All-Purpose Gravy

Soup Fly *'s Note:

An America's Test Kitchen recipe that I received in an email. What's great about it is that it can be made ahead and frozen (a great holiday time saver!) since it doesn't use any pan drippings.

• Total Time: 42 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 37 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2 cups

• ½ cup carrot , peeled & chopped
• ½ cup celery , chopped
• ¾ cup onion , chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups low sodium beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• 5 whole black peppercorns
• salt
• ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and well-browned (about 7 minutes).
3. Reduce heat to medium.
4. Add flour, stirring constantly, until well-browned (about 5 minutes).
5. Gradually add broths while whisking constantly.
6. Bring mixture to boil and skimming off any foam on surface.
7. Reduce heat to medium-low and add bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns.
8. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes until thickened and reduced to 3 cups.
9. Strain gravy through fine-mesh strainer.
10. Press on solids to extract as much liquid as possible.
11. Add salt & pepper to taste.
12. To thaw frozen gravy:.
13. Add gravy to pan with 1 tablespoon of water and warm on low heat until thawed.
14. Gravy may appear to have separated.
15. Whisk vigorously to recombine.

Reviews

[LtlPhyl #2]

Great little recipe when you have no meat or poultry drippings. If you would like to double the recipe, use a Dutch oven to give the vegetables ample space for browning and increase the cooking times by roughly 50 percent. The finished gravy can be frozen. To thaw either a single or double recipe, place the gravy and 1 tablespoon of water in a saucepan over low heat and bring slowly to a simmer. The gravy may appear broken or curdled as it thaws, but a vigorous whisking will recombine it.

[Chef #661462]

This smells fabulous while cooking, tastes great too. I think the prep time is longer than mentioned, but worth it. I substituted 1/2 olive and 1/2 veg. oil for the butter to reduce saturated fat. It took some time and effort to make, so I will definitely triple the recipe and make extra for freezing next time. I hated throwing away the cooked veggies, next time I may freeze them to add to soup or stew.