Biscuits n Gravy!

We made biscuits & gravy this morning for the monthly Baltimore Foodmakers potluck. The theme today was home-roasting coffee, and the potluck was timed for brunch. I used this recipe, from the Chicago Diner, for the biscuits. They reminded me of KFC's buttermilk biscuits. You don't get much more southern than that!

I'll let Kevin write up his gravy making. Take it away, Kevin:

I cooked up a double batch of mushroom sage gravy and a single batch of tempeh "sausage" crumbles and combined them. Easy peasy!

The tempeh sausage crumbles are from Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The recipe is straightforward, and I followed it exactly. However, I got the gravy going first because I wanted to make sure not to burn the tempeh.

Now, the "I Can't Believe It's Vegan" Gravy recipe from vegweb is really amazing, but I've modified it some. As I said, I made a double batch to accommodate all the tempeh.

Ingredients:

4 cups water
1/2 cup flour (you can use white or w. wheat, but wheat is "grainier"

8 oz cremini mushrooms

Canola oil

2 tsp Better Than Bouillion Vegetable Base (expensive but fantastic, saves lots of time)
2 tbsp Earth Balance
4 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp onion salt
a few good dashes of soy sauce or tamari, to taste
a few dashes of garlic powder
ground black pepper to taste
ground dried sage
Gravy Master!

This is my secret weapon.

*If the result is too thick, you can dilute it with some more broth or stock or whatever you'd like. I used mushroom broth because I had some on hand.

1. Slice and chop the mushrooms. Saute mushrooms gently with oil, and keep them on the side for now.
2. In a saucepan, combine the rest of the ingredients except for the sage and the gravy master. Simmer, stirring often.
3. Taste. Add some gravy master, whisk, and taste again. Be careful, a little bit goes a long way.
4. Add sage. I'm liberal with my sage usage. This is the other secret ingredient. Taste again.
5. If you're happy with your gravy, add the mushrooms and the tempeh sausage.
6. Adjust the viscosity by adding broth.
7. Find something to douse in delicious gravy!