I mentioned this in last week’s ‘The Weekly Grin‘, but when we went to Portland last year, my husband and I fell in love with the wonderful vegetarian gravy options available in Portland. Our absolute favourite was Miss Delta! We went there twice for brunch and it was just ridiculously good. I had worked and worked to try and recreate something that made me as happy as Miss Delta’s mushroom gravy and biscuits did and failed until I got to this recipe.
Breakfast Mushroom Gravy
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 5 portabella heads, gills cleaned, finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 5-6 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons vegetarian better than bouillon
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 can evaporated milk
- Handful chopped parsley and green onions
- Pinch of salt and lots of ground pepper!
In a saucepan, sauté portabellas in butter, cooking moisture out until they are half of their original size. Add onions in with the mushrooms, cook until translucent and then add the minced garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, around 30 seconds or so, incorporate the flour into the mixture.
Cook all together, letting the flour turn slightly golden in colour. Add the soy sauce and bouillon paste and mix well. The mixture should be sticking together at this point. Slowly pour in the can of evaporated milk, then fill the same can with an equal amount of water and pour that into the pan too. Mix thoroughly so that there aren’t any clumps.
Bring the mixture to a low simmer and then turn down, allowing it to thicken. Grind lots of fresh pepper in and taste for salt. If unsalted butter was used in the beginning, you might need to add more salt. If you prefer the taste of soy sauce, make sure to still add a small pinch of salt, but then add more soy sauce for the extra sodium. When gravy has thickened to your liking, stir in the chopped fresh herbs.
Serve over crusty sourdough bread or warm biscuits.
Laughter and Cooking 