BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy

Subject: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 10:52 AM

Friends, bear with me....

Since I can't PM 'er, and since the dish in question is SO GOOD that it deserves a thread of its own, here it is.

BUT it's Eve's recipe-- not mine-- to publicize, so I'm inviting her to post in it! All I can post is my own variations! (I'm not even sure just what I should CALL it.)

Muy mysterioso, eh? Sorr-eeee! :~)

=====

Eve, you mentioned in your birthday thread not to forget the boullion. I NEVER forget it, but the second or third time I made it for my boy, we didn't have any.

As you know, if you are looking forward to having egg gravy, you just have to have it. I had to do SOMETHING..... so in place of the boullion, I put in a little beef stew stock lying around in the fridge, and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .

I have trouble with too much salt. I confess- I stopped buying the boullion.


Today's Thanksgiving brunch was upon us and I had forgotten to prep the eggs last night (busy setting up an exercise room). No worries-- while I whipped through the AM kitchen chores the eggs happily cooked away. Since Hardi has the rare day off, I taught him my tricks for peeling, so he peeled while I did the stovetop bits. (That boy is not dumb when it comes to making sure we'll have egg gravy.)

The stock this time was the excess liquid from a crockpot of chili that had been going all night-- afraid it would dry out overnight, we'd added some water at bedtime, so there was JUST enough excess left this AM for the egg gravy. (The chili was leftover pork BBQ, pork/chicken stock, a chipotle or two, a couple of quartered onions, cumin, and black beans.)

I have to admit that a fistful of shredded cheese got into the gravy too, since it was a holiday and all. :~)


And we blessed you yet again as we slurped it all up with a Betty Boop cartoon running on the DVD player, in our jammies. Now we are adequately fortified for the cooking labors of the day. :~)

(Holiday observances, our style, when there's not a church service.)

=====

Now, those of you who have BEEN to Bobert & P-Vine's, especially for an overnighter, have probably had this dish. (Sshhhhhh!)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 11:53 AM

Well, well, well, WYSuzie....

Seein' as it is T-Giving and seein' as one of her son's is up here with a grand-youngin' to help us celebrate, she did make here yummy egg-gravey this morning...

Now, she and her son are in the kitchen cuttin up stuff and cookin' it she really can't stop in here to talk about her egg gravey but I reckon over the next day she'll stop in and share here secrets (maybe, maybe not)... All I know is that she learned to cook while living with her people (family) in esatern North Carolina...

...and that she learned well...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 12:02 PM

I spent a little time this morning in Googland, and I discovered so many ways to make what can be called "egg gravy" that I just got hungry all over again. Eggs cooked first or not, eggs sour, eggs sweet, eggs spicy, eggs in Swedish and eggs in Hindu.... depression eggs, cheerful eggs.... pudding-ish egg gravy and egg gravies with bacon fat as the base.... but none of them were P-VINE's egg gravy, sho 'nuff.

Happy Thanksgiving Beau-bear to you and her and and yours and hers-- you and yourn.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: michaelr
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 03:20 PM

Being a gravy fiend an' all, I'd love to see this eggscellent recipe.

Happy T-Day!
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Helen
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 11:36 PM

Just when I thought I'd reached an age where nothing could surprise me, and wham, here it is.

What on earth is egg gravy? An enquiring Oz mind wants to know.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Sooz
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 02:25 AM

me too

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 08:11 AM

Hang in there folks even if it means just refreshing this thread for another day... We still have the P-Vine's family here and buzy keeping the grand-youngin' entertained but they will be gone tomorrow and then the P-Vine will do what she hates to do and that is sit in front of this pudder and perhaps reveal her entire portfolio of egg gravey secrets...

Then again, maybe she won't???

She *is* a funny girl, you know... (wink, wink...)

B~

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 08:16 AM

This is the first time I've ever heard of egg gravy. I'm just hoping a recipe appears now!

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 10:16 AM

As we put up 18 entrees-for-two yesterday, into the freezer, out of all the stuff the freezer had inadvertently thawed last week, which we promptly bulk-cooked, we giggled that a Depression-era style of kitchen management is a lot more fun when you can afford the good eats and good kitchen gadgets to do it all. Egg gravy is one of those simple delicacies that can stretch (or consume) your grocery dollars in so many ways. As I said above, Google it up, and then just start cooking. It won't be P-Vines, but it'll be good!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 01:27 PM

Well, I've googled it and there is an amazing selection of recipes. I'm going to copy and paste a few and try them out and I'll keep checking this thread as well!

