Alongside my beloved stuffing, gravy is the MVP of Thanksgiving. That being said, I find it to be the biggest labor of love. The thing that takes the most time to pack with flavor. 

Sure, there have been years where I’ve cut corners, but it truly is never as good as the times where I’ve spent half a day roasting turkey wings and boiling them down with aromatics, and spices for a deeply golden broth. I’ve found it difficult to pack a broth with that distinctly meaty savoriness that comes from hours upon hours of infusion. 

That is… until I enlisted the help of the classic japanese broth, dashi. 

I start by making a regular old vegetable stock with onion, garlic, carrot, celery, dried shitakes, and whatever herbs I have lying around. After boiling this for an hour, you do get a good flavor, but it still lacks a lot of what is possible with deeply roasted bones. To ensure that my broth has the necessary umami, I added in kombu, a dried kelp, and bonito flakes, a dried, smoked, and fermented tuna. These two elements come together to instill layers upon layers of flavor in a fraction of the amount of time a turkey stock would take.

I then build a gravy using butter, plenty of soy sauce, and some rice wine vinegar for a necessary bite of acid. The end result is distinctly smoky, and makes the back of your tongue tingle with its richness. 

If you don’t have the time or energy to make a classic thanksgiving gravy, or simply want something a bit different, this will sub in absolutely beautifully.

xx,
Ian

Dashi Gravy

Yield: One 16oz jar of gravy

Ingredients:

For the broth

• 1 head (70g) of garlic, halved
• 1 medium (300g) onion, quartered
• A handful (12g) of dried shitakes
• 2 large (180g) carrots, halved
• 2 large (140g) celery stalks, cut into 3 or so pieces
• A handful of whatever herbs you have lying around (thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage, parsley, etc.)
• A bay leaf (<1g) or two (1g)
• 1 tsp (2g) black peppercorns
• 5 inch piece (50g) of kombu
• 1 cup (10g) bonito flakes

For the gravy

• 4 tbsp (57g) butter
• 1/4 cup (32g) flour
• 2 cups (405g) of dashi
• 3 tbsp (42g) rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp (51g) soy sauce
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Make your vegetable stock base: In a large sauce pan combine the garlic, onion, dried shitakes, carrots, celery, herbs, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Fill pot 3/4 of the way with water and heat over medium high until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for an hour or two. Strain out solids.
2. Make your dashi: Add your strained vegetable stock back into the cleaned pot, and add in your kombu. Heat over medium low careful not to boil the kombu, or you risk bitter stock. After about 10-12 minutes the mixture will begin to bubble. Turn off heat, remove kombu, and add in your bonito flakes. Let the stock sit for 2-3 minutes before straining.
3. Make your gravy: In a medium sauce pan add your butter and heat until the milk solids have browned, scrapping the bottom of the pot. Add in your flour and whisk to make a roux. Whisk the mixture until the flour mixture has darkened (the darker you get it the more toasty flavor it will have). Stream in your dashi, whisking furiously to combine. Let the mixture bubble until it has thickened to your desired gravy consistency. Turn off heat and add in your sauce sauce and rice vinegar. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper. Enjoy with Stuffing Scones. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes:

*If you’re using any other type or brand of salt (i.e. Morton, or sea salt), I suggest scaling back to 1/2 tsp.

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