Peppery Milk Gravy

I had a request for my gravy recipe after posting about my buttermilk biscuit recipe. This should work for any type of ground meat or meat substitute or chopped mushrooms.

Veggie/Vegan Sausage Gravy

3 T shallot oil (oil used to only fry shallots, filtered to remove particulates)
2 t sage
2 t thyme
1/2 t rosemary
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 pkg (12 oz) vegan grounds (equivalent to one pound of uncooked ground pork or turkey)
1 T brown sugar
1 T freshly ground black pepper
2 T unsalted butter or butter substitute
1/3 c flour
4 c milk or milk substitute
1/2 t sea salt

Rule of Thumb: 1 part fat + 1 part flour + 16 parts hot liquid or 2 T fat + 2 T flour + 1 cup hot liquid = 1 cup of gravy

In a medium saucepan, heat the shallot oil over medium-high heat. Add in the sage, thyme, rosemary, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes, and lightly fry them. Quickly add the frozen grounds so that the herbs don’t burn.* Brown the grounds, and add in the brown sugar and black pepper.

Melt the butter in the pan with the grounds. Add in the flour to make a roux. Make sure the flour toasts before adding in the milk. Reduce heat and stir until the gravy is cooked and thickened ~10 minutes.

Enjoy over biscuits.

*You can use sausage-style grounds and cut out all of the frying of the herbs.

Flaky, Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits

Perfection!

What a wonderfully sunny day for brunch! Proper biscuits and peppery milk gravy with sausage are hard to come by in New York City, so I make my own. I have a vegan version as well, but today, the biscuits would have made my elementary school cafeteria lunchladies proud.

Tray of perfect biscuits

I have been using this recipe for a long as I can remember. I am unclear of its origins, but I speculate it was another recipe that the middle school cafeteria lunchladies showed us how to make in my life skills (home ec) class. The other was buzzard buns. I grew up in the South where a proper school lunch consisted of fried chicken, green beans/corn/kale/collards, buzzard bun (hot roll)/biscuit, and a half pint of milk. Cookies were extra.

A lot of biscuits that I have tried in NYC have been closer to hard tack from the Civil War or maybe a super dense British scone. After many years of successes and failures, I think I have found the right formula for me. Turns out the type of wheat really makes a difference. Everything online says White Lily® brand flour is the only way to go, but seeing as that’s harder to come by in NYC, I found this:

A soft wheat flour from the Greenmarket

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 c soft wheat flour or 1 c whole wheat flour +
1 c bread flour
4 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
3/4 t sea salt
2 T butter, cold
2 T vegetable shortening
1 c buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine dry ingredients. Cut the butter and shortening into dry ingredients until evenly distributed. Then, stir in the buttermilk. Turn dough onto floured surface and gently fold five or six times. Don’t overwork the dough.

Roll out and cut out biscuits to preferred size and shape. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the tops are a deep golden brown. You can brush them with melted butter out of the oven or drown them in peppery milk gravy with sausage.

Shrimp with Bacon over Cheesy Grits: A Southern Traif Tale

Shrimp with uncured bacon in a shallot white wine butter sauce with scallions

Sundays are for brunching.

Our little group of neighbors used to gather at a new café or pub or restaurant in the neighborhood to enjoy good food and a chat. As commercial rents climbed, so did prices for enjoying brunch and the disappearance of our favorite spots. Eventually, this became unsustainable for our Brunch Bunch, so the hubs and I started hosting at our new-at-the-time apartment. Everyone chips in what they can for the week, and I get to test recipes or just make comfort food that I want to make. This freed us up from having to make reservations, paying exorbitant amounts of money for mediocre food, watching our vocabulary in public, wasting time waiting in line – for a table – for menus – for drinks – for utensils – for food – for a server – for the check, splitting the check because the point of sale system is too archaic/advanced (and, apparently, math is hard), and dodging strollers. FREEEEEEE-DOM!

I love grits, especially cheesy grits. My first bowl of proper grits was in New Orleans on a family road trip returning to Richmond, VA from Harlingen, TX. I stirred that cold pat of butter into the hot grits, and it was love at first bite. In college, I would make the instant packet for breakfast during the week. I had no shame. I graduated to the non-instant grits on the weekends, though. Now, living close to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, I can get heirloom grits like Castle Valley Mill’s Bloody Butcher grits. Fancy.

With the Brunch Bunch visiting their respective families for the holidays, I decided that I would still make brunch. While at the Greenmarket, I debated what I could sauté with the shrimp. Old Bay, of course, but shallots? Onions? Garlic? Bell peppers? Sage? Greens? As we approached the Wilklow Orchards stand, I saw that bacon was on sale. Inspiration hit. I asked the hubs if he would be cool with me making brunch even more traif. He consented, and I bought a beautiful package of thick cut, uncured bacon.

Bit of useless trivia: The very first time my father-in-law had shrimp and grits was at our apartment years ago in Richmond, VA. Now, he searches for the dish on menus wherever he goes.

I invited a couple of newer friends over and cooked a giant pot of grits low and slow. I prepped the shrimp to go on top, and it was obliterated by the four of us.

Shrimp ‘n Grits
Makes about 8 helpings

Castle Valley Mill Bloody Butcher Grits

Cheesy Grits

6 c water, clean and cool

2 T butter, salted, cultured-preferred

1 t fine sea salt

2 c grits, not the instant stuff

1 c whole milk

1 c shredded cheese, the sharper the better

1/2 c grated pecorino or parmesan

Dash of nutmeg

Freshly ground black pepper

In a pot, bring the water, butter, and salt to a boil. Whisk in the grits. Keep stirring as the grits come back to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and give the grits a good stir. Cover and let thicken for about 30 minutes, whisking occasionally to preventing clumping.

Warm the milk and whisk into the grits at the 30-minute mark. Cover and cook another 15 minutes. Add water if too thick for you to enjoy.

Turn off heat and add the cheeses, nutmeg, and black pepper. Whisk until melted and evenly distributed.

Shrimp

1 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined (I used Trader Joe’s frozen, wild Argentinian shrimp here)

1 lb bacon, uncooked, uncured, thick-cut, diced

2 T butter

1 c shallots, minced

1 c white wine

1 T Old Bay seasoning (or more, if you’d like)

Dash of sugar

1 bunch scallions, cleaned, trimmed, sliced on the diagonal

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large sauté pan, fry up the roughly diced bacon to render the fat. When crispy golden, remove bacon from the pan. Reserve the bacon fat.

In the same pan, add a little of the bacon fat back and the shallots. Over medium heat, cook down shallots until translucent and aromatic, at least 20 minutes, constantly stirring. Deglaze the pan with the white wine. Stir in the bacon. Melt in the butter. Sprinkle in the Old Bay. Bring to boil, then add shrimp and cover for just a minute or two to steam the shrimp. Uncover, and toss in the scallions and stir around until wilted. The shrimp should be opaque now. Take off the heat. Add a few grinds of black pepper. Cover until ready to serve.

Serve in a bowl with an optional soft-boiled egg.

Shrimp and grits in a bowl with a soft-boiled egg