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 02:23 PM

So Wyyzz....Wouldn't "egg gravy" be sorta' the same as Rooster jiz?

LMAO.....Not that the line was particularly funny but I bet you never make the stuff again without thinking about it!!!!Or eat it for that matter! Ahhhhhh.......My work here is done

Cruel, Mean, and Rotten to the Core, I Remain,

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Nov 07 - 03:47 PM

Spawzzz... you BASTARD. :~) Hardi will especially like that touch.... he is so much like you in some respects I have to check his face against your Mudcat picure every morning, just to be SURE who's been sleeping in my bed.

In thanks, perhaps I should send MRS. SPAW the recipe! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Nov 07 - 08:15 AM

Hang in there folks... The kids are packin' up for the 7 hour drive back to Charlotte then we have stuff to do then maybe the P-Vine herself will tell you all her "secrets"...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Nov 07 - 01:15 PM

She doesn't have to, really. I just wanted to tell her whay I did! :~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 11:32 AM

Of course one option is simply to do what our country-cooking salad bars do here in our area-- add a bit of chopped, hard-cooked egg to just about anything as an flavor- and protein-enriching garnish. You might be surprised how good it is, for instance, in soups and stews. The egg flavor vanishes-- this is especially a yummy surprise for people who think they don't care for hard-cooked eggs.

[refreshing for P-Vine]

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 12:23 PM

Hi Everybody! Happy day! The 10 year old only child is gone and with him his picky eating habits!!! Grrrr...."Mommie doesn't make me eat that!" (Daddy works hard and gets home 7:30 so he's little help) Leave that kid with ME for a few weeks!

No, he didn't eat the egg gravy--only person who hasn't but I suspect some of that junk is about control... oh well...

The egg gravy is also what Bob's mother calls creamed eggs so I didn't give her the extra ingredients. She 'llowed as to how she used to make it years ago. Ok....

Since I don't measure anymore I'll guess this is for maybe 3 people:

4 eggs, hard cooked (for pretty eggs bring to soft boil and then remove pot to finish cooking 10-11 minutes and then blanch with ice water. This keeps 'em from turning gray)

1/3 stick butter (not margarine), melted and then corresponding amount of plain flour stirred in to make a roux. It's ready for warm milk when there's a tiny glaze over the top of the roux as you stir it. Takes 3 minutes or so to cook the flour taste out. As that butter is melting I add a chicken boullion cube to melt with it. Just don't add as much salt as you might.

Slowly add warm milk until you have a "gravy" or sauce as some folks say. I shake in garlic powder and cayenne powder to taste and then add the cut up boiled eggs. Then some black pepper for different oils and whatever salt you need. The aim here is not to produce a spicy product but just to add enough cayenne for completing the taste. I pour this over toasted multigrain English muffins or barring that, whole grain bread. Is this simple? Just makes a good hardy start for company because you usually go out and it has lots of protein in it. If you need meat, just do Boca sausage, regular sausage, bacon, etc. on the side.

Nothing really special, folks. I was touched by so much discussion about it. Hope your holidays are what you are happiest doing. I think we'll settle for candles, a fire, some greenery and yummy food. Incidentally, Bob's been looking for a dwarf black bamboo and informs me that he's found it for $287 a pot!!!! Insane!!!! Anyone know of any other sources? We're going to put it in a 2.5' pot in the ground to contain it.

Peace and love,

Eve (oops! 'P-Vine')

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 12:42 PM

Thanks, Oops! :~)

And it is TOO special, as anyone will know as soon as they spoon it into their mouth!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bee
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 10:58 PM

Barring the chicken bouillon, this is the egg sauce I use on finnan haddie and on poached salmon (for the salmon, I sometimes add a pinch of mustard powder). I love the stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Nov 07 - 11:16 PM

A likely story............All this butter and milk crap and boiling it up and then this and then that........Its complete bullshit! You are both simply trying to cover the fact that you're serving up Rooster jizz!!!! Admit it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:24 AM

I'm with you Spaw. So, it 'may' be just wunnerful, but it sounds like some Depression Era thing that everybody just learned to 'love' because it was all they had.

