Gravy making, why does it seem to be so complicated? Growing up, the only gravy I remember having at a meal was at Thanksgiving time, and it was not homemade, but came out of a can. During my first marriage I would watch my, then, mother-in-law make a slurry of flour, garlic powder and water, pour it into the meat drippings to create a lumpy, oily mess. Not very good examples for making my own gravy, and thus avoided the issue whenever I could. Thank you, thank you, thank you for whomever invented the crock pot; not just for the easy cooking it afforded the home cook, but for the luscious stock that could be made into a stupendous gravy.
"Impossible!", you say; "Cannot make gravy without drippings from roasted meat or poultry!", you say...yep, you can. First off, I will tell you how by using the crock pot; secondly from drippings out of a roasting pan, without adding butter, cream or extra flour. Being fair here by giving the choice of crock pot or roasting pan, and not absently dismissing the traditional roasting method. Now sit back, relax and have a good read...
Scenario: Making pot roast in a crock pot; put your meat in first, but before you put it in, coat it liberally with flour (this is all you will need for that gravy later on); put in your veggies, seasonings and then pour two cups of beef stock over it all; cover, set it and forget it till done. If making poultry, use chicken stock instead, but use the same coating with flour and veggies over the top process.
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| Gravy brings a pot roast dinner all together. |
The meat is done, put it on a platter to rest with 3/4 of the vegetables. Looking into the crock pot, you will see an oily sheen on top; that is the oil that came out of your meat or poultry during the cooking process. Do not worry, we are going to get rid of that easily, and not lose any flavor.
Pureed vegetables will thicken the gravy.
The liquid inside the pot is also thin; the flour you coated the meat in was not enough to thicken, but just enough to help with the process. The 1/4 portion of vegetables that you left inside is going to be your true thickener. What is neat about this is that anyone that refuses to eat their veggies, but loves gravy, is going to eat veggies and not even know. Well, they will if you tell them, but we are keeping this a secret, right? Of course, you can leave bits of veggies if you like, so long as no one you are serving is a problem eater.
Bits of veggies hidden in the gravy.
Now, you all know how I love my immersion blender, but if you still have not purchased your own (why not!?!), then a regular blender will do. Begin pulverizing the vegetables inside the pot, being careful not to raise the blender too high and splash the liquid around the kitchen. Not only will the soon to be gravy be thickening up, but you will see it turn to a rich color; you will be tempted to serve it as is, but patience grasshopper, patience.
To get the oil out of your
gravy, pour the amount of pureed liquid you need into a plastic container and
place into the freezer for one hour.
Take the container out of the freezer and you will see that the fats
have solidified on top; carefully spoon them out and do not forget to scrape it
off the sides of the container too. You will probably have a lot more gravy
left over which can be defatted, frozen and reheated when needed; because you
did not use any dairy in its making, the chance of separating is none. 
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| Place in freezer safe plastic container. |
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| Scrape off the fat solids. |
To serve, just warm up the gravy; no further seasonings need to be added, especially salt which would have come from the stock you initially used when cooking your meat. If you really need to have a smooth gravy, go ahead and strain out all the little bits that the blender could not pulverize. We like it rustic; it proves that it is homemade, not out of some can or jar.
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The color of the gravy depends on what vegetables were used during the cooking process. More carrots and tomatoes give a redder coloring.
Ok, now for the roasted part of this post; you are going to need a deep roasting pan for this process. Either use a rack to lay your meat or poultry on, or a very thick layer of cut up vegetables will work too. In the pan, lay out all your cut up vegetables and sprinkle a little flour over all of them; pour your stock over all; then place the rack with meat, or the meat itself on top and roast until done. Oh, do not forget to season your meat or poultry; as the fat melts, it will take some of the seasoning with it and add it to the veggies down below. Now just follow the same gravy making process as I explained for the crock pot; you just might want to transfer your liquid and 1/4 portion to a deep bowl first though.
How come I did not use any water in the crock pot or roasting pan? The vegetables gave me all I needed; during the cooking process, they sweated out their excess moisture, so adding water at the beginning would have thinned out the gravy way too much at the end.
Making gravy is not so hard after all; just remember to not additional seasonings until after the process is done and you have tasted the end product. You will be very surprised. Enjoy!
Mary Cokenour
