Breakfast for Diner- Adult Biscuits and Gravy

 Biscuits and Gravy is a staple at the American Breakfast Bar. However, who doesn't like breakfast for dinner?  When briny gravy thick as wallpaper paste flavored with overly-saged chunks of fatty sausage won't do, I offer to you an updated, Adult version of Biscuits and Gravy that will satisfy even your most mature of dinner pallets.  

I had a hankering for something warm and soothing for dinner last evening. My usual go-to's of beef stew or clam chowder were not available. It's November after all, and I am at the edge of the world living in a little trailer in the desert. 

Before 4 PM the only sorta-grocery store is meager in supplies at best most days and after 4PM they are nonexistent due to the lack of demand by the virtue of our remote location in the deserts of Southern Utah and the inconsiderate nature of the management by the concessionaire at Lake Powell who doesn't care for the people who do call this place their work and home in the offseason. 

I wanted something warm and hearty to ward off the chill I had gotten while standing in 34-degree temps hacking off the head of a dead cow we found decomposing on a flat in the middle of nowhere yesterday when we made a wrong turn on our way to the mountains. ( That's a story for another blog, but check out the photo here, and wow do we have some adventures out here in God's country )  

I decided I had all the necessary supplies to make biscuits and gravy, but didn't want the usual and customary greasy white gravy that you could plaster the crack in the Washington Monument with and super-saged up sausage that would send my wife into anaphylaxis. (Jennifer has developed an allergy to Sage bringing my Sausage consumption to a distinct decline)

What I did have, was some frozen brown and serve sausages, some really nice thick-cut bacon, fresh milk, sharp NY Cheddar, and a desire for something better than what you get at pretty much every hotel breakfast bar south and west of the Mason Dixon. 

I started by cooking the bacon to render the fat and get some good pork flavor for my roux. With the bacon on its way to crisp but not burned, I chopped up the breakfast sausage and browned it in the pan with the bacon.

I then added a bit of chopped onion I had leftover and cooked that until it was translucent and on the verge of caramelization. 

When that was all coming together and browned nicely, I thought to myself, what says breakfast better than champagne? I had a mason jar with the leftovers of a bottle of champagne we didn't finish for brunch a few weeks back and decided to save it to use for cooking. Now that was a great idea. I dumped a 1/2 cup of that in the pan to deglaze the pan and cooked it down until it had evaporated and infused the meat and onion mixture. 

When the liquid was gone and I had a nice grease slick in the pan, I spooned out the meat mixture and put it to the side. For good measure, I added two tablespoons of butter to reduce the viscosity of the pan grease and whisked in 3 tablespoons of flour to the pan. 

I cooked the roux to a medium blond and when it was done I added two cups of low-fat milk, a 1/2 tsp of crushed rosemary, and a 1/4 teaspoon of thyme. I cooked it down until it thickened making sure not to scald the milk or let it stick. When it coated a spoon I added the meat mixture and brought the whole thing up to simmer. 

Meanwhile, I made some homemade cheddar cheese biscuits with garlic and waited for them to finish in my amazingly slow propane oven. 

When it was ready, I halved the biscuits and ladled the sausage gravy over the warm biscuits, and served. 

The gravy was more like a sauce that saturated the warm biscuits and the bacon added a great smokey flavor to the rosemary and onion. All in all, it was pretty damn good and much more like a proper dinner than that powdered mess they call Biscuits and Gravy they offer at the free hotel breakfast bar. Had we had it, I think a nice dry chardonnay would have paired nicely and maybe a lovely poached egg on the side, but the Adult Biscuits and Gravy worked and so I thought I would share it. 

Here's the recipe

• 8 links of breakfast sausage or 1/2 pound of loose breakfast sausage
• Five slices of thick-cut bacon- get good stuff, it's there for the flavor as much as the grease
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of flat champagne
• 2 TB butter (if needed)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 cups of 2% milk
• 1/2 tsp of dried Rosemary crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 8 of your favorite cheddar cheese and garlic biscuits

Directions

Step 1.  Brown the bacon and render the fat, Add the sausage and brown with the onion until it all looks browned and appropriately crispy without burning it. 

Step 2 Deglaze the pan with champagne

Step 3 Remove the meat mixture from the pan when champagne has flavored the mixture and the liquid has evaporated leaving an appropriate amount of grease in the pan to make a roux. Add butter to get approximately three TBs of grease if necessary. 

Step 4. Whisk in flour and make a medium blond roux.

Step 5. Add milk, rosemary, and thyme. Cook until thickened and coats a spoon. 

Step 6. Once thickened, add back the meat mixture and heat thoroughly. 

Serve over freshly baked cheddar cheese biscuits and enjoy. If your sauce gets too thick add a little milk to get the desired consistency. Do not over-thicken and serve at once for best results or keep warm in a crockpot on low for longer service.