Ya gotta cow, ya got milk and butter. Ya got a chicken, ya got eggs and stewed chicken soup. So, LIKE IT!

Sorta like red eye gravy, ya gotta pig, so EAT it and shaddup! Even the skin!

Sorry, I will try it one of these days. Just not sure when.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 10:32 AM

It may be Depression food, but the point is, it doesn't TASTE like deprivation at all, which is why it survives, post-Depression.

"Sorry" is not necessary, "try it" is not necessary, but that was a pretty rude comment, bes/bud.

Red Eye gravy, ditto-- still a food of choice because it's GOOD.

If necessity is the mother of invention, taste is the mother of tradition.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: MMario
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 10:37 AM

hey - don't foget that

**LOBSTER** within living memory was "poverty" food;

and many dishes once considered staples of the lower working classes (because they were cheap) have been gracing gourmet tables lately (at exhorbitant prices!)

- and that cuts of meat once considered "waste" and often given away with purchase of other meat now command excellent prices.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:13 PM

Take Cioppino for instance. I bet Mario knows Cioppino.......It used to be a way to get some bad fish into a better tasting format, use up the stuff and get some protein.....Use anything you had from catfish to lobster, from shrimp to cod. Now the stuff goes for big bucks in the finer Italian restaurants.

I made two and a half gallons over Thanksgiving and with some great garlic bread served it up at a post turkey day party. Everyone raved and went on and on, even young kids (and a lot of adults who had no idea there was a half pound of anchovies in there as well). I mean, I love the stuff and I love mine especially but let's face it, it started out as crap.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: MMario
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 12:41 PM

yup - basically a way to make use of the "trash" fish that couldn't be sold.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 04:02 PM

I didn't intend it to be rude. The 'sorry' was for MY OWN comments. Pardon me.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 05:19 PM

Well, gol danged... I didn't realize that P-Vine's egg gravey was "depression food" but, unlike some of the folks here I wasn't 'round back then... (lol...)...

But nevermind that... It's good... Yeah, first time she made it fir me I was thinkin' "Yeah, right... This stuff is gonna be lousy" but then I tried it an...

...holy moly, it was (and is) good, good, good...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 07:10 PM

Oysters used to be the 'food of the poor' in England...

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 07:17 PM

We had a similar thing my gran used to do - chopped boiled eggs and sauce stuff - was once a common 'filler food'. My gran got 6 kids thru the depression here in Oz, had chooks and pigeons and a garden in the back yard.

Nothing wrong with 'depression food' (it's still food!) - and 'depression glass' once dirt cheap is now an expensive collector item...

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 07:47 PM

Ahhhhh, not to sound to uneducated, F-troupe, but when was the depression in Oz-burg???

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bee
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 08:02 PM

Then there's the Indonesian version of 'eggs and gravy'.... halved hardboiled eggs in a delicious curry-onion-peanut-coconut milk sauce...mmmm.

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 08:06 PM

One of the things I love, no matter what flavoring/stock I've used, is the richness the dissolving yolks give. Some of the hard-cooked yolk remains in big crumbled pieces and some disappears and thickens the gravy. Gives what chefs call good "mouth feel" too.

Uh oh, I hear Spaw coming on THAT one... :~) I mean heading this way... nope, that's dirty too.... taking aim, nooooooooo..........

I been Spawzerrated fir sure, Boberds.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 08:17 PM

Yeah, WYSuzie... Spawzer loves to hear women talk dirty... Heck, most men do, fir that matter...

But nevermind that dirty stuff, ya all... Remember to drop yer hard boiled eggs into that ice water to keep them yokes yellerized... That part of the trick...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 05:43 AM

Yellerized? Oh, sorry, thought you meant sterilized... well it would certainly have that effect on me...


The 'depression' was world wide - started off - once again! - by those Bloody Yanks in 1929!

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 05:45 AM

See Bobert? We blame them Bloody Yanks for EVERYTHING!

:-P

Subject: RE: BS: P-Vine's Excellent Egg Gravy
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 08:51 AM

And rightly so, f-troupe...

B:(