Chocolate...for breakfast.
My grandmother lived through the depression in the rural south where communities were poor and the people were poorer. She lived for years as a sharecropper, working someone else's land for very little pay. Times were hard, but the lessons that she learned and attempted to pass on - lessons of love, faith, and frugality - still find voice in her children, her grandchildren, and now her great-grandchildren. She taught us that family comes first because blood is thicker than water. She taught us that faith is the only thing by which we can successfully live. She taught us how to be content with what we have and how to make that stretch to provide for those that we love. In short, she taught us what was necessary to live well.
Many of those lessons were taught wearing a flour-stained apron standing near her kitchen sink. They were taught in phrases and cliches like, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "Don't cut your nose off to spite your face." She also taught us how to make a few, inexpensive ingredients stretch to make a full meal. She did it at lunch and dinner with beans and cornbread. She did it from a home-grown garden with vegetables canned fresh in her kitchen. And she did it at breakfast, usually with chocolate gravy and homemade biscuits.
Trying to get to this recipe took a little reverse engineering. See, chocolate gravy (yes, I said CHOCOLATE gravy) in our house never came from a recipe. Mamaw always just sort of threw together sugar, cocoa, flour, and water and out came breakfast alongside warm biscuits, butter, bacon, fried eggs, and black pepper gravy. As I got older, I watched Mom do the same, although we usually had canned biscuits, and somewhere along the way, I learned to make breakfast the same. Sugar, flour, cocoa, water, and a little love, and suddenly, no matter where I am, I am home. So, now that I have finally decided to write it down, I had to work backwards and I'm still making adjustments. As I get nearer to "perfect" I will make adjustments to the linked recipe and get rid of this embarrassing text.
Chocolate gravy starts with two cups of sugar, two tablespoons of cocoa, and two tablespoons of self-rising flour. Whisk the dry ingredients together to remove the excess lumps. Then, stir in about 1/4 cup of water. This should create a thick paste and remove the rest of the lumps before cooking. Once the ingredients are mixed, add two cups of water and mix well. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. When the gravy thickens, it's time to eat! (If it were to get too thick, you can always add a little more water or milk, but if you add milk, don't tell my family.) Now there is some debate in my family about the correct way to actually eat chocolate gravy. Some prefer canned biscuits, others prefer their biscuits made-from-scratch. Some put the chocolate in a bowl and add biscuits; others put their biscuits on a plate and pour the chocolate gravy over the top. The most heated and long-standing debate, however, comes from whether or not to add butter when serving. Let me just say, if you don't add butter, you're doing it wrong.
Now, before you jump into this recipe, you need to know that for many, this is an acquired taste. But coming from a guy that has eaten it his entire life, I am pretty sure that it is the perfect meal, simultaneously responsible for curing most illnesses, mending broken hearts, and strengthening the bonds of family.
Many of those lessons were taught wearing a flour-stained apron standing near her kitchen sink. They were taught in phrases and cliches like, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "Don't cut your nose off to spite your face." She also taught us how to make a few, inexpensive ingredients stretch to make a full meal. She did it at lunch and dinner with beans and cornbread. She did it from a home-grown garden with vegetables canned fresh in her kitchen. And she did it at breakfast, usually with chocolate gravy and homemade biscuits.
Chocolate gravy starts with two cups of sugar, two tablespoons of cocoa, and two tablespoons of self-rising flour. Whisk the dry ingredients together to remove the excess lumps. Then, stir in about 1/4 cup of water. This should create a thick paste and remove the rest of the lumps before cooking. Once the ingredients are mixed, add two cups of water and mix well. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. When the gravy thickens, it's time to eat! (If it were to get too thick, you can always add a little more water or milk, but if you add milk, don't tell my family.) Now there is some debate in my family about the correct way to actually eat chocolate gravy. Some prefer canned biscuits, others prefer their biscuits made-from-scratch. Some put the chocolate in a bowl and add biscuits; others put their biscuits on a plate and pour the chocolate gravy over the top. The most heated and long-standing debate, however, comes from whether or not to add butter when serving. Let me just say, if you don't add butter, you're doing it wrong.
Now, before you jump into this recipe, you need to know that for many, this is an acquired taste. But coming from a guy that has eaten it his entire life, I am pretty sure that it is the perfect meal, simultaneously responsible for curing most illnesses, mending broken hearts, and strengthening the bonds of family.
Comments
Post a Comment