you see on the top, then put the drippings back in the pan. Or you can take an ice cube and dip it in the drippings to get the fat to freeze on the cubes. Or you can just spoon it off. I haven’t had to do this since I started using the onions in the pan…but maybe I’ve just picked lean birds… (Editors Note: or you can use this sucker, that I purchased because I need all the help I can get…)
Add some stock (either store bought or home made – directions below) (about a can) and let this mixture come to a boil. While this is heating up, add a tablespoon of flour per can of stock to some water (think juice glass) and mix well, this should not be lumpy nor should it be cold, you can use some of the stock to mix it up and warm it up. Once the stock mixture comes to a boil, and you’ve scraped the bottom of the pan to get the tasty bits off, add the flour mixture, slowly. If the mixture is too cold, it may clump, which can be fixed by just stirring and whisking, it just takes time. Stir until mixed and bring it back up to a boil, stirring constantly. This will thicken the gravy. When it gets to the desired thickness, turn off the heat and get ready to enjoy….
Stock:
Take a chicken and put it in a pot of water to boil, add some celery, onions, garlic, salt and pepper (if you’re using your turkey, you probably don’t need to add much else, but you can). After about 3 hours, remove the chicken and everything else. Keep the pot on the stove and let it reduce to about 2/3 the amount of water. You may want to strain it….voila – stock!