Gravy is Life. All Else is Just Garnishes.

Today, I’m talking about gravy. Of course, being Australian, I have a fierce and burning love of gravy. I don’t merely love gravy, rather I live in a constant burning desire for gravy, an almost bestial lust for gravy. You see, to me, gravy is, essentially a food-group. Gravy is what binds the Commonwealth together; Australians put it on pies, chips, and roast meat, Brits pour it on toad-in-the-hole and sausage and mash, Canadians pour bucketloads of it on poutine and Canadian roast sirloin, New Zealanders have it on roast lamb and kumara, even on hāngī (if no-one’s looking),  Scots put it on Scotch pies, sausage and black pudding, even on fish and chips! (Which is a little odd …). Damn, Ireland isn’t even a member of the Commonwealth, but we all act like they are, because they love gravy. Hells, if it wasn’t for chips with gravy, half of all Australian, British, and Canadian university students would starve!

So yeah, the Anglophone part of the Commonwealth (and Ireland) share our love of gravy. Even if we share bugger-all else.

At this point, I should point out that I’m talking about gravy, the way that Australians, Brits, Canadians, New Zealanders, Scots, and Irish define the term. This is what my US friends would call ‘brown gravy’, a term which makes no sense to me. I mean, in Australia, ALL gravy is brown. So, chilli gravy, country gravy, red-eye gravy, sausage gravy, tomato gravy … banish them all from your minds!

Making good gravy is not difficult. But making sublime gravy, perfect gravy, gravy for which you would ransom your first-born, yeah, that’s a bit tougher.

But one way to do it, is to use sauce Espagnole.

I cannot adequately describe how good gravy made with sauce Espagnole is.

Gravy made with sauce Espagnole is delightful. The English language cannot describe… nay, Dr Dee’s Enochian language could not describe the heavenly, lip-smacking delight that is sauce Espagnole-based gravy.

So today, I’ll be posting three recipes; one for basic gravy, one for the easy version of sauce Espagnole, and one for the proper, you-beaut, self-copywritten, Bandicoot sauce Espagnole

Basic Gravy (The Old Lounge Bandicoot)

Ingredients

* 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp plain flour, 2 cups chicken broth, salt, pepper.

Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan. Stir in the flour and gently simmer the mixture for a few minutes, or until it thickens and looks brown, stirring it as it cooks. Add the pepper, cook it for a minute, and then add the stock, all at once. Let it simmer until it is thickened. Taste the gravy and adjust the seasonings.

Makes two cups.

This gravy is very versatile. You can add some fried onions to it, to make onion gravy, or use it to enrich a ragout or meat pie filling, whatever you will. Sometimes, you’ll stuff it up and the roux will form lumps. In that case, add a little water, blend the gravy with a stick blender, and simmer it for a few minutes. Likewise, if your gravy is too salty, add a tbsp of sour cream, blend the gravy with a stick blender, and simmer it for a few minutes.

Instant Sauce Espagnole

Ingredients

* 1 chopped bacon rasher, ½ sliced onion, ½ diced carrot, ½ diced celery stick, 4 crushed garlic cloves, butter, olive oil

* 2 cups chicken stock, ¼ cup semi-dry sherry, 4 tsp tomato paste, ¼ cup tinned mushroom juice

* 1 bouquet garni, browned flour, salt and pepper

First, make a mirepoix. Lightly sauté the bacon and onion, with the carrot, celery and garlic in the butter and oil. Set the lot aside.

Mix the stock with the sherry, tomato paste and mushroom juice. Add this liquid, the vegetables, a bouquet garni and the water to the mirepoix. Simmer the sauce for an hour Strain the sauce and reduce it to two cups.

Thicken the sauce with browned flour, blended with some water and simmer it for twenty minutes. Dress the sauce with a knob of butter, beaten in at the last minute and adjust the seasonings.

Makes a little more than two cups.

When you have the sauce Espagnole made, you can use it as a base for gravy. Just make the Basic Gravy and add Espagnole to it, at a ratio of 2:1 (2 parts Basic Gravy to 1 part sauce Espagnole). It will freeze successfully too.

Sauce Espagnole (The Old Lounge Bandicoot)

Ingredients

* 2½ cups plain flour, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery ribs, 4 cloves of garlic, butter, olive oil, 4 litres chilled brown chicken stock, 1 bunch Italian parsley, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, 3 smoked bacon bones. 400g tin champignons, ½ cup semi-sweet sherry, 3 tbsp tomato paste, ½ cup brandy, extra butter.

First, make the basic sauce espagnole. Bake the flour at 150ºc (300ºf) stirring it every fifteen minutes or so, until it looks browned. Put the browned flour aside.

Next, do all your cutting. Peel and slice the onions and carrots, and trim and chop the celery. Put all three aside in one bowl. Peel the garlic and put it aside in its own little bowl.

To make the basic sauce, you must first make a mirepoix. Gently fry the onions in plenty of butter and olive oil, until they look gilded and slightly brown. Add the carrots and the celery and brown them slightly. Put the browned vegetables aside.

Transfer the stock to a large stewpan and whisk in the flour. Add the mirepoix, a bunch of parsley, three bay leaves, three sprigs of thyme, the garlic, the bacon bones, the mushrooms and their juice, the sherry, and the tomato paste. Bring the sauce to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer the sauce for two hours. Adjust the seasonings and strain the sauce out into a plastic container, then reduce the sauce to two litres. This is the basic sauce espagnole.

To make the finished sauce, deglaze the pan from a roast of poultry. Add the de-glazing liquid to the sauce and mix it up well. Add the extra butter and whisk it in well. Adjust the seasonings and thicken the sauce with more browned flour if you think it’s necessary. Just before serving the sauce, whisk in the brandy and a few knobs of butter.

Makes two litres.

This is my Sacred Sauce. Oh ye, who read this, know that I place the Holy Mysteries of the Sacred Sauce in thy hands. Let none of the Infidel know these things, lest they profane them. This is a recipe for a finished sauce. If you want to freeze it, follow the recipe up to the point where it says “reduce the sauce to two litres”. That’s the finished Espagnole sauce. If you want to make gravy, Just make the Basic Gravy and add Espagnole to it, at a ratio of 2:1 (2 parts Basic Gravy to 1 part sauce Espagnole). It will freeze successfully too.