M.P. made us a lovely Mardi Gras dinner on Tuesday evening, including roast Cornish hens, pan gravy, fried potatoes, brussels sprouts, schoolhouse rolls, and a luscious King's Cake for dessert. But as he was feeling poorly and had a bad toothache to boot, he wasn't able to enjoy it much. He's still under the weather, and has mostly stayed in bed since. I'd do anything I could for him, but he's the don't-talk-to-me type when he's sick, so I leave him alone. When he's recovered, I'll get him to send me the food pics from his phone and I'll post them here.
Meanwhile, for want of anything better to do, your Head Trucker has been browsing through Google Books and YouTube for old-time recipes - and I came across these videos about making tomato gravy, a very Southern thing. But for some strange reason, nobody in my family ever made it, so I never learned how.
In case you are wondering too, here are three Alabama ladies who all cook very much as my mama and grandma did, and they will set you right on this subject. Now hush up and listen, you might learn something. First, you make a roux . . .
Mama Sue is making breakfast for supper, always a good idea:
Miss Earline is making this video to teach her grandson in college how to feed himself:
Miss Brenda makes a ton of gravy for a family dinner:
You'll notice they all make it the same simple way, with minor differences. Try the one that you think is best. The Alabama Farmers Federation gives a printable recipe here, if you want it. It calls for chicken broth, but as you can see in these videos, plain water works just fine.
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Bonus: How to Make a Roux. It's just real simple, boys. Use equal parts fat + flour, and don't burn it!
N. B. -- for the fat, you can use butter, margarine, olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, any cooking oil; or bacon grease for delicious flavor; or any kind of pork or ham grease, ditto. Use any kind of white flour you have. Stir together over a hot flame until it's the color you want, then turn off the flame or remove from fire and quickly add your liquid - which can be water, milk, half of each, or half cream and milk, or stock or bouillon, or just a pile of veggies, anything to stop the cooking of the flour. Don't burn it!
If you do, throw it out and start over; never serve burnt gravy. But I'll let you fellas in on the Pork Boys' secret (come closer, I'll whisper in your ear): in an emergency, stir a heaping helping of peanut butter into the hot gravy, which works miraculously and leaves no peanut taste.
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4 comments:
Some Italian-Americans call a tomato meat sauce “Sunday Gravy” but it is technically not a gravy. It’s a ragù. What you have here is a gravy because it has a thickening agent (flour). I make besciamella (bechamel) which is like a roux but only slightly cooked and usually has milk and parmigiana cheese.
Anyhow I hope you enjoyed your Mardi Gras dinner and I hope M.P. gets better soon. Is a dentist in his future?
Yes, French cookery begins with a roux, too - and M.P. often makes a béchamel sauce to use in something or other. I didn't know that's in Italian cookery too - how interesting.
M.P. doesn't want to see the dentist or doctor - sigh - so he's treating himself with selections from a cabinet full of pills, powders, and potions. Typical. But thanks for your good wishes.
I cooked up sausages last night for dinner. started the oil with some sliced onions to just cooked through, them took them away and after the sausages were just about cooked through, I added the flour to brown and them tomatoes as I was taught - an Aussie version of tomato gravy.
Sounds luscious! I was thinking a few onions would be nice to add in.
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