Let the holiday fun begin!  Holidays can bring on many challenges, from dealing with family, finding the perfect present, and perhaps even cooking the grand feast! Many people have challenges with the spread. Timing so it all comes out at the same time, or finding a away to make brussel sprouts taste good, perhaps making sure the turkey isn’t dry, or as in Jessica Samuels case host of Jacked In on AM1150 it’s the gravy.

Jess sent out a distress call and requested a 52NEW on making a simple but perfect holiday gravy.

Good news Jess, I think I have the answers you seek!

Turns out gravy isn’t that difficult you just need to know a few simple tricks! I headed back out to Lake Okanagan Resort for a visit with Executive Chef and Resort Manager Edan Fay.

We made 2 types of Gravy.

The first used a “Slurry” which is basically a mixture of equal parts water and flour that is well mixed and added to your stock through a strainer that will thicken your sauce to give you the proper consistency.

A trick to remember when thickening a sauce. Cold thickens hot and hot thickens cold.  Watch the video it will help explain that statement. We also learned “lumps in = lumps out” if you start your gravy lumpy there is nothing you can do to fix it, besides running it through a strainer after it’s done. So you might as well strain it going in! Another fun term we learned was “bloom” which is when the flour is absorbing the liquid.

I tell you Edan is virtually a dictionary!

The next gravy we made was using a roux of turkey fat and flour,  50:50 always by weight. This time we were adding the cold stock to the hot roux, to do that we had to “toast” the flour which gives it a nutty taste. Of the two gravy’s this one will have the most flavour because you are using turkey fat to start and getting the nutty flavour out of the flour. When you add the stock to this mixture you have to do it in parts and make sure to whisk until smooth to avoid lumps. Once again.. if something goes horrible wrong you can always break out the strainer.

Both of these gravy’s can be seasoned to taste with Salt, Pepper and poultry seasoning.

I hope this helps! As always Edan Fay is an awesome teacher and managed to make this all very easy to understand.  If you haven’t nailed down your New Years Eve plans as of yet check out Lake Okanagan Resort they have an awesome evening in the works!

Good luck Jessica, I know your gravy will be great!

Happy Holidays!

Btw: On the way home from Lake Okanagan Resort we had to stop along

West Side Road for Big Horn Sheep crossing!