Friday, September 7, 2007

the ultimate comfort food: biscuits and gravy

Wednesday, at 2 am (so, Thursday morning) Jared's shoulder popped out of socket in his sleep. This is a recurring thing from a football injury in high school, that happens about every year and a half to two years . . . so, we are not strangers to ER trips at all times of the day or night. As you can imagine, this is a very painful thing for Jared and we try to talk about all sorts of things (food and music are the usual suspects) to keep his mind off of the pain and to make time go by for both of us. So, we talked about what he would like to eat when we got out of there and of course after we got to go to bed. As his personal short order cook, biscuits and gravy was requested. We finally got home about 7, fell asleep about 8 and slept til 2 in the afternoon. So, we had breakfast for lunch and biscuits and gravy is what Jared and I had.
I got the biscuit recipe from Love Like A Vegan's blog and they turned out great, not as pretty though. I'm not sure why but I didn't end up having to use as much soy milk as the recipe called for. The gravy was my version of years and years of me paying attention to how my Grammie made her breakfast gravy (hers either had bacon or sausage bits & grease). I first browned 4 heaping tbsp of unbleached all purpose flour in a frying pan under medium heat for only a few minutes (watch closely!). I took the browned (not scorched/burnt) flour out and added a touch of canola oil to fry up 3 frozen veggie sausage links, along with a glug of maple syrup. After those browned, I mashed them in the pan until they were very crumbly. I took out the sausage crumbles and added 4 tbsp of Earth Balance (buttery sticks) to the pan. I made a roux with the Earth Balance and browned flour, added sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Once the roux cooked for a few minutes, I slowly added soy milk until the gravy came together at a thickness we liked . . . we like our gravy on the thick side. If you like a thinner gravy, add more soy milk. I then stirred in the sausage crumbles. I can't even tell you how much this was right on to how my Grammie's gravy taste. We were kind of amazed actually.
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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

That looks so much like the unvegan biscuits and gravy my family served up--it's scary. It looks delicious though. : )

bazu said...

Thanks for this recipe- pre-vegan, biscuits and gravy was one of my all-time favorite things. This looks so good.

Anonymous said...

I've never had biscuits and gravy. I've had them both separately but never as a meal. It looks pretty good though!

Anonymous said...

nice! i've never had biscuits and gravy, so now i can safely try it out :) thank you for the post!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

ya'll have to try some biscuits and gravy. it's a southern treat!

Anonymous said...

That looks like the ultimate comfort food! Glad the biscuits turned out for you, I found I shouldn't have added as much soymilk as well and ended up having to add extra flour to help the dough out. Next time, I'm definitely reducing it and see how they turn out.

High Power Rocketry said...

You are pleasantly plump.

urban vegan said...

Poor Jared.

Those biscuits & gravy look like they could cure what ails most people. How nice of you to provide him with this natural painkiller.

Veggie said...

Is this the VwaV recipe? I was a amazed at how fluffy those turned out when I made them.
I love biscuits and gravy! so next time I make them, I'll have to try your recipe.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

veggie- the biscuit recipe was from Love Like A Vegan's blog (linked to in the post) and the gravy is my own creation and you should try it!!

KellytheCulinarian said...

Sorry to hear about the shoulder, that sounds scary, even if it is routine. My boyfriend just ordered biscuits and gravy this weekend at Cracker Barrel. I'm not a big fan of it, but he raves about it.

Anonymous said...

Hope that hubby is feeling better!!
Biscuits and gravy look very yummy.
~Erin

Vegan_Noodle said...

Ouch about Jared's shoulder! How wonderful are you to fulfill his requests?!? Those look like some truly southern, finger-lickin good biscuits and gravy... mmm mmm.

Carolann said...

Wow, what a time you guys had! Hope Jared is feeling better! The biscuits look so much like the "non vegan" version! My grandma used to make these all the time for me when I was younger. Thanks for the post!

Theresa said...

Feel better Jared! Good thing he's got someone like you cooking and caring for him! That gravy looks awesome!