Brown Onion Gravy

More than a month away from the blog

a month

a whole month

The usual excuses -- work work and more work

No time / no life / no play - or for cooking around the house
(ok - maybe a 'little' play - i did have time to buy a leather jacket .. and some shoes, and a couple more cookbooks, and mounds of haighs chocolates (why oh why don't they have a frequent shopper discount card??)

Multiple projects at the moment, and I find I'm actually doing the work of 3 people ... thank goodness for my little helper up in the NQ office - or I would be completely off the scale, and would most likely have had a total mental breakdown by now. I've just sent her a little box of haighs chocolates to cheer her up ... (haighs again!!)

After being told asked to cook dinner tonight for the household - and being supplied with the main ingredient - schnitzels (insert mental image here of lederhosen and great foaming steins of beer) - I decided to add something non-German ... brown onion gravy. Every so often, and at least twice per year, I manage to succumb to the craving for this simple little brown onion sauce. There is nothing particularly spectacular or mind blowing for that matter about this concoction - it seems to be just plain, and good hearty food.


Amongst my 200+ cookbooks, you would also think the recipe would be included in at least more then 1 ... and though I've searched a good 20-30 of the ones you would 'assume' would have the recipe - it's not to be.


For the record - cookbooks that 'do not' contain a recipe for this most simple of sauces:

. Day to Day cookery
. Donna Hay - Kitchen / Classics / Dinning / Food and Drink / Cooking
. Jamie Oliver - Cook with Jamie / the Naked Chef / the Naked Chef rides again / Jamies dinners
. Jane Grigsons' vegetable book
. Good Housekeeping World Cookery
. Nigella Lawson - How to Eat / Forever Summer / Nigella Bites
. Doubleday Cookbook - vol 1
. Stephanie Alexander - a cooks companion


the list goes on ...


The cookbook that 'does' contain this most simple of sauces:


Cookery the Australian Way - a 1990'ish publication ... with fantastic old style hand drawn images thrown into the mix - pg 233



Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter
1 small onion – chopped (slices)
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup stock (or water) * NB – use stock for more flavour.
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce



Method:

. Using a small saucepan – fry onion in butter until light brown
. Add flour & stir w/ wooden spoon – cooking until mixture is light brown
. Remove from heat. Add the liquid (stock or water) gradually – stirring continuously
. Return to heat and stir until boiling. Add Worcestershire sauce and some salt.
. Reduce Heat – simmer for approx 1 min (nb – cooked longer than 1 minute)
. Taste & season as required (salt & pepper)


Nb - using beef stock makes for a browner / richer sauce.


So very simple to make - but so much nicer (and possibly healthier) than the dehydrated and scary gravy and sauce mixes available in the stores.