Seeing as how the last week of our Christmas break was slightly interrupted, I didn't get around to cooking our ham until New Year's Day. And since it was served up more as an afterthought than as part of a Big Dinner I started thinking about other ham-related things.
Like Red-Eye gravy.
Red-eye gravy and grits first came to mind as we were eating supper Saturday. It took 24 hours for it to come to fruition, but after church Sunday evening we finally sat down to our Big Country Breakfast:
Fried ham
Biscuits
Scrambled eggs
Grits
and...
red-eye gravy
I had to cheat on the grits and make corn meal mush, but it served its purpose just the same, because that meal was all about the gravy anyway.
This is a good time to mention I find it interesting that this sauce is called 'gravy'. It has no thickener and is hardly more than pan juices. It doesn't matter to me what to call it, I always enjoy it!
Here's how i made mine:
1/2 - 3/4 c pan drippings left from baking the ham
1/2 c black coffee
I added an additional 1/2 cup or so of water because the drippings were SO salty. I was glad I left the grits/mush a little lacking on salt; the gravy made up for it.
I heated all that together in an iron skillet in which I had just fried some ham slices. (Also - made sure to leave some fatty edges on for frying to make good pan drippings.)
That's it. Salty ham juice and leftover coffee, but sooo good!
Searching the web for directions for it, I learned that red-eye gravy is almost exclusively a southern thing. Which got me wondering about all of you... have you had red-eye gravy?
Yes I have had red eye gravy, might have even made it a time or two in my life, but where young thing did you ever hear of it. :)
ReplyDeleteNana
My mama made it for me! :)
ReplyDeleteaha wonder who made it for her?
ReplyDeleteI am thinking that no, I have never had it. Sounds good though!
ReplyDeleteI had it a few times when I was a kid, but didn't know it was called red-eye gravy.
ReplyDeleteChristy