B&Gs

This might shock some of you, but I never ate biscuits and gravy till high school. I was one of the managers for our wrestling team and there was a St Louis tournament we went to every year (Marquette for you St Louisians). They served biscuits and gravy at their concession stand and one year that was all they had left. Even the pizza was sold out. I was STARVING. So I could eat the hot biscuits and gravy or a cold sandwich and an apple out of our wrestling team's food stock. I went for the B&G.

Fast forward 8 years and I can still count on two hands how many times I'd had the dish. Here was the thing, most restaurants had gravy that was too watery or too pasty. And most people I know made the stuff from a bag. So I decided to go ahead and have my students (aka me) learn to make it from scratch. The result? The most delightfully easy and taste B&G recipe around. I keep a tube of sausage on hand at all times just in case we need a meal in a pinch. All the other ingredients are standard stuff you'll always have in the pantry- well at least I have it in mine.

First make the biscuits:

• Mix 1 cup of flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.
• Then cut in a small teaspoon of butter (you can make this a tablespoon).
• Stir it up with 1/2 cup milk. Voila- a mushy gooey drop biscuit batter.
• Plop it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pop into an oven at 450 degrees (I make as many blobs as people, so usually 2-4).
• Bake for 10-12 minutes till the bottoms are golden brown.

While the biscuits are baking, you make the gravy:

• Cook your sausage on medium heat (6) in a deep skillet. Don't get your sausage too brown, just cooked through. If you brown it, you've really burnt some fat and your gravy will be brown instead of creamy white.
• Add another tablespoon butter and melt with the sausage (don't drain that meat fat, that's the flavor for your gravy!).
• Stir in 3 tablespoons flour till everything's all absorbed. You've essentially made a roux with sausage in it now.
• Gently pour in 1 3/4 cups milk and 1/2 tsp pepper. Add a pinch of salt. Keep that stove on 6!!
• Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure nothings scorching. Eventually it will come to a simmer.
• Keep stirring and let it simmer for 3-5 minutes till it thickens up to where you like it. Remember it will thicken some more upon standing.

By this time you're biscuits should be coming out of the oven, your gravy should be ready, and you've got nothing to do but eat your hot biscuits and gravy! All in all it takes me about 15 minutes to make is hands down one of my favorite recipes. You'll never use gravy from a mix again! (Though I want judge if you use refrigerated biscuits for a large crowd).