FOOD
Let’s give thanks for these great gravy tips
There are cooks who wouldn’t hesitate to cook a whole octopus and serve it up with red wine sauce. There are cooks who can bone a whole leg of lamb with one hand. There are even cooks who consider rolling out puff pastry to be child’s play. But ask them to make gravy for Thanksgiving dinner and they go into a tailspin.
Maybe because gravy making is a last-minute operation carried out in a hot kitchen while a hungry crowd is making threatening noises. (Or at the very least, moaning with hunger pangs.) Who knows? But suddenly, the ghost of lumpy Thanksgiving gravy starts to loom over all those overcrowded counters and sinks full of used utensils. And, on a holiday when all of us should be feeling happy and grateful…
Pervasive Fear of Gravy has taken control.
Grown men and women have been known to run screaming out of the kitchen or at the very least pass the job on to another. (I know, because years ago I was one of their number; I always found a volunteer. And I’m here to tell you that compliments work like a charm.)
There are even (oh, whisper it) some hosts who have even been known to buy gravy in cans.
No need; no need. Simply look at gravy as thickened turkey juice and you can conquer your fears. First, let us give you a basic recipe. Then we’ll move on to a trick or two gathered from the brave people who helped with our research:
Turkey Gravy
1 roasted turkey
6 cups turkey (or chicken) stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup cornstarch
Remove turkey from roaster and let it stand for about 15 minutes before carving.
Remove juice from the bottom of the roaster, leaving a small amount of fat in the bottom. Pour the juice into a gravy separating cup and let stand until the fat comes to the top, about 15 minutes. Discard the fat.
Place the roasting pan over two burners of the stove. Add the stock and reserved turkey liquid and cook over high heat, scraping the brown solids from the bottom of the pan and stirring until the liquid has reduced about a quarter. Taste, adding salt and pepper if you wish. Strain the liquid into a saucepan and place over medium heat.
Dissolve the cornstarch in a quarter-cup of cold water and add the mixture slowly to the simmering liquid. Stir constantly. Continue to stir until the gravy thickens, which it will do quickly. Serve hot or keep it warm before service. Makes about 5 to 6 cups. (If the gravy is hot enough, the turkey can be lukewarm.)
That’s pretty basic and foolproof but there are variations. Especially when it comes to stock. You can use canned chicken stock if you wish.
Or you can make your own, which is better and makes you feel thrifty and accomplished. The easiest way is to put the giblets in water and let it cook for an hour or so while the turkey is roasting.
But Amherst resident Linda Hursty goes a bit farther than that. You can cook her stock while the turkey roasts. But next year, if you’re really clever, you can prepare it the day ahead and refrigerate.
Linda Hursty’s Turkey Stock
5 whole black peppercorns
3 sprigs fresh thyme
3 sprigs flat leaf parsley
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 dried bay leaf
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 celery stalks, coarsely
chopped
1 small carrot, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white and pale green parts only, rinsed well and coarsely choped
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
Make a bouquet garni by tying peppercorns, thyme, parsley, rosemary and bay leaf in a square of cheesecloth. Set aside.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add vegetables and cook, stirring until they just begin to brown. Add 1 quart of water, chopped giblets if desired, bouquet garni. Cover pan; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium low and cook, uncovered until reduced to about 3 cups, 50 to 60 minutes. Pour mixture through a fine sieve.
Hursty adds the chopped giblets and neck meat to the final gravy but that is an optional thing.
OK now — take a deep breath. How about lumps? If you do what Jeanne Gambino Vilardo does, you won’t have any. Vilardo, along with Liz Manzella, operate Bella Zuppa — a take-out business out of Westminster Church at 724 Delaware Ave.
Vilardo takes her “favorite little jar” and dissolves cornstarch and water in it, along with some salt and pepper.
“Then you shake it and shake it,” she says. “You shake it real well.
“The trick is, you use cold water and when the cornstarch has dissolved in the water — you don’t want it to be like paste — you add it to the drippings and the stock and stir until the mixture thickens.
Clarence resident Ann More even dispenses with the saucepan bit. She makes her gravy right in the roasting pan. “It makes it easier to clean the pan in the end,” she insists. More uses stock, or chicken broth but even water can be used in a pinch.
And if the gravy does not come out quite the color she wants, she says, there is a remedy to keep on hand.
Keep a small bottle of Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet handy. — these liquids add caramelized color and a hint of flavor to gravy. Only one caution: use them sparingly. One drop or two does the job.
