Friday, November 18, 2011

Liquid gold

Time to take a break from painting and start planning the Thanksgiving dinner!  
I love all the planning and shopping and food prep and I try to make as many things from scratch as I can - including the gravy.  It's not like I'm a gravy professional, I'm sorta self-taught on that, but I'll have a great start with some homemade stock
I bought a couple of BIG turkey wings and plopped them into the crockpot with a little water, some garlic salt, and some rosemary.  Underneath them I tucked some odds and ends of celery and some carrots - but the wings are so big you can't see 'em.  Trust me, they're in there - they will add a nice flavor to it.
After they cooked most of the day I strained the liquid into my trusty Pyrex measuring cup and set it in the freezer to set up the fat that rose to the top.  I chopped the turkey and bagged it to make yummy turkey pot pie or turkey a la king for another meal.  Yum.
This cup of concentrated and seasoned stock is what I ended up with - about 1 1/4 cups for some tasty Thanksgiving gravy.  I just scraped the fat off - it comes off easily - and spooned it into a mason jar for storage in the freezer. 
Liquid gold!
It's jelly-like but will liquify when I heat it up to make gravy.  We like to brine our bird and sometimes it makes the drippings a bit  too salty to use.  So, just in case....I will pull out this secret weapon!  And if I don't use it for gravy, it makes an awesome base for delicious soup.
My mother made the best gravy, but I don't do so bad...
What about you - do you make homemade gravy?




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1 comment:

Marie said...

I make homemade gravy : )
Nothing special...just the usual flour water and meat drippings. For Thanksgiving I add boiled eggs like my grandmother used to.