Thoughts of Gravy

While the actual Thanksgiving meal isn’t my favorite, I love the entire week of preparing for it and then cooking the meal.  I think my favorite part of the entire meal is the gravy.  Nice, right?  I love making it too.  This fat separator by OXO is a favorite tool of mine.  You can chose to skim the fat, but I love this measuring cup for ease.   

I stuff my turkey with loads of fresh herbs, quartered onions and whole garlic cloves.  Parsley, sage, rosemary.  Lots of kosher salt and pepper.  This adds to the amazing aroma and the flavor of the drippings!  Once your turkey is done and rested, remove and pour drippings into the measuring cup fat separator.  They key to non lumpy gravy is the roux, a 1:1 mixture of butter to flour.  

Depending on how much gravy you want depends on how much roux you want….and the more roux you make the thicker the gravy.  I usually start out by melting 3 tablespoon of butter, then once melted whisking to combine the flour. This is done directly in your roasting pan over medium/low heat.  Then I pour in the drippings (just the juices that have separated from the fat)while constantly whisking, then milk or chicken/turkey stock (better than bouillon) or both!  Kosher salt and pepper to taste!  Serve immediately. Gobble gobble!

-Shelby