Gravy
Posted by secondbase on Nov 06, 2006 · Member since Dec 2005 · 5540 posts
I'm hosting a thanksgiving dinner at my place and all of the attendees are omni. the meal will be completely cruelty-free, but i've been having trouble finding a gravy that will not be too far off from what they're used to having. i'm open to trying a packaged gravy. i just only have a couple weeks till the big day. thanks in advance
I don't hate Hain's vegan packaged "chicken" gravy mix, but it is pretty salty. You might want to dilute it with your own cornstarch-thickened gravy with marjoram, thyme, white pepper, and nutritional yeast to give it a more homemade flavor.
There's a great gravy recipe in Ann Jackson's Heart of the Home cookbook, and LOTS of won't-scare-omnivores recipes of all stripes. Here's an abbreviated version of the one I'm talking about.
First, preferably, she makes "fried chicken tofu"
2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 Tablespoons sesame seeds
1 block tofu, sliced
2 Tablespoons tamari
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Heat the oil in a skillet or electric skillet (her weapon of choice). Add sesame seeds. Dredge tofu in yeast on both sides and arrange in skillet on top of seeds when they start to sizzle. Drizzle tamari over. When crispy and brown, flip over and fry other side til crisp. (300 degree skillet, 30+ minutes per side the way she does it.) Remove to plate.
Don't clean your skillet!
add
1/4 to 1/3 cup margarine,
a big handful of flour (chickpea and white, mixed, are best)
any yeast left over from Fried Chicken Tofu
mix and stir until lightly golden.
Stir in 1-2 cups soymilk
salt, pepper, and tamari to taste
I'm not kidding, this is really good. Worth maybe frying some tiny torn-up chunks of firm tofu and sesame seeds to put texture into the gravy! You can see how this could be adapted to skip the "chicken."
This is a white flour-thickened gravy, not a clear, elegant holiday gravy, but it sure tastes nice.
I happen to just love the Tofurky giblet gravy. It is pricey, but it is really very like the real thing and went over well with omnis when I have served it.
I like the above recipe too. Check out this site for good gravies too.
This is awesome: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12302.0
To me, it actually tastes alot like turkey gravy, without the cholesterol. I used brown rice flour too, remember if you use wheat flour, it will thicken as it heats.
To prevent lumps in all flour thickened gravy I do this:
Put the flour in a jar with an airtight lid, add some of the water from the recipe cold. Shake like there is no tomorrow. Add this when it says to add flour. Or you can throw it all in a blender. Shaking it i funner. They actually have special gravy mixers to prevent clumps, they work well to if you're willing to get one.
Here is the Chicago Diner recipe. It's my new favorite:
http://veggiediner.com/recipearchives.html
My favorite gravy recipe is the recipe for cashew gravy on this site under "Thanksgiving." There is another cashew gravy recipe under a different category but it is not the same. I think it is a scrumptious recipe, and I have actually tried it out on one omni, but he ate and liked EVERYTHING so I don't consider him a good test. I'm having thoughts of running down the sidewalk after random people, spoon in hand, begging them to try it.
Yummmm. That sounds delicious.
And jkl, that's hilarious! Why not?
It occurred to me last night when I was feeling insomniac but not willing to get up and turn on the computer that a wine sauce might do the trick... not too alien, very festive, and kind of compativle...