Nothing beats homemade traditional cooking. The mouth-watering flavourful aroma of blended crisp spices that fills up the kitchen air that extends way across the far stretch of your bedroom and the strange funny noise in the pit of your stomach that ultimately puts you into a trance-like state with your senses following the delectable trace of warm scent to the dining table where your famished brood awaits and lets out a boisterous chuckle as you clumsily trip as you reach for your chair.
It is nevertheless amusing how the mere sight or even mention of food makes one hungry or feel starving for that matter. Talk about body clocks, how our senses react to varied stimuli in our environment. And my body clock plus that whiff of enticing smell tells me that it is a few minutes more before dinner is ready, and my fingers frantically fidget a few entries across the keyboard to kill the time away.
Dinner is Served
Roasted chicken, ham slices, and potato wedges with gravy to match, all mine to devour, or so my selfish id desired. A lovely sight indeed, what with my lovely wife and playful kiddo waiting up for me to fill my seat. Dinner is sumptuous sweetheart, as always!” She smiled coyly and gave me a peck on my cheek. “Now, tell me, what it is you have done so badly?” And we let out a loud laugh.
I chewed slowly to delight in the different textures of my meal and the savoury dip that goes with it. I could not help but ask myself, what will this taste like without gravy? Still edible of course, I chided myself, but definitely taste worlds better with gravy on it.
Making Your Own Gravy
Gravy is basically a sauce derived from drippings of meat mixed with a coat of starch to thicken its consistency. One can substitute meat cubes, broth, or stock for real pork, chicken, or vegetable flavour. After roasting your choice meat, you tilt it to one side to separate the fatty oil from the thick dark juice which, in turn, we will use as gravy.
Carefully spoon off the fatty oil but leave a few drops behind and then mix this with the dark sauce. Let it boil and when it begins to sizzle, pour the starch that you have prepared and start blending the ingredients altogether.
When the sauce begins to thicken, you can now mix the stock derived from the meat cubes and blend it with even strokes and wait until it gets thick. Let it simmer before serving it with your favourite dishes. This is perfect with red wine.
Celebrate life and precious moments with every meal. You alone can make it special, when it is prepared with affection and shared with wonderful people. Indeed, life is worth celebrating everyday.