How to Make Gravy
Having only made my frist roast meals in the last couple of years I had never made gravy until yesterday. Actually let's leave the Jury out on whether I've actually made gravy at all yet :) Staying in someone else's flat is always weird as you aren't 100% familiar with where everything is but cooking in someone else's flat is about ten times worse as not only are you not sure where things are, you aren't even sure if things are. Assuming everyone in the free world had a bag of plain flour in their cupboard I was excitedly de-glazing my roast pan in anticipation of the Christmas feast when I came a cropper. It seemed that my friend had only Self Raising flour in her cupboard. After the morning from hell, it was no big deal to me as I knew the only difference between the flours was a dash of baking soda (which might make my gravy fizz a bit) the addition of more salt would take the edge of any bitter aftertaste it might leave. Of course, moments after I'd done that, I saw the large back of plain flour in her cupbard... Self Raising flour gravy really wasn't that bad. Not ideal, but not disgusting.
Tonight I roasted some more veggies and reheated some of the roast meat from Christmas Day and went 'round two' with the gravy. Seeing no instant granules in the cupboards I went online and found a simple and quick vegetarian gravy recipe. It was based on margarine, a lot - too much - of margarine, some soy sauce and some plain flour alongside onion and garlic. Safe to say it tasted nothing like gravy but actually looked the part more than yesterday's effort did. I futzed with the recipe a little, adding Marmite, Worcesteshire Sauce and a lot of salt in the hope that it would pass. It did vaguely pass but tasted wholly and soley of garlic. The knowledge that I was eating garlic flavoured margarine didn't help the deception any. I think that could be quite a good base for desperation next time but it will require a lot of tweaking and a lot less margarine (and garlic).
Am looking forward to the third time I make gravy as I expect it'll be a charm.
That is the up-to-date news from the front lines of the home alone Christmas :)
Tonight I roasted some more veggies and reheated some of the roast meat from Christmas Day and went 'round two' with the gravy. Seeing no instant granules in the cupboards I went online and found a simple and quick vegetarian gravy recipe. It was based on margarine, a lot - too much - of margarine, some soy sauce and some plain flour alongside onion and garlic. Safe to say it tasted nothing like gravy but actually looked the part more than yesterday's effort did. I futzed with the recipe a little, adding Marmite, Worcesteshire Sauce and a lot of salt in the hope that it would pass. It did vaguely pass but tasted wholly and soley of garlic. The knowledge that I was eating garlic flavoured margarine didn't help the deception any. I think that could be quite a good base for desperation next time but it will require a lot of tweaking and a lot less margarine (and garlic).
Am looking forward to the third time I make gravy as I expect it'll be a charm.
That is the up-to-date news from the front lines of the home alone Christmas :)
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