"This is the fridge's finest hour" Nigel Slater
I've given up for now ignoring NIgel and Yotam - it's just too hard at this time of the year. Maybe later on.
This post actually began with Yotam Ottolenghi, and I will come to him, but Nigel's photograph (well Jonathan Lovekin's) is better I think, although wintry, because, to state the obvious, Christmas -and Christianity itself is a northern hemisphere thing - particularly when it comes to the religious festivals, which are so often tied to ancient pagan festivals celebrating the turning of the year. Christmas on the beach, Santa Claus and sleighs just do not make sense in almost 40 degree heat which is what happened here on Christmas Day.
But I ramble. This is actually what started me off. Well again, not exactly. The photograph is something that Ottolenghi calls a Floating boxing day sandwich which he describes thus:
"the beauty of a Boxing Day sandwich is in its flexibility. It’s about using what’s in your fridge: a leftover ladle of gravy, a splash of booze for a little extra depth, or the veg the kids didn’t end up eating."
And here is a little aside. As I searched for backup recipes, quotes, ideas for this post I noticed that virtually all of the American sites were talking about leftovers from Thanksgiving rather than Christmas which made me think that Thanksgiving is really the festival which is almost odd for a country which is so very religious, although I suppose Thanksgiving, although also religious, also has the added almost sacred association with the founding of the nation of America.
I thought of America here because it seems the Americans also like making sandwiches with leftover gravy:
"Many day-after-Thanksgiving sandwiches have boasted a slathering of chilled gravy. But you can make your turkey sandwich richer and creamier by whisking gravy into mayonnaise. Deepen the flavor with a dollop of miso; brighten it with a squeeze of lemon juice and a few fresh herbs. Then slather away, or use as a dip for sliced chicken cutlets or steamed broccoli later in the week."
Joe Sevier/Epicurious
Back to Ottolenghi though. I wasn't actually enthralled at the idea of soaking what looked like a perfectly attractive cheese toasty with extra bits - ham, turkey, brussels sprouts and cheese in the recipe, although he did stress that it could be anything - in lots of gravy. Why would you? This, by the way is what it looked like before cooking.
No - it was this statement that got to me:
"French onion soup, a bit like your gravy from the previous day, but lighter (BTW, your actual leftover gravy, with some caramelised onions folded through, would work just as well here; just loosen it slightly with some stock"
So obvious isn't it? And why didn't I think of that before. I mean I do use leftover gravy in Shepherd's pie mostly - just to moisten the meat. Well I don't usually have a lot of leftover gravy. But at this time of the year I have a lot of leftover gravy, made with stock from the turkey - Robert Carrier tells you to make the stock whilst the turkey is cooking with the odd bits from the turkey - wing tips and this time, long necks. There was wine in the stock too, so it was a good one. The resulting gravy was also very dark in colour because of the almost burnt bits in the roasting tin that got scraped up into it. And - serendipity - I have a couple of jars of caramelised onions lurking in my pantry and my pantry overflow drawer, so yes, I think this may be tomorrow's dinner - with the cheese toasty on the side as shown in Gourmet Traveller's photo above. I'm never entirely convinced by soggy bread in soup. Almost but not quite.
Mind you after the relative cool of today, we are climbing up a little and maybe onion soup is not quite the thing? We'll see. Joe Sevier of Epicurious, did say you could freeze gravy by pouring it into a zip lock back, closing the bag of course, then laying it flat in the freezer until frozen. (or freeze it in a plastic container?) The problem with this is that I need all the freezer space I can find for the gallons of stock that I am about to make.
Nigel also seems to like the idea of a dark and rich gravy. He has an entire article on gravy, which I know he loves, because he often talks about it. The article includes a few different recipes and some choice words - of course:
"Gravy is not a sauce. It is, or should be, a deeply savoury liquor made from the meat drippings and sediment that collects in the roasting tin. It may be let down with water, wine or stock to make it more palatable - not to mention making it go further - but the meat juices are its backbone. We introduce outside flavourings at our peril. ...
What we are after is, whether as clear as amber or as voluptuous as a velvet throw, not simply a savoury lubricant, but something that brings our meal together," Nigel Slater
And in another arcticle about 'the fridge's finest hour' he provides the recipe for that glorious looking soupy stew at the top of the page which he calls Bones, beans, bits and bobs.
So inspired by my two current gurus I searched the net for other people's ideas about gravy soup, which was not very enlightening. Very few ideas, which I eventually decided was because it is such an obvious thing to do - hence my 'why didn't I think of that?' question. I felt a bit stupid truth to tell. I mean it's the obvious thing to add to soups and stews isn't it? Well anything that requires a little bit of moisture and umami really. So why not actually turn it into a soup?
I did find a couple of things that I thought worth mentioning, however, for their slightly tacky nature.
The first is this Potato and gravy soup. It's from Amira Georgy of Taste.com.au and I say 'tacky' because the main ingredient is from KFC who apparently make a potato gravy - which is what you use as the main ingredient here:
"We've used KFC's beloved Potato & Gravy to make this quick and hearty soup. Simply fry some leek and bacon, add the mashed potato and gravy straight from the tub, plus some stock and cream and you have yourself a flavour-packed warmer."
The photograph just shows you how you can make things look good, and I'm probably being a big food snob by saying ugh!, although photgraphs of the actual KFC gravy did look decidedly gloopy. After all when my boys were small we very occasionally had KFC chicken - never the potato gravy - and I actually quite liked the chicken Nevertheless it does illustrate that you can make soup from gravy.
The other thing I noted somewhere was that you can make gravy from a packet of french onion soup - a reverse of what we have been talking about, which leads me to another thing that Ottolenghi said about his toasty:
"I think of it as a French onion soup in reverse–less of the soup, more of the cheesy bread."
Which begs the question are soup and gravy really the same thing, only varying in thickness?
My fridge's fine hour today is, I think, going to be a not very original turkey and ham pie which will include some of the leftover vegetables. However, I do know that David would like a turkey Caesar salad. Maybe I'll see how much turkey there is and make that tomorrow when it's warmer - or Monday when it's even warmer.
Dessert will be the leftover cherry conserve and crumble with some ice-cream. The cheesecake part of it has already been repurposed by my son's ex into mini cheesecakes for our Christmas Day lunch dessert. I shall probably have crumble left over which can be used for - a crumble of mixed fruit from the fridge.
What did people do before fridges? That, washing machines and vacuum cleaners are some of the greatest inventions of the last century - maybe even the century before.
A photo. I'm a little bit bored with myself of late - well perhaps not with me, but with what I do - so I have set myself a temporary challenge of every day a set of photographs around the letters of the alphabet. Today the letter A. This is the best one - growing apples in our garden. Crab apples only. I wonder if they will make it to maturity. I also wonder whether I shall keep this up until I get to Z.
And isn't it curious that more or less as soon as the Christmas thing is done I feel we are already into next year. Hence the letter A - not very many finds I have to say - agapanthus, arrows and the letter A in various forms.
YEARS GONE BY
December 27 - my oldest grandson's birthday. Happy birthday Baden. 17 - where did the years go?
2023 - Leftover cake
2022 - Dinner on 9 June 1979
2020 - A brandy snap postscript
2019 - Nothing
2017 - Thus spake Zarathustra
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